Thomas Jefferson students join Drone Academy; school reports literacy gains and new advanced-learning units

Thomas Jefferson Middle School students described their work in a regional Drone Academy and school leaders told the Port Washington-Saukville School District board that the school is seeing improvements on winter I-Ready assessments and expanding advanced-learning opportunities.

The Drone Academy presentation was led by Danielle Brown Smith, a school counselor at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, and two student presenters whose full names were not given in the record. School officials said the program is hosted by Carroll University in partnership with Cooperative Educational Service Agency (CESA) 1. Board materials and presenters said the academy consists of six full-course days during the school year and that six students from each of six participating schools statewide take part (36 students total across the program).

Why it matters: the academy gives middle school students hands-on exposure to aviation and engineering concepts and a career-path demonstration into STEM fields, while the school’s instructional work aims to lift students’ reading and math proficiency.

Program details and student work: students described lessons on the four forces of flight, the engineering design process, and trial-and-error testing. Presenters said students will build and fly a drone and produce a commercial for Carroll University using drone footage. Participants the presenters named as part of the team included Keegan, Mason, Kiara and Evan; the presenters said the program meets six full days during the school year and that staff accompany students to the off-site sessions.

Schoolwide instructional update: the middle school principal (identified in the transcript as Nick) reported that Thomas Jefferson has made disciplinary-literacy a schoolwide Student Learning Objective (SLO). He told the board that I-Ready winter scores show the portion of students two grade levels or more below grade level (the “red” band) shrinking from 36% to 30% in the assessed metric for informational text. The principal said math domain performance also shows gains and attributed progress to daily team time, PLC Plus work and targeted interventions during a 33-minute "WIN" block.

Advanced-learning plans: the school has introduced opt-in book-club style units for students with Advanced Learning Plans (ALPs) and for students who have completed Lexia benchmarks. The principal said these “boundless books” units use historical narratives to prompt deeper analysis and connection to modern regulatory and safety topics. He said roughly "45 total, 5 through 6" students are participating across grade-group cohorts, adding that groups are around 10 to 15 students per grade level (the transcript wording was that figure was "roughly, I think we have 45 total, 5 through 6").

Classroom practice and culture: the principal described the district’s approach of cascading goals from district to classroom and praised staff for implementing PLC time and small-group flexible instruction. He also highlighted building climate and extracurricular activities as contributors to student engagement.

What’s next: students said they will share drone videos and finished projects with the board after the program’s completion. Administrators said they will continue to monitor I-Ready and forward-exam data and report results in future meetings.