• Category 1

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: 5 - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 5,619
    Student Enrollment: 204
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 95.6%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18.6
    % Reduced Lunch: 41.6%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2009
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Deborah Daniel
  • CONTACT:
    938 South Kibler Street
    New Washington, OH 44854
    419-492-2864
    mrobinson@bcbucks.org
Buckeye Central Middle School
New Washington, OH
Our willingness to grow along with the relationships forged, the choices made, and the strategies implemented have made all the difference.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
To sustain this growth, we must continue our like-mindedness, maintain our level of commitment, contextualize data, assess interventions, and tailor strategies to the complex needs of our students.

We will continue to protect the multi-tiers of support that we have built and construct a curriculum that is expansive enough to prepare students for unimagined careers and unforeseen lives, yet personal enough to not lose sight of individual student strengths.

At Buckeye Central Middle School, we want our students to see their goals, understand the obstacles, create a positive mental picture, clear their minds of self-doubt, embrace challenges, stay on track, and show the world that they can do it!
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
The most impactful choices we have made include planning targeted professional learning, making literacy a priority, developing common expectations across grade levels, frontloading lessons, prioritizing social-emotional learning, and seeing students through to mastery.

Our Building Leadership Team (BLT) has taken deep dives into assessment data, deconstructed standards, and closely examined practices before designing just-right professional learning. The decision to focus on universal design (UDL) and literacy has enhanced our common language and spawned a common writing rubric.

The desire to reach at-risk students through the implementation of the Second Step, Signs of Suicide, and Kid Whisperer programs has made our students more resilient and our relationships more authentic.

Additionally, our staff’s dedication to student intervention has helped move the needle toward student mastery.
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Our collective mindset has become, “What would this lesson look like if we approached it from a STEAM perspective?” Our team members are designing a STEAM lesson to share. Their plans range from producing movie trailers for a classic literature selection to tackling real world issues in Math.

Art is now a part of the 5th and 6th grade curriculums. The hope is that this will help students take risks, embrace mistakes, build critical thinking skills, accept constructive feedback, and provide an additional means of expression.

The Kid Whisperer (Scott Ervin) shared his love and logic principles with us. His premise is to lead with empathy which has helped us forge relationships, form a common language, and return the focus to the work rather than the disruption.

Our district recently opened a beautiful new preschool facility. The thought that our students will begin their learning in our district will ensure educational consistency and enhance relationship building.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
In the Fall of 2015, Buckeye Central Middle School was notified of the Ohio Department of Education “Watch School” designation. In response, the staff swiftly engaged in a thorough building analysis inclusive of state assessment results, classroom practices, and an external curriculum audit, determining likely root causes.

The BLT sought out proven instructional strategies and utilized evidence-based search tools relevant to identified program weaknesses and student needs.

Students not meeting benchmarks were targeted for intensive intervention, with particular focus on students with disabilities and economically-disadvantaged students.

The BLT adjusted the plan allowing teachers to gain mastery over the new instructional strategies and curriculum and learned to view OIP implementation as an organizational strategy – monitoring, evaluating and problem-solving to instill high expectations and a growth mindset.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our willingness to grow along with the relationships forged, the choices made, and the strategies implemented have made all the difference.

Driven by inner passion, we have embraced and enacted a growth mindset for ourselves and for our students.

As soon as they arrive, our fifth graders learn that everyone can and will grow and they are invited to monitor and celebrate each milestone. Central to this model is the notion that we teach the whole child. We are determined to find what each student needs to be successful--from the most vulnerable child to the most prepared one. “Where students come first!” is not just a slogan displayed on a banner or inscribed on our letterhead, it is a daily practice.

We blend our individual strengths to form dynamic teaching teams that co-plan, co-teach, adjust to student needs, communicate with each other and with stakeholders, and reflect on our practice to improve the process. As a result, our students want to be successful.
Stats
  • Category 1

    Selected in 2020

  • Grades: 5 - 8
    School Setting: rural
    Town Population: 5,619
    Student Enrollment: 204
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0%
    White/Caucasian: 95.6%
    Hispanic: 2%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.5%
    Asian: 0%
    Native American: 0%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:18.6
    % Reduced Lunch: 41.6%
    % ELL Learners: 0%
    Founded: 2009
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Deborah Daniel
  • CONTACT:
    938 South Kibler Street
    New Washington, OH 44854
    419-492-2864
    mrobinson@bcbucks.org