• Category 3

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: 6 - 8
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 0
    Student Enrollment: 644
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0.5%
    White/Caucasian: 5.9%
    Hispanic: 21.1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.3%
    Asian: 1.2%
    Native American: 71%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 33.6%
    Founded: 1967
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Leoneil Tulabing
  • CONTACT:
    600 Broadman Dr.
    Gallup, NM 87301
    505-721-3100
    ltulabin@gmcs.org
Kennedy Middle School
Gallup, NM
"KEM believes in teamwork and collaboration."
1. Tell us about your school’s success.
In the past years, Kennedy middle school grew in a lot of different aspects. First, in academics, students' proficiency scores increased by 13% in Math and 7% in ELA. Meanwhile, our non-proficient levels 1 and 2 went down by an average of 13.5%. Second, student attendance grew 11% compared to last school year. Third, parental involvement was increased by 14% compared to last school year. Last and most importantly, student misbehaviors and discipline referrals were decreased by 21% from last school year to this school year.
2. Talk about the greatest contributing factor(s) that promoted positive change in your school.
As the head principal of the school the following factors helped the school to change positively:

1. Aligned lessons to the district curriculum (YAG) and NM Common Core Standards and utilization on aligned instructional materials and resources

2. High Expectations to stakeholders: students, teachers, parents and administration

3. Aligned professional development focused on the 90-day plan of the school.

4. Classroom walkthroughs and feedbacks. Administrations need to do 600 CWTs and 300 Feedbacks per year.

5. PLTW classes are aligned to the High School’s College and Career Readiness classes. KEM has the most number of PLTW classes being offered in all middle schools of GMCS.
3. How has ESEA funding supported the school's success?
The title 1 fund of KEM was allocated to purchase the following: Instructional software that support the ELD, RTI and Academic core classes, Instructional materials to support classroom instruction in all classes including PLTW, parent academy nights to increase parent and community school collaboration/participation, After-School program, and Professional development sessions to improve classroom instruction.
4. What professional development activities were used to improve teaching and learning?
We purchased several professional development sessions with different companies to provide support to the learning environment and academic instruction. The following PDs that were provided to staff that are funded by the Title I are the following: Nearpod, No Red Ink, Dreambox, Moby Max, Generation Genius, Empower, and E-Hall Pass. Each academic department has their own software that support the classroom instruction such as No Red Ink for ELA, Dream box for Math, Generation Genius for Science, and Moby Max for Social Students. Nearpod PDs support all teacher in creating engaging classroom presentations. Empower PDs are provided to the teachers for one-on-one support. While E-hall pass supports the behavior structure of the school and classroom management of teachers, In allocating funds for these programs, we involved committees of teachers and staff based on their expertise to ensure that the products and services we purchased are all maximized and used for the students' benefit.
5. Talk about the cultural shift leading up to your school's success.
Two cultural shifts helped Kennedy Middle School (KEM) to attain success are clear communication and holding stakeholders accountable. KEM is a community that is focused on student-learning. Each individual may have different ways and perspectives on how to teach and grow students but having a common focused goal per 90-day plan on student-learning made an impact to the school. Each staff members know and understand their role in achieving the common goal. These goals were also communicated to the parents and community members and were explained to them on how they can help the school it’s goals. Open house, parent academic nights, Academic School Council meetings and Student-led conferences were used to communicate school initiatives and strengthen partnership of school and parents.

With clear communication in place, holding stakeholders accountable became much easier than what is expected to be. Since the start of the school year, administration, teachers, staff, parents and students understand and know what are expected from them. These expectations build the sense of responsibility and teamwork to all stakeholders to help the students. These sense of responsibility and teamwork result to decrease in student misbehavior, increase of student attendance and student proficiency scores.
6. How has community involvement strengthened your success?
KEM believes in teamwork and collaboration. We need the help of the parents and community members in making our students to be successful. During the pandemic, KEM initiates parent academy nights to support parents on how to use technology in helping their students. This activity also provides an opportunity for reducing the academic gaps by focusing on foundational skills in Math and ELA. After School Program hotlines helped students after their classes as an additional support. These hotlines also helped the parents establish continued learning at home to support their children. Parent teacher conferences were shifted to student-led conferences where the students took ownership of sharing their academic performance to their parents in front of the teacher. This changed help students to have ownership in achieving their personal academic goals. Employability classes were also changed from once a week to 4 times a week to help and students and to increase the school to parent communication.
Stats
  • Category 3

    Selected in 2022

  • Grades: 6 - 8
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 0
    Student Enrollment: 644
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 0.5%
    White/Caucasian: 5.9%
    Hispanic: 21.1%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0.3%
    Asian: 1.2%
    Native American: 71%
    Other: 0%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:20
    % Reduced Lunch: 100%
    % ELL Learners: 33.6%
    Founded: 1967
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Leoneil Tulabing
  • CONTACT:
    600 Broadman Dr.
    Gallup, NM 87301
    505-721-3100
    ltulabin@gmcs.org