In 2008, Colorado passed legislation (Senate Bill 08-212) that requires the State Board of Education to adopt content standards that prepare students for the 21st century workforce and for active citizenship upon receiving a high school diploma. In addition to the requirement that students meet those content standards, students must also (to the extent practicable) develop and demonstrate skills essential for success in professional life. The same law, amended in 2019, also requires a revision to approximately one-third of the the Colorado Academic standards beginning in 2022 and an additional one-third every two years thereafter (22-7-1005(6) C.R.S.). 

How does this look at CMS? Every student at CMS is assigned an ACCESS/Home room teacher/course. This 35 minute ACCESS period has been built into the daily schedule and an established calendar of support has been created by teacher leadership teams. In essence, during this ACCESS time the teacher and their studentsclass work colloaborative to student identified goals align to CDE Essential Skill Standards. 

Every ACCESS teacher at Carson Middle School becomes an expert on their students. Success Conversations are the strategic and systematic intake of those interactions and discussions that take place in every student's ACCESS class. These one-on-one conversations occur every month beginning in August and ending in May. The focus of these conversations is student self-assessment of skills, goal setting, reflection, and next steps for growth. In addition, during these conversations teachers discuss and identify any concerns with the students on attendance, behavior, anxiety, and/or relevant needed support. This data is gathered in grade-level teams for decision-making and discussion, as well as serve as a Tier I support for all students, and is especially important if students are demonstrating a higher need of intervention and support.

Peer-to-Peer Collaboration- Descriptive Feedback

Through our Success Conversation Program during the 2021/22 school year, student voice increasingly informed our teacher teams about the need for more intentional support of collaboration in classrooms as an Essential Skill focus. Based on this evidence, our teachers engaged in professional learning opportunities to experience and explore collaborative instructional strategies in their practice. Kagan structures, paired with AVID instructional strategies targeting student interactions in classrooms, became a priority that was developed by teachers to increase student perception of their ability to engage more readily in collaboration and team work in their classes. 

Carson Middle School teachers began the 2022/23 school year with rich and intentional discussions about student achievement data. Through PLCs, both in content areas and as grade-level teams, teachers used data mining protocols to analyze state and local assessment data trends from previous school years. Teacher professional learning then became centered around data-driven goal setting throughout content areas and in alignment with district-level support of curricular decisions and instructional norms. In addition, our leadership team designed a school-wide literacy initiative in alignment with trends in our achievement data to support the reading and writing needs of our students that also supports our community building and culture of connection at CMS. This work led towards the programmatic implementation of an All School Read and Write.