MARSHALL MIDDLE SCHOOL TO TRANSITION TO 6TH GRADE ACADEMY
Clovis Municipal Schools sixth graders will be going to their own school this fall as the CMS school board voted 4 to 1 to approve the city’s Sixth Grade Academy.
“The primary purpose of the Sixth Grade Academy is to create a learning environment designed to help all students successfully bridge from elementary to secondary school by implementing specific academic and social-emotional supports that facilitate a gradual and smooth transition into middle school and beyond,” CMS Superintendent Renee Russ said.
Marshall Middle School will transition to hosting sixth graders only in August. the next phase of planning for the academy involves location of the seventh and eighth graders who would have been at Marshall.
In an email, Russ wrote, “In order to be successful at the secondary level, students need the ability to be self-directed learners in a more fluid, complex, and less structured environment than they have previously experienced. They also need to possess more sophisticated interpersonal relationship skills than were necessary in the earlier grades.”
Some are ready for the big steps this transition requires; many are not.
A number of goals of the Sixth Grade Academy include:
- To provide “sheltered transition” to help sixth grade students experience greater academic and interpersonal success.
- Create a learning and social-emotional environment more tailored to meeting the varying readiness and developmental levels of incoming sixth graders.
- Provide exploratory learning experiences to help 6th graders identify their learning strengths and interests in preparation for identifying the graduation pathway most well-suited to them as individuals.
- Develop a sense of belonging as a Clovis Wildcat and to build student confidence and self-awareness.
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