Rawlins Middle School, home of the Colts, is located on the western edge of Carbon County with instant access to Interstate 80 for travel to the surrounding areas of outdoor recreation including hunting, fishing and camping. We are a hop skip and a jump to Denver and Salt Lake City where families go for a weekend getaway. Students in our school come from hard working families as many people work at Holly Frontier Sinclair Refinery, Wyoming State Penitentiary, Union Pacific Railroad, the oil and gas industries and Carbon County School District #1. We are fortunate in our school district to have outstanding parental and community support for our students. We want every student to be successful in school, in life and “R” town knows that hard work is one key ingredient to help students succeed. 

Past (2017)

Our journey to continuous improvement started six years ago when building administration from Rawlins Middle School attended a Professional Learning Community (PLC) Institute in Las Vegas, Nevada. Everything began to slowly change that summer after careful planning and preparation for the upcoming fall. Prior years of poor grading practices where we gave a zero for assignments not turned in on time; averaged homework, class work, quizzes and exams to calculate final grades; and did not allow students to retake an exam, even if they wanted to; perpetuated a culture of crankiness and a climate of complaining. We were teaching kids about the real world through punitive grading practices. Teachers worked as teams but it was individual where one teacher taught students to identify key ideas and details within a text and the teacher across the hall instructed on the difference between summarizing and elaboration. Both important standards, but not aligned within the six person English Language Arts (ELA) department. Assessments were given on a whim, except for the summative state assessments in April, and sometimes students had to take a test because they didn’t demonstrate good behavior for the substitute the day prior. The only common thing about assessments during the 2017-2018 school year was that students took them in all classes. Teachers did not create them as a collective group to administer to all students based on agreed-upon standards; assessments were not given on the same day to students; teachers did not analyze and compare data on the same day; and feedback was minimal, mostly in the form of letter grades. Teacher teams were organized into content areas, which is best for kids at the middle school level comprising grades 6-8; yet in reality every teacher was a singleton in pedagogical practice, assessment creation, administration, analysis, and feedback. However, we thought what we were doing was right because we are from Rawlins, and that’s the best we can be.

We had a climate and culture problem. Many of us came to school feeling like we could not do more to help our students learn. Hope was gone and the end of the year could not come soon enough. We felt lost, tired, frustrated and out of sync with each other and the profession we chose. We felt this way because we were not focused on a culture of learning, we focused on excuses and things that we could not control. Our negative behavior created a toxic culture within each team overruling positive initiatives from anyone. The phrases “my kids” and “your kids” were spoken everywhere in our building, not allowing us to see the bigger picture when we attempted to solve the mystery of learning gaps and decline in student achievement. We were organized in teams on paper but actually worked as “singletons” within a broken system.

Present (2024)

Staff at Rawlins Middle School decided to make a paradigm shift to do the right work, the right way. We coined the motto “All Means All” and this is what drives us each day as we fine tune our process and build capacity to ensure all our students learn at high levels. We base our staff, team and guiding coalition meetings on the four critical questions:

1. What do we want our students to know and be able to do?

2. How will we know they learned it?

3. How do we respond when students don’t learn?

4. How do we respond when students do learn?

We want every teacher, para educator, food service worker, custodian, secretary and bus driver to speak the same language to each other and students. We are completely committed to becoming a model for PLC processes and work because we are committed to student growth and achievement. At the beginning of every fall we re-establish our mission, vision, values and goals and transform them into our collective commitments and actions to ensure that we are focused on the right work and engaging in the right way. We continue to study the work of John Hattie to ensure that we focus on the top three factors to improve student achievement. The first factor we focus on is collective teacher efficacy. Our teachers work in collaborative teams rather than in isolation to implement a guaranteed and viable curriculum, unit by unit while monitoring student learning through an ongoing assessment process that includes frequent, team-developed common formative assessments. Teachers use the results of common assessments to improve individual practice, build the team's capacity to achieve its goals, and intervene and enrich on behalf of students through a systematic process. The second factor we focus on is teacher’s estimates of student achievement; in other words, a student’s perception of their teacher’s belief in them that he/she can learn at high levels. This is a continuous work between staff and students relationship building to provide a rich culture of safety and learning. We want our students to know that we believe they can achieve great things in all content areas. Likewise we want to create a culture of trust to provide opportunities of educational vulnerability as we work together. The third factor we focus on is student reported grades; in other words, a tool we provide to students for them to use in class to ensure they know the learning target, vocabulary for the unit of study, proof of learning box, progress bar and proficiency scale to chart growth. The tool we use to help students gauge their progress on units of study is a Unit Overview Sheet. Students are the best predictors of their own learning and they know what they bring to the table before each unit of study begins, as well as how much work they need to put in to hit their achievement mark. Giving students opportunities to show what they know helps them to discover true learning potential as accountability and awareness increases. Teachers and paraeducators at Rawlins Middle School work in tandem to provide a rich learning environment for students to flourish.

Our mission at Rawlins Middle School is to ensure high levels of learning for all. This includes students and staff alike as we all share responsibility to increase our collective efficacy to achieve our goals. The vision for Rawlins Middle School is to become a model PLC School by the summer of 2024. We have a mission and vision where “All means All” and it is our desire to show the world what works best. We also know what we value by supporting each other to build:

• Relationships with students 

• Respect (being kind to self & others) 

• Be the most effective teachers we can be 

• Tighten up student by student and skill by skill 

• We do not put kids in groups or label them (we are specific to what each student needs by collaborating with colleagues for the betterment of the student) 

• Role model rather than tell students what to do 

The more consistent we are, the smoother their path will be. The 3 Big Ideas also provide us with overarching guidance as we:

1. Ensure high levels of learning for all

2. Work effectively as a collaborative community

3. Focus on results (student by student, skill by skill)

As we wrestle with the four critical questions in all staff, team and guiding coalition meetings to build shared knowledge we focus on key terms like, essential standards, learning targets, data analysis, common assessments, intervention, enrichment and many more. Content teams follow the same Agenda Template that we use in staff and guiding coalition meetings. We follow our meeting norms, establish roles, and work through our Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle while answering the four critical questions. Every content team has time to meet together on a daily basis to ensure they are on pace for high levels of learning through monitoring student’s progress through common assessment protocols. We use our Teacher Analysis of Common Assessment (TACA) form after each common formative assessment to gather information to determine which students need Tier 2/3 intervention and which students need extension. We define Tier 1 instruction as we read it in Learning By Doing (2016) “Tier 1–is to provide all students access to essential grade-level curriculum and effective initial teaching” (p. 167). We use our pyramid of interventions to guide us through the multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) so we do not lose any students along the way. Math and ELA content teams have 90 minutes to work with their students every day and use part of this time to intervene or extend with students based on common assessment data generated from the TACA process. We also have 30 minutes of Colt Learning Lab (CLL) time built into the master schedule for Tier 2/3 instruction. The schedule is tight on where students need to go so we can maximize their use of time while we have them in the building. As each team works through the PLC process at their own pace, teachers are provided with 45 minutes of team time and 45 minutes of planning time each day. This time provides teams to meet to discuss and work through the PLC process. They also have time to work on planning and some of the teams have chosen to plan together due to their shared commitment to the PLC process and student success. During professional development days, staff are very intentional in the work that they do. Teacher teams are always tweaking things to make it work better for the students with many 1% changes to the process.

We celebrate student growth and learning during our trimester awards assemblies and highlight student growth and achievement in content areas and state assessment testing. We also celebrate perfect attendance, being on time to class and good citizenship. A new award that we started two years ago is the Unstoppable Award. We select students, community members and other organizations for this award based on something they did in our school or community that was out of the ordinary. We gave a local business owner the Unstoppable Award during one of our assemblies because he donated all the fresh produce to our cooking club called “La Cocina” and in addition to this he taught a cooking class for us each Monday afternoon for students and their families. Recipients of the Unstoppable Award sign our Unstoppable Wall and receive a token of our appreciation created by students in our STEM lab.

 Behind every National PLC school is a solid multi-tiered system of support (MTSS).  At Rawlins Middle School each team focuses on answering the four critical questions of a PLC during team and planning time each and every day.  The PLC framework goes hand in hand with the MTSS process.  We focus on meeting all students where they are as well as assisting students to make growth through tiered systems of support. As we answer the four critical questions of a PLC we learn how to fine tune our practices to ensure our systems are generating the most learning opportunities for students. Question 1: What do we want students to know and be able to do?  One response to this question starts by identifying essential standards in each content area. All content teams work together to determine which standards are most essential to student learning.  We reference our state assessment blueprints along with knowledge of foundational content that carries over from one skill to the next. Once we identified essential standards, each team develops pacing guides for the unity of study.  Pacing guides provide teachers with an outline for the team to follow during the instruction of each essential standard which ensures all testing takes place on the same day, same way.  After identifying the essential standards, pacing out instructions for each essential standard, the team develops common summative assessments and follows the backwards design process to determine what needs to be included in the Unit overview sheets.  Unit overview sheets contain areas for students to show proof of learning, rate their own proficiency and view exemplars for that particular unit of instruction. 

The second PLC question, how do we know students have learned it? allows teachers to analyze data from common assessments they created and agreed upon, in order to have critical conversations by comparing data to make immediate changes to instructional practice. Common team created assessments are the lynchpin to the entire PLC process. Constant checks for understanding throughout units of instruction allow staff to catch misconceptions and extend learning through higher level questioning. Each team develops common formative and summative assessments to assist in determining what students have learned during the unit of instruction. Common formative assessments are given every few weeks depending on the length of the unit. Information from the formative assessments are analyzed by content teams through the TACA process. During the TACA process the team determines what intervention and extensions need to take place to ensure student learning for all students. By the end of the unit, all students should be proficient at the identified essential standards for that unit of instruction due to constant feedback throughout the unit, checks for understanding from closing tasks and the common formative assessment data collected and analyzed throughout the unit. Upon completion of this process while answering PLC question 2, we then move into question 3, how do we respond when they don’t know it? 

During Tier 1 instruction teachers will identify students who are struggling to become proficient through constant monitoring of work throughout the unit, checks for understanding via closing tasks and analyzing data from CFAs. The next step in the process is for teachers to use the data collected to determine what interventions need to take place to assist in student learning. Our math and ELA teams have 90 minutes of time each day to provide instruction to students. This year the building discussed restructuring that time to better meet the needs of the students. The math and ELA teams are now providing Tier 2 instruction during 45 minutes of the 90 minute block of time 2 days a week (Monday and Wednesday for ELA, Tuesday and Thursday for math). This time allows teachers to create instructional groups that focus on each student, skill by skill. The two content area teams determine which skills need to be taught to assist in learning during the unit of instruction then they focus specifically on those skills two days a week. During this time our special education providers are also able to assist with instruction for the students to meet their needs. The other content areas, social studies, science, and enrichment who only have 45 minutes of instruction time for Tier 1 instruction, are given the option to participate in “Focus Days”.  Each team builds “Focus Days'' into their pacing guides to allow time to redo, reteach, or learn material and focus on Tier 2 instruction when needed.  Another opportunity for Tier 2 instruction is during our Morning CLL time, Monday–Thursday from 8:35 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. where each content area is given an extra 25 minutes every four weeks to provide additional support to students. In some cases the time built into the day is just not enough so we have also enlisted a few staff to teach very intensive Tier 3 remediation on foundational skills to a small, very selective group of students based on several data points. This time occurs after school, on Fridays or during the summer. 

Question number 4 in the PLC process is: How do we respond when they have learned it? During Tier 1 instruction teachers will identify students who are proficient or advanced through constant monitoring of work throughout the unit, checks for understanding through closing tasks and analyzing data from CFAs. Higher level questioning is one way the staff provides students the opportunity to extend their learning. Students are also given opportunities to extend their learning during small group purposeful talk based on their strengths, interests, learning styles and curiosities. Another step in the process is for teachers to use the data collected from CFAs to determine what extensions can be provided to extend student learning. Staff utilize the time during Tier 2 instruction for intervention to provide extension opportunities for students in an intentional skill based group. This time could be during the regular class time or during Morning CLL. At the end of every unit of instruction the team works through the Intended vs. Implemented document to determine what is worth keeping, dropping or what they need to create. During professional development days the teams receive time to work on curriculum development along with learning about new and innovative instructional practices that support student learning.  Teachers are also encouraged to focus on a Weekly Instructional Practice (WIP) to use while teaching to increase proficiency with that instructional practice.  Staff observe each other to provide feedback and build collective teacher efficacy across content area teams. 

In addition to the four critical questions for academics, RMS focuses on the social, emotional, and behavioral needs of all of our students.  Rawlins Middle School developed a behavioral process called the “School Wide Intervention Process” (SWIP).  SWIP is a tiered system of support for social emotional learning.  We learned through experiences of mis-management of school-wide discipline that administering punitive consequences to poor choices does not change student behavior. We historically used a hammer as our only tool to help students see that they needed to stop doing one behavior. We also convinced ourselves that we did not have time to show students a different response to a problem, we were only giving out consequences like candy on Halloween. We had to change; and we did! Understanding that student positive behavior is going to help drive our instructional practices we implemented a dedicated position that solely focuses on student behavior and performance. This position is titled the Fundamental Skills Specialist and focuses on student and staff behavioral development. All students have behavior whether that be positive or negative and we need to take the same approach as our academics to teach our students positive behavior tactics that can be utilized at any given time. We do this through a variety of platforms from teaching whole school social emotional learning lessons on a weekly basis to individualized behavior interventions. As our first level of instructional behavior intervention we have utilized a variety of programs to help us accomplish this task. Every Friday during our hour-long CLL the whole school receives the same instruction on social emotional learning. As Dr. Anthony Muhammad states, “Adolescents are almost by nature toddlers meaning they are in the discovery period and adolescents are testing the norms.” Being responsive to this period of time for an adolescent is key in their overall development and growth mindset as we come to understand as Dr. Muhammad states that he had a staff member tell him that they have told the student 50 times to stop doing something and his response was simple, “tomorrow is going to be 51, and then 52, and then the day after that 53.”  We took his comment to heart and utilized the science behind the development of an adolescent amygdala to ensure we are teaching the whole student. When a student has had 4 or more level one negative behaviors we utilize our lunch lessons or as most schools call “lunch detention”. The disciplinary action itself is missing out on lunch with their peers, the learning side now becomes a lesson specifically directed towards that incident that the student had. This of course is after the student has met with building administration, or Fundamental Skills Specialist, and had a reset and reconnect (R&R) with the referring staff member. Our next level of negative behavior intervention is our in-school (ISS) and out-of-school suspension (OSS) process. Multiple/repeated level I, II, and III incidents constitute an in-school or out-of-school suspension. Anytime a student receives in-school or out-of-school suspension they receive a learning lesson or session. For example, if a student is in ISS they work with one of our para educators to keep up with their academic work along with receiving a lesson by the Fundamental Skills Specialist, once again based solely on the incident that occurred that resulted in the student being placed in suspension disciplinary action. Unfortunately, sometimes students make decisions that require a more severe consequence such as OSS. When this occurs a student will serve a minimum of one day of ISS after the OSS to get caught up on missed work as well as to receive a lesson based on the incident that occurred. This all encompasses the motivation to serve, teach, mentor, and grow our students as a whole, not just as an institution solely focusing on academics.

Over the last seven years the staff at RMS have worked to develop a way to meet the needs of the whole student.  This process supports students as they navigate through their middle school years. We created Student Success Plans for each student in the building that organizes a continuum of social emotional opportunities for success. Specifically we have “Student Vision” plans, “Strategy Menu” when discussing options with teachers and parents, “MTSS Form” to chart behavioral observations and responses to follow up after each date, as well as a few other forms to track student progress to give staff and parents as many opportunities for successful change to occur, before testing to determine needs for special education services. 

 Future

Teachers at Rawlins Middle School have a steadfast commitment to high student achievement through collaborative teacher teams that are poised for a promising future. The collaborative nature of PLCs fosters a dynamic and responsive educational environment where teachers work together to analyze data, share best practices, and tailor instructional strategies to meet the diverse needs of their students. This collective effort creates a robust multi-tiered support system, enhancing the overall quality of teaching and learning within the school.

We foresee this commitment to collaborative PLC processes is going to result in a positive and sustained impact on student achievement, like we have seen over the last three years. Teachers, equipped with a deeper understanding of student data and a repertoire of effective instructional strategies, can provide more targeted support to students. This, in turn, will lead to increased academic performance, as interventions are tailored to address specific learning needs. Each team’s emphasis on collaborative learning communities positions it as a hub of continuous improvement, where educators are motivated to refine their practices and share successful approaches, ensuring a positive trajectory for student success in the years to come.

Additionally, RMS will continue to witness a thriving professional culture, where educators feel empowered and supported. As we all collaborate within teams, the exchange of ideas and shared responsibility for student outcomes can lead to a more engaged and motivated teaching staff. This sense of collective efficacy not only enhances job satisfaction but also attracts and retains high-quality educators, contributing to the long-term success of RMS as a center for academic excellence.

1. Monitoring student learning on a timely basis.

Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) have become a cornerstone in modern educational frameworks, fostering collaborative environments among educators to enhance student learning. At Rawlins Middle School, the PLC framework is seamlessly integrated into the educational culture, with a focus on monitoring student learning on a timely basis. The school's commitment to PLC principles ensures that educators work collaboratively to analyze student data, share instructional strategies, and make informed decisions to address individual student needs.

One key aspect of Rawlins Middle School's PLC framework is the regularity with which educators gather to assess student progress. Teachers engage in regular data meetings where they review student performance data from various assessments. These timely assessments allow educators to identify learning gaps promptly and implement targeted interventions within 48 hours of the exam. We are very good about creating common assessments and administering the assessment the same day and same time. After we carefully analyze the data we know exactly which students are proficient and which ones are not. This is vital to know before moving forward with intervention and extension. However, this is not good enough. The next step we take is reflecting on our instructional practice and what we need to change in the classroom to help students learn at high levels. We are not perfect at this yet, however, we are becoming more comfortable with vulnerability and allowing the data to expose instructional practice. We are retraining our brains from, “I teach, they learn” to “what did Ithe educator learn from this assessment?” and therefore what are we going to do about it? This proactive approach enables the school to address student needs in real-time, fostering a dynamic and responsive educational environment based on the quality of the assessment.

Furthermore, the PLC framework at RMS emphasizes a culture of shared responsibility for student learning. Educators collaborate not only within grade levels but also across disciplines, promoting a holistic understanding of each student's academic journey. By pooling their expertise, teachers can develop comprehensive strategies to support diverse learners, ensuring that no student falls through the cracks. This collaborative effort enhances the overall effectiveness of the educational process.

In addition to regular data meetings, RMS promotes a continuous cycle of improvement through ongoing teacher team meetings. Teachers engage in collaborative learning experiences, where they explore new instructional approaches, share best practices, and refine their teaching methods based on what the common assessment data shows them.

Ultimately, the PLC framework at RMS fosters a culture of accountability, collaboration, and adaptability. By monitoring student learning on a timely basis, educators are better positioned to tailor their instruction, provide targeted support, and ultimately contribute to improved student outcomes. The school's commitment to the PLC framework reflects a dedication to continuous improvement and a student-centered approach to education.

2. Creating systems of intervention to provide students with additional time and support for learning.

Rawlins Middle School prides itself on creating systems of intervention that benefit the whole student. We are very deliberate with academic, social and behavioral instruction that fosters student learning and growth. We have developed and established a liberational mindset from classroom to classroom that solely focuses on student growth and development towards one common goal, high levels of learning for ALL. The RMS Pyramid of Interventions as seen in the picture below provides a visual for the academic, social, and behavior structures that Rawlins Middle School utilizes.

As we started the PLC journey we identified the need to shift the paradigm from making decisions solely based on opinions, moods, and personal biases to focusing on students learning academic, social, emotional, and behavioral skills that will support them as they develop and grow. 

The staff and administration knew there was a need to work on how to help the “whole” child learn since some of the gaps in academics were connected to struggles socially, emotionally and behaviorally.  Luckily during a Solution Tree Conference in Salt Lake City around 5 years ago, the opportunity arose where the RMS team was able to talk with Dr. Anthony Muhammad during team time to discuss the struggles occurring with our students.  Dr. Muhammad had a very simple but impactful response to our struggle, which was, “without fully understanding the background of your schools practices and individual student needs, simply put, you just make them”.  At first the team felt discouraged by his statement and didn’t quite understand how we could possibly “make them learn and behave”.  However, in response to Dr. Muhammand’s direction prompted us to create a school wide system of support, which in turn, would lead us in the right direction. 

The power lies within the system more than in the person itself.   Utilizing research we found from various behavior matrices, we were able to tweak and mold a very effective response to intervention for academics, behavior and social skills.   The resources that helped shape our own system of support were, Levy Middle School Behavior System, “Overcoming the Achievement Gap Trap” by Dr. Anthony Muhammad, “Choice Theory” (Book Study & Staff Trainings), and the “Four Disciplines of Execution” by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, Jim Huling.  By researching, training, implementing and adjusting various systematic structures we were able to shift our paradigm to “All Kids'” will learn at Rawlins Middle School instead of “Some Kids” can learn at Rawlins Middle School.  Being vulnerable is one of human kind's hardest areas to naturally do, but by doing so, we (RMS) were able to learn and become stronger together. 

As our journey continued we needed to utilize and identify what “equality, responsibility, and advocacy” meant as we guided students through the learning process. This meant that we as a staff and school community had to overcome the misconceptions that only certain students could learn and meet high expectations.  The RMS School Behavior Matrix as seen in the picture below provides a visual for all stakeholders to utilize when behaviors impede learning.  This matrix has transformed both learning and overall engagement.

Within this process, the student and staff  involved in an “incident” are required to participate in a reset and reconnect session (an R&R).  This allows the members of the incident to discuss their perspectives, understand the learning impact on themselves, others, and the overall environment and determine a solution to ensure this type of “incident” doesn’t occur again.  After the R&R session occurs, the teacher is required to notify the parents/guardians of the situation.  The student can also be part of this conversation.  All documentation is stored in the RMS shared drive where each Rawlins Middle School Colt (student) has a Student Success Plan (“Student Success Plan Template Link”)  that is utilized for academic and behavioral support. This success plan is utilized in multiple ways such as; academic understanding, behavioral supports, goal setting, and overall student development.  Once again, this process was created based on processes Dr. Anthony Muhammad utilized during his time at Levy Middle School, through “Individualized Vision Plans”. 

Academic Tiered Systems of Support

By “making students” meet behavioral expectations, it opened the door for academic learning to occur and flourish at Rawlins Middle School.   In the 2019-2020 school year it was determined that the time we already had carved out in our master schedule to provide support for students, which was referred to as “Colt Learning Lab” (CLL), would be the perfect time to incorporate certain components of our newly developed tiered system of support for Tier 2 and Tier 3.  On two separate occasions during PLC conferences between the 2022-2023 school year and the 2023-2024 school year, RMS staff members had the opportunity to sit down with Mike Mattos to collaborate with him regarding the implementation of our current tiered system (which was still not producing the results we needed).  After collaboration with Mike Mattos, collaboration with our guiding coalition, individual teams, and as a whole staff, we determined the changes that needed to be made to improve our tiered system of support.  The Guiding Coalition discussed how to structure the time to utilize it the most effectively.  By October of the 2023 school year the staff identified that we were in dire need of tightening up our Tier 1 and Tier 2 instruction instead of focusing so much of our time on Tier 3 instruction.  During the adjustment period, we identified that we can utilize two days a week during our Math and ELA instructional times to focus specifically on Tier 2 interventions, extensions, make-ups, reteach, and reassess during the core instructional portions of the day.  The process created an  opportunity for our staff to respond to each student's individual needs appropriately during specific times of the day.  CLL time is also used as a time for our staff and students to fill in learning gaps that were previously overlooked or missed due to a lack of structured time to analyze data and implement interventions and extensions.  This process allowed us to identify the holes in our system that were still not ensuring “ALL” students were learning at high levels which has added to an already collaborative culture amongst staff and students that demonstrate a love and passion for learning.  RMS Tier 3 interventions will take place with a very select group of students after school, during Friday school or during summer school.

 We also initiated a more specific data analysis process called Teacher Analysis of Common Assessments, (TACA), with each team to determine which interventions and extensions need to take place for each content area, student by student, skill by skill.   

3. Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improved learning for all students.

Building teacher capacity to work as members of high performing collaborative teams that focus efforts on improving learning for all students is the centerfold of what Rawlins Middle School staff does on a daily basis. This continues to this day as we regularly look at utilizing various tactics to build the teacher capacity that focuses on improving learning for all. At the start of the 2023/2024 school year Rawlins Middle School staff were asked to participate in an activity led by the head principal, Ryan Searle, during the first professional development day of the school year. The week prior, Mr. Searle asked each staff member to bring pictures of their children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews to the first staff professional development day. Staff were asked to go to the hallway outside the staff lounge. The words “Is it Good Enough?” were framed and displayed on the wall. Each staff member taped the pictures of their loved ones to the wall around those words. Some staff stood and thought about it, some taped them up and walked away but some cried while posting their loved ones' pictures on the wall.  Mr. Searle purposefully gave a large amount of time for this activity.  He wanted each staff member to digest why he asked them to do this. 

Once all the staff members worked their way back into the library, we knew how powerful that activity truly was. We could hear a pin drop. Everyone was waiting for him to speak. Some were wiping away tears, some were nodding their heads, and some were just staring off waiting for him to break the silence. Mr. Searle explained to the staff that he was given this idea during a session at the Solution Tree PLC conference that he attended over the summer in Fort Worth, Texas. He knew that this would hit home for our staff because of the culture that we have created. He asked the teacher who was crying, how was she doing?  He knew he could call on her even though she was crying. She admitted to the group, “we say ALL means ALL but is it really?” I put pictures of my boys up on that wall but I was thinking of all the students I work with and know that some of those students will be left off the wall. They are getting lost and forgotten. We are not doing ALL we can for ALL of our students.  We know it and we need to do better.” At that moment the staff knew that we were going to need to push ourselves to a greater level of focus because if it isn’t good enough for our own loved ones then it just isn’t good enough for our students.

Rawlins Middle School has taken a very intentional approach to professional development. We have put our focus on building teacher capacity to work effectively within high-performing collaborative teams. RMS understands that the success of teacher teams is integral to achieving improved learning outcomes for all students. To support this, we invest in ongoing professional development programs that are specifically designed to enhance teachers' collaboration skills, instructional strategies, and data analysis techniques. The most effective professional development we undertake is learning from the data that we collectively gather through our TACA process.

At RMS, teacher teams are not only encouraged but are also provided with dedicated time and resources to engage in meaningful discussions about student learning. Teachers work together to analyze data, share insights, and develop targeted interventions or extensions to address the diverse needs of their students. This collaborative effort is essential in fostering a culture of shared responsibility for student success. By building teacher capacity within these collaborative teams, RMS aims to create a professional community where educators can continuously learn from each other, adapt to evolving educational trends, and collectively strive towards improved learning outcomes for every student.

The school recognizes that building teacher capacity is an ongoing process that requires sustained support. Mentoring programs, peer to peer observations, and regular feedback mechanisms are integrated into the school's professional development model. This multi-faceted approach not only strengthens individual teacher skills but also contributes to the overall effectiveness of collaborative teams. As teachers build their capacity to work within the PLC framework, the school is confident that the collaborative efforts of these teams will lead to a positive impact on student learning, creating a culture of continuous improvement and shared success. The RMS Weekly Instructional Practice (W.I.P) as seen in the picture below provides a visual for all stakeholders to utilize when observing and collaborating together during peer to peer observations.  This practice has transformed learning and overall staff development that establishes consistency and best practices moving forward for our staff and students learning development.

Achievement Data Files

• RawlinsMSAdditionalResources(TACA,Tools,&Resources).pdf
• meeting-expectations-2022.pdf
• rawlins-middle-school-long-data-plc.pdf
• data-for-plc-app-348.xlsx

Additional Achievement Data

The third big idea in the PLC framework is to focus on results. Staff and students focus on results from state assessment data, common assessments, behavioral data sheets, and other formative assessment tools in the classroom. State assessment data at Rawlins Middle School has seen a drastic change over the last three years. The spring summative scores in 21-22 school year showed that RMS met growth and achievement standards for the first time in school history. We continued this trend last spring by meeting the achievement indicator for the second year in a row. We recently finished our winter interim exam and we plan to see the same results again this spring in all three grades to include seven exams.

Inclusive is our common formative and summative data within content areas. We do not allow more than 48 hours to pass by before we analyze the data and make a decision on how we are going to give specific feedback to students and how we are going to form skill based groups to intervene or extend students' learning. This whole process happens before we move on to the next unit of study to ensure that students receive what they need.

We not only celebrate our summative assessment data and continue to make gains compared to the state data, but we celebrate our students and staff in all the amazing activities and accomplishments they achieve. These celebrations, noted in the resource page of this application, demonstrate the culture of Rawlins Middle School.

RMS Celebrations/Pictures Slides

2017/2018 School Year (The Start)

• Crystal Apple Award Recipients

  • 1 of the 8 district Crystal Apple Awards were received by RMS staff.a Crystal Apple Awards that were nominated by students and staff members and then selected by the committee.

• Support Staff of the Month

• Sent a team to a PLC Solution Tree Conference in Las Vegas!

2018/2019 School Year

• Crystal Apple Award Recipients

  • 3 of the 8 district Crystal Apple Awards were received by RMS staff.a Crystal Apple Awards that were nominated by students and staff members and then selected by the committee.

• Implementation of school wide intervention behavior matrix

• Attended a PLC Solution Tree Conference in Salt Lake City

• Food Drive Donation participant to St. Vincent De Paul

  • 707 items donated

• Attended a PLC Solution Tree Conference in Las Vegas!

• Wyoming DARE Educator of the year

2019/2020 School Year (COVID ended school year virtual staring in March)

• Carbon County School District #1 Teacher of the Year recipient 

• WY DARE Educator of the Year Recipient

• Student Council Food Drive

  • 1,036 items donated to St. Vincent De Paul!

• Attended a PLC Solution Tree Conference in Las Vegas!

 2020/2021 School Year

• Crystal Apple Award Recipients

  • 2 of the 8 district Crystal Apple Awards were received by RMS staff.a Crystal Apple Awards that were nominated by students and staff members and then selected by the committee.

• 3A East Boys (Track) Coach of the Year recipient  

• CLL April Challenge = Penny Wars

  • All proceeds donated to the Leukemia Foundation

• CLL March Challenge = Reading Madness

  • 309 Books read by the student body!

• CLL December Challenge = Toy Drive/Lights Bulbs

  • $1,161 raised and donated to Mike’s Big City

• CLL November Challenge = Food Drive

  • 872 items donated to St. Vincent De Paul!

• CLL October Challenge = Random Acts of Kindness Links

  • CLL classes created kindness links to try and link around the entire school circle.

• Participant in the PLC Wyoming Cohort 3 in Casper Wyoming and Virtually

• CLL September Challenge = Pig Raffle

  • Students sell raffle tickets to help raise money for student incentives throughout the school year.

• Attended a PLC Solution Tree Conference virtually due to COVID

2021/2022 School Year

• Carbon County School District #1 Teacher of the Year recipient 

• Crystal Apple Award Recipients

  • 1 of the 8 district Crystal Apple Awards were received by RMS staff.a Crystal Apple Awards that were nominated by students and staff members and then selected by the committee.

• CLL May Challenge = Minute To Win It & Random Acts of Kindness

  • CLL classes competed against each other to be deemed CLL Class Champion of the year through Minute to Win It competitions

  • CLL classes created kindness links to try and link around the entire school circle.

• CLL April Challenge = Penny Wars

  • All proceeds donated to the Leukemia Foundation

• CLL March Challenge = Mathematical March Madness/Problems/Random Acts of Kindness Links

  • CLL classes were given mathematical facts to solve as a class

  • CLL classes created kindness links to try and link around the entire school circle.

• CLL February: Challenge = Pop Tabs

  • 40,375 pop tabs donated to Denver's Children

• Rawlins Community Builder Award

  • First ever recipient of this award, awarded by the City Council of Rawlins Wy!

• CLL January Challenge = Random Acts of Kindness Links 

  • CLL classes created kindness links to try and link around the entire school circle.

• CLL December Challenge = Toy Drive/Lights Bulbs

  • $907 raised and donated to Mike's Big City toy drive!

• CLL November Challenge Donation participant to St. Vincent De Paul Food Drive

  • 1,146 items donated St. Vincent De Paul Food Drive

• Participant in the PLC Wyoming Cohort 4 in Riverton Wyoming and Virtually

• CLL October Challenge = Random Acts of Kindness Links

  • CLL classes created kindness links to try and link around the entire school circle.

• CLL September Challenge = Pig Raffle

  • Students sell raffle tickets to help raise money for student incentives throughout the school year.

• Attended a PLC Solution Tree Conference in Las Vegas!

2022/2023 School Year

• Wyoming National Association of Outstanding Principals recipient

• Crystal Apple Award Recipients

  • 4 of the 8 district Crystal Apple Awards were received by RMS staff.a Crystal Apple Awards that were nominated by students and staff members and then selected by the committee.

• Color Run Host to raise funds for student health and well-being

• Partnered with make a wish foundation for one of our students to achieve his wish by riding in a helicopter

• CLL May Challenge = Minute to Win it

  • CLL classes competed against each other to be deemed CLL Class Champion of the year through Minute to Win It competitions

• May Academic Student Spotlight award recipient

• University of Wyoming’s Women in STEM Day participant

• Festival of Children’s Voice participant

• 3A East Girls Head Coach of the Year (Track)

• 7th Grade Boys Long Jump Record (School) Broke

• Two Students (one 8th & one 6th) received Triple Crown Wrestling honors

• CLL April Challenge = Reading Madness

  • Students read 1,000 books

• April Academic Student Spotlight recipient

• April Unsung Hero Student recipient

• CLL March Challenge = Penny Wars

  • $2,579.45 raised and donated to Leukemia Foundation

• March Unsung Hero Student recipient

• CLL February Challenge = Pop Tab Collection 

  • Donation to Denver's Children

• 7th Grade Undefeated Football Season

• CLL December Challenge = Toy Drive/Lights Bulbs

  • $2,407 raised and donated to Mike’s Big City Toy Drive

• CLL November Challenge = Food Drive 

  • 1,369 items donated to St. Vincent De Paul Food Drive

• Participant in the PLC Wyoming Cohort 3 in Riverton Wyoming and Virtually

• RIDE For Focus Grant Recipient

  • School gets bicycle’s awarded to them to have a bicycle unit during the school year for our PE classes.

• Attended PLC Solution Tree Conference in Salt Lake City!

• CLL October Challenge = Inktober

  • Students drew the specified topic given out by inktober!

• Healthy Kids Roundup through the University of Wyoming Kinesiology Department Participant

  • Students are selected and identified by their peers to attend and participate in learning healthy habits through activity.

• September Teacher of the Month recipient

• CLL September Challenge = Pig Raffle

  • Students sell raffle tickets to help raise money for student incentives throughout the school year.

• Attended PLC Solution Tree Conference in Las Vegas!

2023/2024 School Year (Current)

• January Certified Staff Member of the Month Recipient

• South Big Horn District Outstanding Music Educator of the Year

• 8 Choir Students Selected for Northwest Region ACDA Middle School Honor Choir

• CLL December Challenge: Toy Drive/Lights Bulbs

  • $1,754 raised and donated to Mikes Big City Toy Drive

• Wrestling Conference Champions

• December Support Staff of the Month Recipient

• CLL November Challenge Donation participant to St. Vincent De Paul Food Drive

  • 864 items donated to St. Vincent De Paul Food Drive

• Wyoming Latina Youth Conference Participant

• Participant in the PLC Wyoming Cohort 5 in Riverton Wyoming and Virtually

• Attended PLC Solution Tree Conference in Cheyenne, Wyoming

• Attended PLC Solution Tree Soluciones Conference in California

• CLL October Challenge: Inktober Participant

• 8th Grade Undefeated Football Season

• Cross Country boys team place top three in all season meets

  • 7th grade student did not lose a boys race during middle school Cross Country

• Healthy Kids Roundup through the University of Wyoming Kinesiology Department Participant

  • Students are selected and identified by their peers to attend and participate in learning healthy habits through activity.

• Art Club participate in the Rawlins Community Annual Art Beat

• September Certified Staff Member of the Month Recipient

• September Academic Student Spotlight of the Month Recipient

• CLL September Challenge = Pig Raffle

  • Students sell raffle tickets to help raise money for student incentives throughout the school year.

• University of Wyoming Band Day Participants

• Wyoming Teacher Mentor Corp. (in partnership with Dr. Douglas Reeves) Participant

• Wyoming Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance Teacher of the year recipient

• Attended Character Strong Social Emotional Learning Conference in California

  • Implementation as a district towards SEL learning.

• Attended Solution Tree PLC conference in Fort Worth!

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Files

• plc-application-links.pdf
• tiered-system-of-support.pptx
• new-student-packet.pdf
• plc--lets-celebrate.pdf