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The Turning Points design for middle school change
is not a lock-step process. Rather, schools commit to developing
a comprehensive plan of action over several years. Turning Points
provides schools with extensive support to help implement dramatic
reform.
Services provided to schools include:
- On-site Coaching: Turning Points provides on-site coaching
to every school we work with. Experienced coaches engage teams
of teachers in collaborative work to assess student progress,
improve instruction, develop student-centered curriculum and authentic
assessments, and create shared leadership structures.
- Professional Development and Networking: Networking
and collaborating with other teachers and schools has been proven
to improve teacher practices. Site-based professional development,
ongoing networking opportunities, and “collaborative culture”
visits between member schools focus on all aspects of the Turning
Points design, from problem-solving and leadership to curriculum
development and assessment.
- Turning Points Conferences and Institutes:
Turning Points hosts a variety of conferences every year that
bring together middle school practitioners from within a region
or from around the country. These gatherings play a vital role
in the evolution and reform of every school in the National Network.
Participants learn and share tools, strategies and stories and
return to their schools refreshed and energized.
- The Turning Points Self Study: Teachers and staff use
an assessment tool to identify challenges, set priorities, and
assess progress. Turning Points offers comprehensive data on a
school's demographics, teaching, learning, assessment, teaming,
leadership, climate, and student adjustment and behavior. It is
one piece of a variety of data a school uses as part of its data-based
decision making process.
- Publications and Technology:
Turning Points provides practical resources to implement the six
practices, including published guides on curriculum development,
data-based inquiry, teaming, school benchmarks, looking at student
work, school structures and shared leadership, assessment, family
and community partnerships, and the young adolescent learner.
- Accountability and Assessment of Student Learning: Turning
Points works with schools to use the Turning Points Benchmarks
to measure their progress both in an annual assessment and goal
setting process, and a more intensive School Quality Review every
3-4 years.
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