School Improvement Plan 2005–2006

School name:  Jane Long Middle School

Diana De La Rosa, Principal

Administrative District:  West Region

School Overview

Jane Long Middle School’s mission is to prepare all students for successful participation in an evolving society by achieving academic excellence in a multicultural environment.  During the past decade, Long Middle School has moved from an ethnically balanced population to predominantly Hispanic. The most frequently reported foreign birthplaces are Mexico and Central and South America; however, our students represent more than fifty countries from all parts of the world. Immigrant students currently comprise fourteen percent of the student population; one-half of the refugees in the Houston Independent School District live in the 77081 zip code which is served by Long Middle School.  A majority of the students who attend Long Middle School live in large, high-density apartment complexes.  Low socioeconomic environment and lack of recreational facilities characterize the immediate neighborhood and attendance area.  This contributes to the statistic that the 77081 zip code zone has the highest juvenile crime rate in the state of Texas.  Working with us to address the community needs, our business partnerships, neighborhood associations and community organizations have obtained many social services to supplement our service to the community.

The benefits our student body receives from these partnerships are multifaceted. Memorial Hermann Hospital Healthcare Systems operates a health clinic on the campus which provides services such as immunizations, well-child check-ups and sick child visits.  It also offers acculturation classes that help orient and assist new students and their families. Social workers from both Memorial Hermann and DePelchin Children’s Center offer crisis intervention and are available to assist students and families in need.  DePelchin Children’s Center's Clinical Social Worker offers individual, group, and family therapy to students and their families.  As Jane Long Middle School prepares its improvement processes for the coming years, it is important that trends in the community and the area served by this school be carefully reviewed and considered. Through an informal survey taken during parent classes, it was learned that the average educational level of our parents is fourth grade.  This factor is one that intimidates our parents in their long-range educational hopes for their children.  Therefore, Long Middle School has worked with Houston Baptist University for eight years in a summer program, which serves as a PreCollege introduction for 30 academically capable students whose families might not be able to afford sending a child to college. One of the first students is now a student at HBU.  In addition to this endeavor, Houston Baptist University has chosen Long to serve as its site for student teachers to do their observations and student teaching.  

Involvement of the parents and community with a school is vital.  To promote this involvement, Long offers classes for parents on weekday evenings.  These classes offer ESL, computer and parenting skills.  Long MS notifies parents and the community of school activities and parent involvement with newsletters each six weeks and our electronic board. Our goal is to have more parents involved with a targeted goal of 60% of students having at least one parent attend a school function or arrange a conference with cluster teachers.  A special education Parent Group meets monthly with the Special Education Department.  In each goal area of our SIP, there are objectives that involve Long’s families.  Parent input on the Shared Decision Making Committee is a major part of goal setting and planning for goals and objectives.

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Goals and Objectives:

          Goal 1:  To increase student achievement

Goal 2:  To improve public support and confidence in schools

            Goal 3:  To increase violence prevention and intervention

 The term “student groups” indicate not only the AEIS subgroups of African-American, Hispanic, White and Economically Disadvantaged but also the student groups designated English Language Learners (Limited English Proficient) and Special Education. 

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·         In this School Improvement Plan our two goal priorities are centered on Language Arts-Across the Curriculum and Building Consistency in Math Instruction.  Strategies learned from staff development  will be used to help students organize and structure learning.

·         Family literacy activities will be scheduled throughout the school year to address content areas in math and reading as well as literacy for parents in technology and ESL. 

·         All grants work together towards improving students’ performance on all TAKS tests. The goals, strategies and activities point out vertical teaming in our core curriculum departments and a school-wide focus on the skills that transfer into all core curriculum areas will be implemented.

·         Tuesday/Thursday Night Live is an initiative being implemented as an avenue that will hold students accountable for incomplete assignments.  In addition, a modified block schedule is implemented to give students a 45 minute study hall to get small group assistance with assignments.

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