Highlights of Exemplary Practices Aligned with the 18 Characteristics of Successful Middle Schools
RESPONSIVE:
Our middle school is intentionally designed to support the developmental needs of young adolescents through strong relationships, responsive structures, and student-centered practices.
Advisory is the heart of our program, supporting students' social-emotional growth. Small groups (5th/6th and 7th/8th) meet twice a week, allowing advisors to know each child well and build relationships.
Faculty incorporate resources from Win at Social, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and The Contentment Foundation to support emotional regulation and identity development.
The schedule balances academic rigor with movement and voice. Students rotate classes, have set snack, recess, and tutorial times, and choose electives and clubs each trimester.
Teachers use inquiry, discussion, and choice-driven tasks, including Kagan Cooperative Learning, inquiry projects, flexible seating, brain breaks, and popsicle sticks to ensure equal participation.
Opportunities for leadership and student agency include:
NJHS, Warrior Advisory Council, Community Service Days, 5th Grade Exhibition, 8th Grade Community Service Project, and partnerships with Feeding Tampa Bay.
Formative assessments provide individualized feedback and retake opportunities; summatives use IB criterion-based rubrics. Missing work is completed under the teacher's supervision with family communication.
Ongoing communication with families and collaboration with support staff help ensure decisions reflect students’ backgrounds, strengths, and needs.
Our school sends out Weekly Newsletters to Families that include upcoming school-wide and grade-level events, assessments, and conversation starters.
Together, these practices ensure that Corbett Prep’s middle school is intentionally designed around the developmental characteristics, identities, and voices of young adolescents, creating a responsive environment that supports their academic success and personal growth.
CHALLENGING:
Corbett Prep’s middle school maintains rigorous academic standards that challenge students to think critically, problem-solve, and apply learning in meaningful ways across disciplines. Follow IB standards and practices as well as a combination of Common Core and State Standards. Teachers design lessons that promote inquiry, analysis, and reflection, encouraging students to move beyond surface-level understanding and engage in deeper learning. Planning is purposeful and collaborative with the MYP coordinator and department/grade-level teams, following expectations for IB unit planning.
Faculty consistently emphasize effort, perseverance, and reflection, helping students view challenges as opportunities for growth and improvement. Reflection and goal setting throughout the year within subject areas and advisory, student-led conferences.
Instruction is intentionally differentiated to meet a range of readiness levels, ensuring all students are appropriately challenged while receiving the support they need to succeed. Lessons, assessments, and units are differentiated to meet the needs of all learners. Students with academic plans receive accommodations and, in some instances, modifications to meet the needs of each learner.
Formative and summative assessments are used to set goals, monitor progress, and provide timely feedback that pushes students toward higher levels of achievement. Formative assessments provide individualized feedback and retake opportunities; summatives use IB criterion-based rubrics. Missing work is completed under the teacher's supervision with family communication.
Teachers engage in continuous professional development and collaborative planning to refine instructional practices and uphold high expectations for teaching and learning. Collaborative planning through weekly grade level, department meetings, and individual meetings with the IB coordinator. Weekly full faculty in-service on Tuesday afternoons on a variety of PD topics. Currently, all faculty are enrolled in a Northwestern Gifted course.
Students are expected to take responsibility for their learning, manage assignments, and reflect on their progress, fostering independence and academic confidence. Daily tutorial time is built into the schedule for students to meet with teachers and/or complete assignments, as well as bi-weekly executive functioning lessons.
Through these practices, Corbett Prep’s middle school creates a culture of challenge and excellence where all members of the school community are supported and expected to grow as learners and leaders.
EMPOWERING:
Middle school students regularly set academic and personal goals, reflect on feedback, and revise their work, reinforcing ownership of learning and growth over time. All formative assessments are given specific feedback, and students are required to retake them for mastery.
Teachers intentionally build in student choice within assignments, projects, and texts, allowing students to pursue interests, demonstrate understanding in varied ways, and take increasing responsibility for outcomes. Student agency as reflected in IB philosophy is at the heart of what we do. Whenever possible, students are given a choice in product outcomes, text choice within units of study, and elective and club options.
Students are encouraged to ask questions, design investigations, and seek solutions to real-world and interdisciplinary problems, fostering independence and intellectual curiosity. At least one unit per grade level is interdisciplinary in nature. The curriculum is written in an inquiry-based format. All design projects work through the design cycle. All units incorporate factual, conceptual, and debatable questions.
Middle school students participate in leadership roles, service-learning experiences, and community initiatives that emphasize responsibility, collaboration, and ethical action.
Opportunities include NJHS, Warrior Advisory Council, Community Service Days, 5th Grade Exhibition, 8th Grade Community Service Project, and partnerships with Feeding Tampa Bay.
Advisory periods provide space for students to develop self-management skills, advocate for themselves, and engage in conversations about identity, decision-making, and responsibility. Advisory is the heart of our program, supporting students' social-emotional growth. Small groups (5th/6th and 7th/8th) meet twice a week, allowing advisors to know each child well and build relationships.
Faculty incorporate resources from Win at Social, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, and The Contentment Foundation to support emotional regulation and identity development.
Collaborative learning environments: Students work in teams to problem-solve, give and receive peer feedback, and contribute meaningfully to group success, building accountability to themselves and others. Kagan Cooperative Learning, inquiry projects, flexible seating, brain breaks, and popsicle sticks to ensure equal participation.
Learning is connected to real-world contexts, encouraging students to see themselves as capable contributors who can apply skills and knowledge to impact their school and broader community positively. All units of study are tied to an IB Global Context, with many units having a service as an action component.
These practices intentionally empower Corbett Prep middle school students to take increasing ownership of their learning while developing the confidence, agency, and sense of responsibility needed to contribute thoughtfully and positively to the world around them.