Highlights of Exemplary Practices Aligned with the 18 Characteristics of Successful Middle Schools

RESPONSIVE

In an effort to ensure that all students are connected to at least one staff member, all students at J. L. Simpson Middle School participate in an advisory program. These small groups of 10-12 students meet regularly at scheduled times during the school day to focus on PBIS, community building, student engagement in academics and extracurriculars, social-emotional learning, and executive functioning skills.

Our School Leadership Team and Unified Mental Health Team (UMHT) meets as a collective Student Support Team monthly to discuss the diverse needs of our students and to develop and implement interventions based on individual student needs. This team consists of counselors, administrators, our school social worker, student assistance specialist, SPED / English Learner SALTs, cluster attendance officer, and school psychologist. Our family liaison also plays an important role in connecting staff, students, and families. Our Student Support Advisors develop Comprehensive Student Support Plans with representative members from the Student Support Team, appropriate additional staff based on student need, families, and students themselves to develop and engage structured interventions focused on promoting positive behavior and safety for the self and others.

As part of our Student Behavior and Accountability Committee, we have focused more on the use of restorative practices to promote a safe and inclusive environment for our students and help them understand how their behavior affects and impacts others while discouraging harmful actions. We also employ restorative / instructional circles to create a culture of belonging and help build community and connection. Tier 3 responses to student behaviors and safety concerns among students may also include restorative conferencing to provide an opportunity and process for students and families to resolve conflict and repair harm that has occurred. 

CHALLENGING

At JL Simpson Middle School, all students are enrolled in Honors level courses in English, Social Sciences, Science, and Mathematics to ensure that we are challenging each student to achieve at high levels.

Since 2019, our students have participated in our annual school-wide STEAM Day. This is an opportunity for students to participate in hands-on science, engineering, art, and math activities all day. Students engage in eight different stations throughout the day, including coding, robotics, engineering tasks and hearing from guest speakers from a variety of fields. For the past three years, we have partnered with our in-house Amazon Think BIG Space on this event.

We are also committed to fostering the professional growth of our teachers. To achieve this goal, we have implemented various opportunities throughout the school day for teachers to add to their toolboxes. These include, conducting peer walkthroughs and participating in EdCamp events. During the first semester, our focus areas were Student Engagement, Targeted Instruction using Small Groups, and Utilizing Rigor and Questioning Strategies. Teachers wrapped up the semester by conducting peer walkthrough observations based on their chosen focus areas.

ENGAGING

Our Mustang Professional Staff, Students, and Community are aligned to specific JLS Commitments and Core Values:

• Communication and Relationships
• Individual and Collective Accountability
• High Expectations with Heart and Open Doors to Opportunities for All
• Organization and Structure with Flexibility
• Visibility and Presence
• Welcoming, Affirming and Safe Environment for All

We employ the Fundamental 5 by Sean Cain and Mike Laird (Framing The Lesson, The Power Zone, Frequent Small Group Purposeful Talks, Recognize and Reinforce, Critical Writing) as the basis for a platform of instructional guidelines that are integrated into our administrative and peer walkthroughs, as well as our formal and informal teacher evaluation program.

The JLS Student Advisory Planning Team (SAPT) is a student-led committee which seeks to create personalized lessons based on extensive feedback provided by students. The committee meets twice a year as a day-long planning event. Originally a high school program, this team serves as a middle school pilot. The JLS SAPT consists of students who represent our diverse population in the following ways: race/ethnicity, gender, and enrollment in specialized programs, such as special education, English Learners, and Gifted and Talented. Our former students at the high school level took the lead in creating activity slides, moderating discussion, and facilitating team planning for advisory lessons. Through their collaborative efforts, Simpson students created a more personalized, engaging set of advisory lessons to share with the school.

We also work to intentionally engage students and their families throughout the year through student recognition efforts. Students are recognized in quarterly honor roll celebrations and families are invited to these events to celebrate. These celebrations occur during the school day to ensure that all students are able to participate. Each quarter, we also select and recognize students who exemplify HERD (Honorable, Engaged, Respectful, Determined) qualities. These students are recognized in front of their peers and receive HERD signs that are dropped off by staff members to display in their yards.

EMPOWERING

The Empowered Girls Program is dedicated to providing holistic support to Black and Hispanic female students. This affinity group aims to engage students in academic success, positive behavior, leadership opportunities, tools for college and career readiness, networking opportunities with other women and people of color, and a sense of belonging with a group of like-minded individuals.

Since the start of the program, members of Empowered Girls have attained success in several areas. Students have made personal improvements in grades through weekly homework support and by following academic contracts. Some students decreased reported behavioral infractions with sponsor intervention meetings and behavior contracts. Many practiced more self-reflection techniques after lessons from our Unified Mental Health Team. All thrived with leadership opportunities, such as cooking dinner for the community during our Parents as Educational Partners (PEP) nights, welcoming central office staff, parents, and Rising 6th graders at school-based events, and hosting International Night. The students learned more about potential career paths by attending events such as Amazon Girls Tech Day at George Mason University. Overall, our members built a kinship with similar girls who want to improve themselves and the community around them. The 2024-2025 season will bring Empowered Boys to the forefront, with a similar mission and vision in mind as our Empowered Girls team.

Our JLS Principal Student Advisory Committee (PSAC) meets twice quarterly to provide our school leadership team / Instructional Council feedback on our continuous school improvement initiatives from a student perspective. The committee consists of an intentionally diverse array of students in order to ensure that we are obtaining an appropriate variety of feedback concepts from our Mustangs in addition to surveys that are implemented during our advisory time. Our JLS PSAC recently re-aligned a new mission and vision/core values statement set in alignment with our division's OneLCPS initiative.

Grade 7 and 8 students work with our school leadership team and Mustang Professional Staff to create an engaging Stampede Into Simpson event for our Rising 6th graders where they participate in team-building exercises, STEM activities, and focus on developing positive communication and relationships with students and staff in support of a comfortable transition to middle school learning.

Our Grade 7 and 8 National Junior Honor Society members, as well as our high school feeder schools’ Grade 11 and 12 National Honor Society team, maintain a heavily structured, individually focused peer tutoring program in all subject areas as part of the VDOE’s All In Virginia Tutoring initiative. Students are able to receive academic peer support before school, during their resource/study hall time, as well as after school throughout the course of the school year.

EQUITABLE

While we celebrate the incredible diversity of our student and staff population, we are also a very economically diverse school community.  Nearly a third of our students are identified as economically disadvantaged.  For the last six years, we have held a back-to-school event in the community that demonstrates the greatest need for our resources.  During our annual Stampede Into the Community event, our staff and their families prepare and serve hundreds of meals to students and their families and distribute free school supplies.  During this event, we also connect with families to ensure access to their parent and student online accounts. For a second straight year in 2023-2024, we partnered with our feeder elementary school and our high school to increase the amount of support we are able to provide to families in need.

Our JLS Equity Team comprised of Student Equity Ambassadors and two lead teachers collaborate with our Student Council Association, Sources of Strength, Good morning, Mustangs! Morning Announcments crew, and other student groups in the development of monthly celebrations focused on celebrating our Welcoming, Affirming, Inclusive, and Safe Environment for each and every student, staff, and community member associated with Simpson. JL Simpson Middle School also recently earned a No Place for Hate School designation for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025.

Our students are able to participate in a plethora of clubs and organizations that are available to students at no cost both during the day and after school. After-school buses run on club days to ensure that all of our students have transportation to and from these opportunities.

Propel Level Up is a program at Simpson which addresses equity through enrichment for high-achieving students underrepresented in STEM. This program runs for nine weeks during the fall and spring semesters and meets once a week after school. Throughout the program, students are engaged in a curriculum that promotes critical thinking and collaboration.