MESSAGE FROM THE PRINCIPAL Welcome to North Hall Middle School and the 2009-2010 school year. GEORGIA PERFORMANCE STANDARDS (GPS) The new strengthened curriculum will drive both instruction and assessment in Georgia's schools, providing guidelines for teachers, students and test makers. These standards are based on best practices that have been proven to be effective in high-performing states and nations. Statewide assessments have been aligned with the GPS. The GPS has replaced the old Quality Core Curriculum (QCC). The GPS are fewer in number, yet deeper in content. Under the GPS, each course is rolled out over two years.

Dr. Brad Brown, Principal

The first year was spent helping teachers become comfortable with the new content. In the second year of roll out, the students were taught and tested on the GPS curriculum. Middle school teachers of 6th-8th grade language arts, 6th grade math, and 6th & 7th grade science learned the standards during 2004-2005 and implemented them in their classrooms in 2005-2006.

Full implementation of all subjects was completed in 2008-2009. A complete timeline K-12 is available at

http://public.doe.k12.ga.us

To assist in this learning process, Hall County administrators and specially trained teacher leaders have received guidance to facilitate learning at each local school. Educators learned how to "unwrap" the standards, create assessments to measure student understanding of the standards, develop scoring guides for the assessments, design lessons to teach the standards and examine the resulting student work. The process encourages continuous improvement of instruction based on higher quality work. The intent is to expect more rigorous student work with a greater percentage of students achieving proficiency on each standard.

HIGHLY QUALIFIED TEACHERS

We are committed to continually seeking to improve instruction for students. We hope that as a parent, you will become involved in our school improvement initiatives as we continue to monitor student achievement and set high expectations. We encourage you to get to know your child's teacher and the class routines and expectations. We are proud of the professional credentials of our teaching staff and will furnish to you, upon request, the professional qualifications of your student's classroom teacher. This includes information concerning grade levels and subject areas in which the teacher is certified, the major fields and degrees held by the teacher, and the qualifications of any paraprofessional who provides services to your child.

SCHOOL LEADERSHIP TEAM

North Hall Middle School faculty and staff are represented by a school leadership team (SLT). This team meets weekly to discuss school business, including day-to-day operations, school improvement efforts and long-range planning. In addition to three administrators, grade/department representatives serving a two-year term are:

• Media Specialist - Ginny Sapp
• Connections - Leah Herrin
• Special Services - Patsy Cathcart
• 8th - Sharon Johns
• 7th grade - Laura Stephens
• 6th grade - Lynn Haynes
• Counseling - Sandy Armour
• Instructional Coordinator - Kristin Finley
• Building Services Supervisor- Jacob Mote