McNair receives annual middle school award
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/News/65184/
McNair Middle School has received the 2008 Shannon Wright Award for demonstrating academic achievement and implementation of middle school practices outlined in Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21 st Century.
The school is scheduled to hold a special student assembly this morning to commemorate the occasion. As part of receiving the award, the school received a banner and a check for $ 3, 000.
First published in 1989 by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, the book outlines eight tenets to follow with regard to middle school education.
Its a middle school book we use to run our school, said Ted Whitehead, McNair assistant principal. We just go by the middle school philosophy. We follow that closely.
Principal Michelle Hayward said the Shannon Wright Committee indicated schools have to submit applications in the fall semester through the Arkansas Association of Middle Level Education. There is a detailed list of information the school has to provide about its academic programs, approach to student discipline, attendance rates and test scores.
Its helped us grow and reflect on what weve done well, Hayward said.
Three schools are selected for site visits and final consideration. From there, the committee selects one school to receive the honor.
McNair received its visit on April 7, she said.
The $ 3, 000 award will be used to enhance an advisory program at the school, Hayward said.
The Shannon Wright Award was created in 1999 and is given to one middle school in Arkansas each year. It is named for a middle school teacher who was killed during the Jonesboro school shootings in 1998.
In addition to the banner and monetary award, the school received a large white teddy bear wearing a shirt with the names of schools that previously have received the award.
Our bear is sitting in our front office, Hayward said. That has followed every school since that award has been given. The teddy bear represents the love (Wright ) had for her students, Hayward said.