Channing Hall 8th Graders Score 100%

In 2010, the Utah State Office of Education moved the Direct Writing Assessment requirement from the 9^th grade to the 8^th grade.  For the 2^nd year in a row (which are the only two years the school has given the exam to 8^th graders), Channing Hall’s 8^th grade students have scored 100% proficiency on Utah’s Direct Writing Assessment (DWA). To put that in some context, only three other Utah schools earned a perfect score in 2011. The state average is 81% proficiency. 

The academic achievements shown in the middle school’s consistently high test scores confirms the success of the program, but high test scores only demonstrate a part of Channing Hall MYP’s accomplishments .  The true success of the program is seen through the development of the student’s character, otherwise known as the Learner Profile.   It is what makes an education in the MYP a truly individual and unique experience.

The IB Learner Profile is the mold we use to craft lifelong, internationally minded learners who reflect a desire to affect an ethical impact on the greater community with positive ideas and interactions.  We shape the students with this framework according to the principles the IB learner strives to exemplify.  We demand that our students take risks, communicate, and keep an open mind to various ideas.  We push them to explore their knowledge, inquire, and think critically about a varied array of concepts and ideas.  We drive the students to be principled, caring, and balanced in their thoughts and actions while reflecting on their successes and struggles.  Students cast in this mold are tempered and patterned as a whole person with emphasized intellectual, personal, emotional, and social competencies that will serve them as lifelong, internationally minded learners and leaders.

Channing Hall’s MYP program actively prepares students for a lifetime of writing success.  The “Communicator” piece of the IB Learner Profile demands that students “understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively, in more than one language, and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.” 

Lindsay Allen next to her "wall of the IB Learner profile"

Lindsay Allen, the 7^th and 8^th Grade English who has been with Channing Hall since it opened seven years ago, explains her success. “Being an educator at Channing Hall is such a rewarding experience; I don’t just teach students core material to prepare them for a test, I instill in them the skills and confidence needed to be successful in life.  At the heart of a student’s confidence is his or her ability to express themselves in a self-assured and eloquent manner.  This is done through a mastery of fundamental skills in a variety of approaches, methods, and even in other classes (students often write essays in History, Science, and occasionally Math).  I’m able to have the flexibility and freedom to truly allow my students to experience what I teach.  For example, each spring I take the 8^th graders on an ‘Etiquette Fieldtrip’, which after over a month of studying table manners, handshaking skills, interview skills, and proper etiquette for formal situations, we go downtown to watch a ballet performance at the Capitol Theater, tour the Utah Museum of Fine Art, and attend a catered luncheon and awards ceremony in a ballroom at the Radisson Hotel.  It is my belief that if a student is able to first learn the importance and purpose of the material being taught, and then able to connect the material to other subjects, to their own life, and to the real world, the material becomes ingrained and meaningful.  Test scores validate the hard work that has been put in each year, but my greatest reward is seeing my students, year after year, graduate from Channing Hall as kind and compassionate adolescents, who hold their heads high knowing that they feel prepared to succeed in the next chapter of their lives.”     

A recent College Board study found that “people who cannot write and communicate clearly will not be hired and are not likely to be considered for promotion.”[1] Thanks to Mrs. Allen and the rest of the Channing Hall faculty, our students are graduating as confident Communicators ready for continued academic and professional success.

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[1] Survey of 120 major American corporations, employing nearly 8 million people, cited by The College Board’s “National Commission on Writing: Writing: A Ticket to Work…Or A Ticket Out”