Atascocita Middle School
Principal: Karl Koehler
A+ Coach: Dave Weldon
975 Students, Grades 6-8
| Economically Disadvantaged | 26% |
| Limited English Proficient | 4% |
| Mobility (2008-09) | 9% |
| African-American | 20% |
| Hispanic | 25% |
| All other | 55% |
A+ Scholars Campout
Click the image above to view video
Atascocita News
Every student at AMS now has a personal adult advocate who monitors and coaches both their academic and social development, after the principal restructured his leadership team to take on these additional responsibilities.
What We've Accomplished
- All of the AMS reading teachers have embraced the A+ approach to literacy and restructured their classrooms as readers/writers workshops, allowing greater differentiation for readers of various ability levels.
- For the first time, department teams are planning units and lessons collaboratively using “backward design” – starting with the end student learning goal in mind – a strategy that the principal introduced and the A+ Coach has helped to implement and accelerate.
- The principal has dramatically reconfigured the responsibilities of his leadership team, so that the performance coach model and focus on student instruction will remain long after A+ leaves the school.
What We've Learned
- A mid-year staffing change of the A+ Performance Coach was disruptive to traction with teachers and students at AMS, and likely had a negative impact on the school’s ability to reach higher performance targets.
- At a traditionally “good” school, the sense of urgency is sometimes lacking to move teaching and student performance to “great.” Timely, strategic attention to formative data can hold the key.
- Acknowledging the need to build capacity in the mathematics department, the principal has been invaluable in setting accountability and collaboration expectations, and providing.
Like many campuses in Humble ISD, this traditionally suburban campus’ economically disadvantaged and at-risk populations have been expanding as Houston’s urban core continues to sprawl.
This provides an opportunity for Humble and A+ to explore ways to ensure that teachers and campus leaders sustain their expectations for post-secondary success of all students.
First-time principal Karl Koehler was tapped to take the helm at AMS in January 2010, after spending just six months in Houston A+ Challenge’s leadership academy for aspiring principals.
A+ leadership coaches are continuing to provide assistance to Koehler and his leadership team, as the A+ performance coach works with teachers in both literacy and numeracy.
Atascocita Middle School Results
| Reading | Math | |
| Number of A+ Scholars | 147 | 147 |
| Number of A+ scholars scoring Commended (2009-2010) | 25 | 12 |
| Number of A+ scholars scoring Commended (2010-2011) | 37 | 14 |
| Number of A+ scholars missing Commended by 1 or 2 questions | 37 | 13 |
| Number of A+ scholars missing Commended by 3 or 4 questions | 12 | 9 |
| A+ Commended goal at end of Year 2 (2011-2012) | 58 | 58 |
Click here for year one results
