Norton Middle School

As an active member of the National Middle School Association and the Southeast Middle School Alliance, the Norton Middle School's mission is directly aligned with the eight principles for middle school education as outlined in "Turning Points", a national study on the education of early adolescents:

School should be a place where close, trusting relationships with adults and peers create a climate for personal growth and intellectual development. This is accomplished by:

• Creating smaller learning environments or clusters
• Forming teachers and students into teams
• Assigning an adult advisor to each student

Every student in the middle grades should learn to think critically through mastery of an appropriate body of knowledge, lead a healthy life, behave ethically, and assume the responsibilities of citizenship in a pluralistic society. This is accomplished by:

• Teaching young adolescents to think critically
• Teaching young adolescents to develop healthful lifestyles
• Teaching young adolescents to be active citizens
• Integrating subject matter across disciplines
• Teaching students to learn successfully

Decisions concerning the experiences of middle grade students should be made by the adults who know them best. This is accomplished by:

• Establishing building governance structures where decision-making is shared
• Designating leaders for the teaching process

Young adolescents must be healthy in order to learn. This is accomplished by:

• Ensuring student access to health services
• Establishing the school as a health-promoting environment

School and community organizations should share responsibility for each middle grade student's success. This is accomplished by:

• Placing students in youth services
• Ensuring student access to health and social services
• Community organizations supporting the middle grade education program
• Community organizations augmenting resources for teachers and students
• Expanding career guidance for students