A long awaited goal has been finally been research

On February 19, Rawlins Middle School received recognition from Solution Tree for its top academic achievements and earned honors as a PLC (Professional Learning Communities) at Work School.

Three weeks ago, Rawlins Middle School completed its application which they have been working on for about a year-and-a-half. They were approved by Solution Tree as a national model PLC school. According to Solution Tree, Rawlins Middle School is one of about 600 schools and districts in the United States and Canada to receive this honor.

Solution Tree and PLC at Work is an educational organization which awards top schools in the nation based on academic success and achievement. Schools around the nation can fill out an application to see if they qualify as a PLC School at https://www.solutiontree.com/our-solutions/overview.

Ryan Searle, Rawlins Middle School principal, said this achievement took six years of dedicated hard work. He said teachers, students and parents worked together to make this great success a reality.

“We have been intentionally working with the Professional Learning Communities at Work process for the last six years,” Searle said. “A lot of our staff members attended conferences and institutes all over the country to gain more knowledge about this work.”

Searle explained what ideals Rawlins Middle School staff had come up with in order to make the school successful in academics.

“Our first big idea is that we want to ensure all students be successful in their current grade and for the next year,” Searle said. “The second big idea is to make sure our teams work collaboratively on assessments forming learning targets and essential standards as well as analyzing the data the students generate as they take those classroom based assessments. This helps teachers decide what to decide next. The last ideal is to focus on results and the most powerful results that we have are the common assessments that our students generated by learning all the contents and to focus on the state assessment which is WY-TOPP (Wyoming Test of Proficiency and Progress).”

Ryan Puckett, fundamental skills and assistant activities director, said he has worked with students to achieve at a high level. He said he has also worked with students’ behavior levels and helped them become better with good attitudes and academics.

“I work on behavior matrix work with staff and students,” Puckett said. “Our goal is to ensure that students are learning at a high level and where they will learn at a high level is with our staff as well as their classroom. We want to make sure they are there but also understand when they have a negative behavior, students can learn from that behavior.”

Puckett explained what he does with student activities and how he works with sponsors along with club coaches to help students learn the important values of education and to teach students how to work with their peers.

“On the active side of things, I help our club sponsors and coaches and all the various things that go along with the active world, and athletic side of things. ” Puckett said. “This award is not about me, Mr. Searle or Miss Waldrip. It is about all of us: the students, staff, coaches, sponsors and the community.”

Puckett said his award is an amazing accomplishment because it does not matter where you are at or what clientele you are working with or how many students and staff you are working with. It’s all about everyone coming together as a group to work for this achievement.

Jacinda Waldrip, assistant principal at Rawlin Middle School, said she has worked in this process for the last six years.

“We have watched this process for the last six years and one of the things we dived into the last couple of years is curriculum instruction and data analyst,” Waldrip said. “I am the person who enjoys analyzing the data and coming forward to staff members on the data. I also love the fact that I am able to work with the TEAR (Trauma Education and Response) process to ensure all our students are learning at a high level whether it be TEAR 1, TEAR 2 or TEAR 3 instruction.”

Waldrip said helping Rawlins Middle school to become a national model PLC school symbolizes the hard work that teachers, staff, students and the community has put in to make it all possible. She said it has been something she and the entire staff had focused on and it paid off.

“It is a huge accomplishment for our community and our school district,” Waldrip said. “I have been here in Rawlins my entire life and working with these staff members and these students shows how much effort we put into this process. It just empowers us all and we are satisfied with what we achieved. “

Caitlin Anderson, an 8th grader at Rawlins Middle School, said she credits the teachers who care so much about helping her make great progress. She said was able to get top grades as a result.

“I have gotten A’s on most tests that I have taken,” Anderson said. “The teachers care so much about how we do. I could get a B and be fine with that but they are not. It is such a great learning environment and everyone is so helpful and it’s a wonderful place to be.”

Bryce Jonhson, 8th grader from Rawlins Middle School, said he appreciates the support he gets from his teachers and peers who help him become successful. He said he is never afraid to ask questions and always gets the help he needs.

“My performance is good and if I do not understand something, I am usually comfortable asking my teacher or other students for help in certain areas they struggle with,” Johnson said. “The instructors here are a big help, especially in math. I had to repeat Algebra and this time I did better.”