Helping Students Excel at Middle School 216Q

MS 216Q continues to make considerable strides in advancing student performance. In 2009, it outperformed 97.3% of middle schools citywide in percentage of students being proficient in ELA. After achieving an “A” in Student Progress from the New York City Dept. of Education in its 2008 Progress Report, MS216Q expanded on its success in 2009 by scoring another “A” and moving many of its ELA level 3 achievers into level 4. 

Working in Partnership with Teaching Matters since 2007, Principal Reginald Landeau implemented Writing Matters, Teaching Matters’ digital age writing program and Voices & Choices, Teaching Matters’ participatory social studies program. The highly favorable results from 2007 prompted him to expand use of Writing Matters to all of the school’s grade levels ever since. The 2009 study conducted by EDC's Center for Children and Technology showed significant gains in writing ability between struggling students at 216Q enrolled in Teaching Matters' writing program as compared to a peer group of students enrolled at a similar school.

 Teaching Matters’ comprehensive programs and effective professional development have provided our school a critical baseline for advancing our ELA instruction in ways that promote children’s writing and critical thinking skills. Furthermore, we saw significant improvement in the performance of the students who struggled most.

- Reginald Landeau, MS 216Q George J. Ryan