Well the 2009-200 school year is behind me and what a year it was. I moved to the sixth grade wing as we moved the children on IEP's into general education classes. Our whole district is moving to the RTI modal. This means that all kids will be taught by content area teachers with the support of special education teachers and educational assistants. I will say that the six grade teachers at my school are some of the best teachers I have ever seen. Their compassion and dedication shows in the success of their students. These teachers have not ever really work with assistant, but they treated us with respect and kindness the entire year. At times they even solicited our opinions and ideas. At my school we level the kids, low middle and high. They all learn from the same curriculum, but at different speeds and depths. Our state test scores in math and reading comprehension showed improvement, as did he scored for reading fluency. Overall this was a good year at my school.

Across town, at another middle school, my son struggled. Although the test score at that school were also up, my son did not meet for the first time in math. He also had a hard time with behaviors. Both schools are using RTI modals and both schools are showing academic growth. My concern is in the way behaviors are handled. At my school we spend a lot of time talking to the kids. We try to save punishment for things that matter. When a child does receive a punishment we move on. I find my son's school overly punitive. He got in a fight and got suspended. OK, I get that. I even supported it because he needed to change his behavior. But that wasn't the end. Because of this one fight he had to miss the end of the year field trip which was four weeks down the line.I feel like he was double punished for I incident and it left him feeling badly about himself. That wasn't the only problem with the sixth grade. There were teacher who didn't understand hi, a 504 plan that wasn't followed and a band teacher with medical problems who missed large chunks of school. Overall I would have to say the sixth grade was not a good year for my son, but it is over now and we are hoping for a better seventh grade.