DSST: Montview Middle School (2115)
2000 VALENTIA STREET
DENVER, CO 80238
Charter School.
459
Total Students Served
Grade 6 - Grade 8
School District:
Denver County 1 (0880)
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School Profile
About DSST: Montview Middle School (2115)
A MESSAGE FROM:
DSST: Montview Middle School
2023-2024
Located in Denver's Central Park neighborhood at 2000 Valentia Street, DSST: Montview Middle School serves grades 6-8. Close, caring relationships are at the heart of our approach, and our school culture intentionally fosters strong relationships. We prepare students for college, with an emphasis on developing students through liberal arts learning (reading, writing, mathematics, science, and the arts). Students succeed through classroom environments that are structured for success with clear ac…
ademic and behavioral expectations, and flourish in our many extracurricular activities and athletic programs. Ultimately our goal is to ensure that our students are prepared for college, career, and life. PARTNER PROGRAMS We partner with Relay for our apprentice teacher partnership. In this program, teachers receive a robust, two-year development program. In the first year, Apprentice Teachers will work towards earning state certification in secondary education. In the second year, the Apprentice will transition into a full-time classroom role and will complete coursework to fulfill a Master of Arts in Teaching. OUR PROGRAM Each year, students take a base of core classes, which include a reading, math, science, writing, and a social studies/ELD course. Additionally, students have the opportunity to take electives each year. Currently, we offer a wide variety of electives. Examples include studio art, drama, creative engineering, and physical education. We believe that by holding our students to a high standard, and through offering them high support, they will thrive academically. Our small school setting allows teachers and students to develop and nurture close relationships to create an inclusive, strong community and a culture where every student is valued for who they are and their successes. Our advisory program is one of the highlights of our school community and allows small groups of students to forge great relationships with their classmates and with their advisor. We find these further enhance students' connection to our school community. DSST: Montview MS also seeks to involve parents and stakeholders through school communication and opportunities for feedback. CURRICULUM We are continuing to use the Achievement First math curriculum, which is Common Core aligned and works to support student success on CMAS and other internal benchmarks. We have differentiated classes in 6th and 7th grade, and there is an honors math track that opens in 8th grade and ends at Calc II in high school. Our math curriculum is very application-heavy, and there are multiple problem solving tasks that are designed to require multiple steps and the choice and use of multiple skills. Our ELA curriculum has moved to Reading Reconsidered for the last several years, which is also Common Core aligned. The non-fiction texts are used to supplement fiction texts to provide background and depth of understanding for students. Our readers focus first on fluency and comprehension, then on the author's craft and intentional decisions made that contribute to meaning, tone, and other text features. There is a heavy emphasis on different modes of reading including read aloud, shared reading, and independent reading that allows students to develop their fluency in a variety of ways. Ultimately our main focus is on deep textual analysis of rigorous text teaching students how to unpack difficult yet rich material that encourages them not only to understand but to argue with the text as well. Writing is incorporated in these units with much reliance on literary analysis and argumentative writing. For ELD classes, we utilize the Nat Geo curriculum to provide students with targeted skills related to phonics and grammar intended to increase their English proficiency. These independent classes for our least developed English speakers have been really helpful and targeted in how we approach language acquisition for them. Additionally, we utilize a co-taught model in our Social Studies classes that allows emerging and nearly excited English Language Learners to develop language skills in the context of the history classes being taken by the majority of our students. ASSESSMENTS: Students engage in both state testing and network-created tests. At the network level, students take interim assessments in each of their core content areas three times a year. Specifically students in English and Math take the ANet assessments. At the state level, students take both the ELA and Math CMAS test each spring at each grade level. In addition, students take iReady in the fall, winter, and spring, ELLs take the required ACCESS test, and lastly, we administer the GT and NNAT tests. SPORTS & ACTIVITIES DSST is committed to educating our students holistically through a strong academic program, along with numerous opportunities to engage in after-school programming, including sports and clubs. We host a variety of clubs for students including Cooking Club, Video Game Creation Club, Gender/Sexuality Alliance, Yearbook Club, Dungeons & Dragons Club, to name a few. Clubs are a fun and exciting way for students to connect with one another and build a quality sense of community. In a typical year, our athletics program fosters participation and enjoyment of interscholastic team competition, as well as non-competitive fitness activities. The program emphasizes high level skill and strategies, teamwork, good sportsmanship, school spirit, character building and fun. The goal is to provide each student with a sense of affiliation, motivation, and accomplishment by balancing a challenging experience with support and encouragement. We currently offer Boy's and Girl's Soccer, Girl's Volleyball, Boy's and Girl's Basketball, and Co-Ed Flag Football. Students also have the opportunity to participate in after school clubs. After school clubs reflect student interests and provide the opportunity to foster passions outside of the classroom. The athletic and extracurricular club programs are an integral part of DSST's curriculum and emphasize living the school's Core Values. Other key features of the DSST program include: Enrollment : Any Denver metro area student may apply for the lottery admissions process. Technology : One-to-one laptop computer program supports instruction in a wireless environment. Access to this allowed 100% of our students to access daily online earning as they were also assisted with wifi hotspots as needed. Community : A commitment to six Core Values creates a school culture that fosters academic and personal success. Two days a week, all students and staff come together for a twenty-minute Morning Meeting to start the day. Morning Meetings are led by a staff member or student and most often center on a Core Value, celebrate our college-going culture, highlight student activities and events, or build culture and community through stories or games. Advisory : Each student is known, cared for, and held accountable for community participation and contributions, academic effort, and achievement through the advisory program. Faculty and staff are responsible for an advisory group of 15 to 16 students, and advisors meet with their advisees twice per week. The advisor also serves as the primary locus for the parent-school relationship.
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