Bringing Educational Innovations to Middle School

Doing things the way they’ve always been done is not Kim Campbell’s style. She prefers to rethink traditional approaches to education, foster a supportive environment, and empower teachers and students to help address serious challenges in her school and the education field, including retention and equity.

The author, speaker, middle-level teacher, and dean of students at Hopkins West Middle School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, recently sat down with NAESP for a Leadership Conversation hosted by Adam Welcome, “A Middle-Level Perspective on Homework, Student Empowerment, and Prioritizing Well-Being.” She shared several tips for middle-level educators.

Eliminating Homework

Campbell was intrigued after seeing many schools limit or eliminate homework. Encouraged by the district superintendent to pilot new strategies in school, she read Rethinking Homework by Cathy Vatterott, and her entire philosophy changed.

“I eliminated homework and instead gave a formative assessment every single day,” Campbell said. But she wondered: “Would my kids who thrive in traditional education still be getting great grades? And those who did not thrive—how would they do?”

Following the data closely, Campbell found that the elimination of homework in her classes had no impact on achievement among the kids who were already doing well, and it helped those who had been struggling improve.

While few parents sit down with their children to make sure they do their homework, she noted, they can still be reluctant to tinker with the system. “So many parents went through traditional schools where homework equaled rigor,” Campbell said. “If districts are looking at eliminating homework, they have to bring the community along, or you’re going to get tons and tons of pushback.”

Much depends upon what the high schools in a district are doing. “We can’t take away everything so that when they hit high school, they’re just getting inundated with homework,” Campbell said. “It is a huge community conversation we need to have. If you haven’t had a conversation about this with your grade level or department, or with your district and your community, have a conversation.”

10 Tips

Many of Campbell’s tips focused on school culture and its effect on job satisfaction and teacher retention. Her top 10 are:

1. Rethink homework. Consider the purpose of homework and its impact on student learning. Implement formative assessments daily, involving the community in the process.

2. Empower teachers. Foster a culture in which teachers can effectively teach and students can thrive. Provide support and tools to enhance teaching practices.

3. Encourage work-life balance.
Administrators and teachers should establish personal boundaries to prevent burnout—avoiding emails after 5 p.m., for example. Delegation is key to sustaining programs and maintaining well-being. “We as administrators and educators and teachers can be inundated constantly,” Campbell said. “We’re trying to remind ourselves that this is a job—it’s not your life.”

4. Prioritize mental health. Normalize the use of mental health days and delegation. Creating a supportive environment for staff contributes to retention and job satisfaction. “It’s OK to take a mental health day,” Campbell said. “It’s OK to take a breath. When you’re happy and healthy outside of your work, you’re going to be happier and healthier for the people you get to work with every single day.”

5. Promote student empowerment. Shift from focusing solely on engagement to empower students by giving them choice and voice in learning. Incorporate project- and inquiry-based learning to foster ownership. “We’re still working within our standards, but allowing kids to have choice in how they are going to show us what they know, whether that’s a podcast, a TED Talk, [or] building something,” Campbell said.

6. Encourage critical thinking.
Pose complex questions that go beyond the answers provided by technologies such as Alexa to prepare students for future jobs.

7. Develop leadership capacity. Use inclusive practices such as mentoring groups to amplify diverse voices and encourage innovation. Embrace failure as a steppingstone to growth. “We use a lot of circles and try to hear the voice of everyone in that circle,” Campbell said. “That alone builds capacity” for young teachers.

8. Foster a fun environment. Incorporate activities such as T-Shirt Tuesday and other traditions into the school community to boost morale and camaraderie among staff and create a positive, enjoyable team culture. “When teachers and staff enjoy each other and enjoy what they’re doing, they’ll stay in the business longer,” Campbell said. “A happy employee is going to be more invested and work harder and have more passion for the organization.”

9. Promote communication and community-building. Establish clear frameworks and resources such as a “things to know” guide to support new and existing staff. Strengthening the school community is vital to retaining teachers. “The stronger we are as a community, the better we are for students,” Campbell said.

10. Address midyear teacher attrition. Take proactive steps to strengthen the school community and support teachers throughout the year to mitigate midyear attrition. Continuously assess and improve retention strategies.