Revere Middle School has been selected to participate in the Middle School Matters Institute, a program launched in February 2011 as part of the Bush Institute’s Education Reform Initiative in partnership with the University of Texas at Austin’s Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk.

“When we found out that we were selected, and that we were the only school in HISD that was selected, we were ecstatic,” Revere MS Principal Hafedh Azaiez said. “We look forward to sharing in the experience and gaining insights and support to continue to move Revere forward and to represent HISD positively.”

The Middle School Matters Institute helps students in grades 6 – 8 gain skills they need to succeed in high school and beyond.

“Our goal is to deliver the knowledge and support these schools need to ensure their students have the academic foundation to stay in school, improve their academic performance and put themselves on that path to success,” said Kerry Briggs, director of Education Reform at the Bush Institute.

Revere MS will receive targeted support by participating in the first annual Middle School Matters Institute Summer Conference in Austin in June. School leadership teams will attend development sessions with researchers and practitioners. The guidance will help the school develop a Middle School Matters Implementation Plan tailored to its strengths and areas of growth.

“We completed the online application to the Middle School Matters Institute because at Revere we are always looking for ways to help support and expand our programs by ensuring there is rigor in every classroom, every day,” Azaiez said. “Knowing the challenges that middle school students face and how essential this time period is in a student’s school journey, we want to participate in Middle School Matters to help support and expand the current math and writing instruction, as well as the interventions we are doing on campus. We also want to incorporate and enhance rigor into all our classrooms by incorporating best practices that support advanced reasoning across the curriculum.”

Forty-four schools across the United States applied to participate in the program and only eight were chosen – seven of which are in Texas.