About Us

At Midland Elementary School we believe it is our moral imperative to prepare our students to become productive members of our global society. The vision of college readiness has become a living, breathing facet of all that we believe for children, and plays a significant role in our school culture. College readiness is not the expectation that all students will attend college, but instead, it is the belief that we must prepare all students to have a full range of postsecondary education and training options available to them after high school.

The skill set for a successful future looks a lot like the skill set required to gain entrance into college; and at the Elementary School level, this vision translates to working toward ensuring that each student meets and/or exceeds proficiency of grade level standards. Some of the college readiness activities at Midland include, but are not limited to: wearing college clothing every Monday to set the tone for a great week of academic learning; adopting a four-year college and/or university in every classroom on campus; building our “College Knowledge” together as we share interesting and fun facts about the colleges we’ve adopted on our campus; and reciting our college cheers at our Rattlers Rocks! assemblies.

 

Midland Elementary School, home of the Rattlers, is the oldest school in the Poway Unified School District and was established in 1925. We moved into a brand new facility in March, 2006. We serve approximately 624 kindergarten through fifth grade students from the east side of the Poway Unified School District, which is located in northern San Diego County.

 

Our student population is composed of children from richly diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. The socioeconomic diversity of students at Midland ranges from students whose families are on welfare to those whose families own million dollar homes. Approximately 33% of our students qualify for free/reduced lunch, and 36% of our students qualify for Title I support. Our racial/ethnic student population breaks down in the following way: 4% African-American, 5% Asian, 4% Filipino, 29% Hispanic, 53% Caucasian and 5% other. English learners (ELs) comprise roughly 26% of our student population.

There are more than 20 different languages represented on our campus, with Spanish being the most predominant behind English. Our Spanish speaking population has risen steadily over the past few years, and our EL population has more than doubled since 2005. We have made accommodations and modifications in our teaching in order to provide instruction that aligns with our EL students' unique needs, and we have bridged our home-school communication with our Spanish-speaking families through the addition of a bilingual parent liaison.

 

Parents and community members volunteer in classrooms and throughout the school on a daily basis with more than 190 volunteers donating over 9,035 hours last year. Parent representatives are involved in goal and curriculum development. We are fortunate to have two very active and supportive parent  organizations at Midland - our PTA and our Educational Foundation - both of whom offer many opportunities for parents to become involved in fundraising events to support school programs. At Midland we offer a variety of options to assist parents in cultivating a strong home-school partnership. These options include, but are not limited to: before and after school child care; parenting classes; monthly newsletters; and numerous Family Nights centered on academics, cultural diversity, and building community.

Academic achievement for each one of our students is central to Midland’s vision of all students learning. Assessment scores demonstrate that we are making progress toward our vision. From 2004 to 2010 our API increased from 827 to 911. A majority of Midland students are demonstrating proficiency on the California Standards Test in both Math and English/Language Arts. In analyzing data, we also see a positive trend of moving students who performed at the Far Below Basic and Below Basic levels toward the Basic and Proficient levels of understanding. Our emphasis will be to continue to move students toward the Proficient and Advanced levels of achievement.

In 2010, Midland Elementary was recognized as a California Distinguished School for the fourth time. One of the most notable features of our application is the attention we devote to each student through SMART Goal data analysis, and the intensive array of targeted interventions which we implement when a child is struggling to learn. These targeted interventions include, but are not limited to: IMPACT teachers pulling small groups of students to provide targeted support based on formative assessment data; EL support groups; daily Avenues instruction for Beginning and Early Intermediate ELs; OASIS volunteers; cross-age tutors; Primary Intervention Program; and before and after school academic programs.