Three Utah middle schools have been lauded as national "Schools to Watch" for their reform efforts, and one on Wednesday was recognized by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.

The governor addressed students at a celebration at Sunset Ridge Middle School in West Jordan, named one of 129 U.S. "Schools to Watch" by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

The others are Logan's Mount Logan Middle School and Davis District's Syracuse Junior High.

"Everything that we try to do here is centered around what's best for our kids," Sunset Ridge principal Catherine Jensen said. "Although we haven't reached what we feel like is the ideal, we're doing many of the things we think make us a candidate for a national middle school to watch."

The Schools to Watch program began in 1999 to find middle schools that have programs to foster academic excellence, respond to young adolescents' needs, and ensure all students achieve. Schools apply for the honor, then are reviewed by a Utah Schools to Watch team, which included the forum president. Sixteen states were involved in the program as of last spring.

"These Schools to Watch are indeed special; they make education so exciting that students and teachers don't want to miss a day," forum executive director Deborah Kasak said in a prepared statement. "These schools have proven that it is possible to overcome barriers to achieving excellence, and any middle-level school in any state can truly learn from their examples."

Mount Logan keeps students together with the same math, science, English and social studies teachers, helping to build relationships and improve instruction. The school's test scores are improving, and leaders are gathering data to see if extra help classes are successful.

"We're putting out kids to the high school with the basic knowledge and skills they need to have. We're also challenging these kids" in a nurturing way, principal Dave Swenson said.

The school also exposes students to arts, music and technology to better prepare them to make good choices in high school, Swenson said.

Sunset Ridge does the same and has replaced exclusive team sports with activities and intramurals so everyone can play, Jensen said. It also has student-led parent-teacher conferences, where kids present portfolios of work and a self-evaluation to parents, with guidance from the teacher.

The governor encouraged students to "take advantage of all the education opportunities in the school, which obviously are plenty," spokeswoman Lisa Roskelley said.

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