Turning a school around

Granite Park Middle School is clean, quiet and orderly, but classrooms buzz with activity — even on Saturdays.

Kids, however, aren't showing up on their own time to serve detention, or to goof off with pals, principal Robert McDaniel says.

They're coming because they need basic math skills and reading help. Because the school expects them to succeed. Because they want to be there.

Not bad for a school McDaniel says some used to label "Ghetto Park."

"You're not going to find a school more energized, more enthused, or where kids love school more than at Granite Park," McDaniel recently told the Granite Board of Education.

The 580-student, seventh- and eighth-grade school, 3031 S. 200 East, for the past few years has impressed Utah middle-level school experts.

"He has done an amazing job there," Lori Gardner, principal of Hunter Junior High and president of the Utah Middle Level Association, said of McDaniel. "Incredible things are happening one teacher at a time, one building principal at a time . . . in the state of Utah."

Middle-level education drew public focus in the late 1990s. Utah State University started offering a middle-level teaching endorsement. The state set up a middle-level task force. And lawmakers gave millions of dollars to help schools ease the transition from elementary school, reduce class size and set up alternative middle schools where students could get academic help and work their way back to regular classrooms.

The movement fell off the public radar as other projects, such as making sure all students could read by third grade, came on the scene.

But middle schools kept plugging at reforms, experts say, citing bright spots in Utah County districts and others.

All 16 Granite junior highs are implementing some reforms, said Christine Huley, district associate director of professional learning.

And Jordan District is in the midst of a reform pilot project, which started three years ago at South Hills and is expected to be duplicated elsewhere.

Granite Park's efforts, however, are unique for big school districts with crowded secondary schools. They're aided by grants and a new configuration.