Our School

Dear Alice Ott Student, Parent/Guardian:

While the snow days were more than anticipated, we want to say thank you for a great first half of the year. We continue to be proud of the efforts of our students and families to make Alice Ott a great school. Please remember it is our desire to involve students’ families as partners in their child’s education. We believe this increases academic achievement and creates a better atmosphere for learning and development of each student.

Our theme this year is “Make It Happen.” We believe in the potential for all students to succeed and our goal is to help them learn the value of hard work and strive to make their dreams happen.

Some key academic highlights for the past few years include:

During the 2015-16 school year, Alice Ott continued to succeed academically. While we will not receive an overall school rating from the Oregon Department of Education this year due to the second year of a new state test and changes to the state report card, our school continues to outperform state averages and far outperform other middle schools with similar demographics.

We were selected by the Oregon Department of Education as a National Distinguished Title I School. There were only two schools that received this honor in the State of Oregon that year. (2014-2015)

We are the only middle school in the State of Oregon to get the “Model” school label for four consecutive years (2012-2015). The state is not labeling any schools this year due to changes in their rating infrastructure.

We were selected by NASSP/MetLife as a National Breakthrough School. There were only nine schools selected in the nation. (2013-2014)

Our attendance is over 95%, which exceeds state standards. Our school-wide chronic absenteeism is under 8%, which is outstanding and far outperforms most middle schools in the state. (2015-16)

Here are some of the things you will notice at Alice Ott this year:

We are now offering a second math class for high school credit at Alice Ott. In addition to offering high school algebra, we have added high school geometry as an opportunity to earn high school credit.

We will be in our second year utilizing 3D printers at AOMS. Students will get the opportunity to design projects in our computer and project based learning classes.

We will be working to implement our new school improvement plan with focus on best practices in assessments, improving our College Day, and developing our STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiatives.

Key Date Changes:

March 1^st and 2^nd are now full student days with “Drop-In” Conferences in the evening both nights.

April 7^th is now a full student day (B day), rather than a teacher work day.

May 12^th is now a full student day, rather than a half grading day.

Sincerely,

James Johnston

Principal

Alice Ott Middle School