Maricopa Wells Middle School leaders told the Maricopa Unified School District governing board on Oct. 22 that a renewed focus on English language arts, teacher collaboration and student discourse has produced measurable growth on early benchmarks.

Principal Thad Miller and seventh‑grade teacher Trevor Jenkins described classroom structures and professional learning that they said are driving gains. "Every area on the campus is touched with language arts," Miller said, and he highlighted quarter‑one benchmark growth across sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

Why it matters: School leaders said stronger ELA results support cross‑curricular learning and broader academic goals; the strategies discussed — frequent common formative assessments (CFAs), weekly professional learning team (PLT) meetings and student assessment trackers — are actions the school is using to sustain improvement.

Classroom practices and results
Jenkins, who serves as a PLT leader and district mentor, described routines that emphasize student voice and collaborative discussion. She said her classes use structured roles for small‑group talk, multimedia prompts and evidence‑based discussion strategies. "This is a growth mindset classroom where my scholars feel comfortable making mistakes and persevering through perceived obstacles," Jenkins said.

Jenkins cited performance numbers from her classroom: combining "proficient and highly proficient" results she reported a 76 percent pass rate on state assessments in the prior year and said "96.3 percent of my scholars were either proficient or highly proficient on this first benchmark." She credited consistent classroom structures, student goal‑setting and regular assessment review.

Leadership and next steps
Miller emphasized the administrative role in sustaining data‑driven instruction, including scheduling PLT time for teachers. He said teachers meet every Wednesday at 2:30 p.m. to analyze data and plan instruction. Asked about staff turnover, Miller said turnover was low: "We usually only have a couple teachers. This last year, we had, I think, we had 6 teachers, but out of our 46, that's still a good percentage to me."

Miller and Jenkins said next steps include continuing site professional development, encouraging peer observations and using Jenkins as a model classroom for district teachers seeking best practices.

Board members and other speakers praised the school’s approach and student work shown in a classroom video. The presentation concluded with an appeal from staff to keep building teacher leadership and share successful practices across the district.