Urbana Middle School
Urbana Middle School, the only middle school in District #116, serves 1025 students in grades six through eight. The student population is currently represented by five racial groups in the following percentages:White, 67.5 %; African American, 23.8 %; Hispanic, 1.6%; Asian, 6.9% and Native American, 0.1%. A total of 33.7% of the students are low income and 2.7% are Limited-English-Proficient. Seventeen per cent of the students receive Special Education services and 24% are labeled as gifted in at least one area. Special education and gifted students are taught in the least restrictive environment available. Most students spend most of their day in regular classes with occasional pull-out. Special education teachers and aids work with regular teachers to offer curriculum modifications and other support to best meet the need of the students in the regular education classroom. UMS offers a wide variety of co-curricular programs and encourages every student to become involved in these activities. Scores from the Illinois Goal Assessment Program (IGAP) determined that at the eighth grade level 68% of students meet or exceed the state goals for Reading, 87% for Mathematics,and 84% in Writing.
Students and teachers are organized into smaller units called teams. A team of teachers at the eighth grade level consists of a science, math, English, social studies,reading/families (each one semester), and a special education teacher. All of the teachers on the team have the same group of students. Although all teams are balanced according to ethnicity, gender, and academic performance, each team has one special population such as Title 1, LD, BD, ESL and Cross Categorical with the appropriate special education teacher serving as that resource teacher on team.
Teams have block scheduling during their students on-team time which allows the team to rotate classes and to vary the length of the class. The time allotted for each class varies from week to week and with the individual team's plan. Common schedules include the 40 minute class, the 60 minute class and the 80 minute class. Off team, elective classes such as foreign language, PE, music have 40 minute classes every day.