Alexandra Martorano 1

Zionsville West Middle School

Zionsville West Middle School Analysis

Looking back at middle school is always something that may be defined as
entertaining. One may often find pictures of phases that were gone through,
thoughts of crushes, remembrance of jokes that were once thought to be
hilarious, and many more embarrassing aspects of growing up which all seem to
take place within the middle school timeframe. Overall, its a time of awkward
phases and cringe-worthy memories. With this being said, it continues to seem
necessary for each person to go through this; its a form of discovering whom you
are. Through this transformation of finding oneself, it is important that the school
that is attended is supportive of each individual and provides a place that
students feel comfortable to express themselves. Zionsville West Middle School
provides their students with this sense of importance behind being true to oneself
as well as teaches them the value in community.
Zionsville West Middle School is located within the Zionsville Community
Schools district and caters to grades fifth to eighth as well as preschool. This
district is located roughly twenty-five to thirty minutes away from Butler University.
Due to this close proximity, I was able to visit Zionsville West Middle School last
year for an observation.
Zionsville West may be defined as a school that provides a sense of home
to each and every one of its students. Being within the walls of this middle school
and listening in on some of the lessons throughout different classrooms gave me
an insight to what they provide their students with academically as well as
emotionally. The love that the students are presented with it unimaginable, it is
beyond anything I have witnessed. This is shown through the individual
involvement that is carried between each student and their teacher. Each class
that I was able to observe, I witnessed a variety of things that contributed to the
idea of personal involvement. These were presented through the act of checking
up on students incorporated into the teachers daily morning routines, the
majority of them seemed to begin the morning asking students their thoughts on
the day so far. Many of them proceeded to explain that they often ended the day
with the same question, asking if any of the students had changed their outlook
on the day and if so, why? This allowed students to express themselves freely to
the teacher and allow some sort of insight to their lives simply in how their days
were going. The lessons that were presented contained many aspects in which
students related them back to themselves as well as previous lessons that were
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learned. It stemmed from prior knowledge; building upon the basics and working
up to the advanced topics helped the students understand each part of the
lessons through a deeper meaning. Throughout this short interaction I was given
the opportunity to experience, many things were revealed about the school as a
whole in its care for each individuals academics and emotional state.
The mission statement of a school tells a lot about its values. The district of
Zionsville Community Schools choose to focus on student growth. Zionsville
Community Schools provide customized 21st century experiences that ensure
maximum student growth leading to productive citizenship in the world
community. Service and giving back are two fundamentals that are important to
incorporate within the lives of every person. Zionsville school systems are sure to
push their students to be the best that they can be, for not only themselves, but
others as well. It is important for children to understand that one cannot truly help
themselves without helping others, but also that every action taken does not
require some sort of self-gain. Giving back to the community is not about how
can I help myself, but how can I help the people who deserve more than what is
given. Within this school system students are provided with the idea that
happiness may be achieved through selflessly helping others. Not only is this
embedded with these school systems to teach the students, but it is also
expected to be experienced.
Not only does Zionsville Community Schools provide a mission statement,
but also a vision statement. This vision is as follows, Each Zionsville Community
Schools graduate is prepared to create successful and productive future within
the world community. Due to these fundamentals that were mentioned above,
including service and giving back, students are believed to exceed their mission
and move on to bigger things. The goal is not to gain self-success, but world
success.
Each school found within the district are expected to provide their students
with these mission and vision statements, as well as their own. Zionsville West
Middle School believes that students should work close with their teachers in
connective lessons that may be defined as dynamic experiences. The first line
found on the schools student handbook states: Continuing the tradition of
excellence each day ZWMS students and staff unite with the common objective
to achieve higher levels of personal growth through dynamic learning
experiences. Not only are students encouraged to take on the community in
beneficial world aspects, but also work on self-improvement through experiences
taken on along side those who educate them.

Alexandra Martorano 3
Zionsville West Middle School

Year in and year out a variety of extracurricular activities are offered

among students depending on what seems to have shown some sort of interest.
Within the handbook, it is encouraged for students to broach ideas of
new/exciting organizations or students groups, then on September 1st of every
year a list of activities available for the year are posted online. Throughout the
history at ZWMS, they have provided students with a variety of activities to
participate in ranging from intramural sports to orchestra club. Some of the
activities that I was personally intrigued by included Destination Imagination,
Breakfast Club, Tech Club, and several others. This years additions include cadet
indoor percussion, cadet winter guard, campus life (Christian Ministry for all
student), GSTEM, Knitting Ninjas, Lego Club, Robotics Club, Student Athlete
Leaders, and many more. Throughout this list, it came to my attention that the
school attempts to create a club that reaches out to a broad variety of students.
As technology goes, students are encouraged to have laptops. They may
bring their own device or rent them from the school. In order to bring their own
device, students must obtain specific software, apply, and have a case on the
laptop at all times. With this enforcement of technology, the school offers parents
tech nights designed around the school software in order to help them
understand the material so that they can help their children with schoolwork
when necessary. As mentioned before there are many extracurricular activates,
some of which are dedicated to technology- GSTEM, Robotics Club, and Zeek
Squad. GSTEM is a club for girls in grade fifth through eighth; it is based on the
interest in science, technology, engineering, and math as well as problem
solving. Zeek Squad is a club that involves working with computers, coding, and
new technology.
In the seventh and eighth grade there are requests for enrollment in a fine
art, world language, and exploratory class. The curriculum provided includes arts,
foreign language, honors courses, etc. ZWMS allows students the options of
band, chorus, computer arts, drawing/painting, orchestra, and theater drama as
their choices for arts. Exploratory classes includes general art, which is based on
development of appreciation of art and its history, and project lead the way, which
is split up into design & modeling and automation & robotics. Foreign language
curriculum choices include French, Mandarin Chinese, or Spanish. Health and
P.E. are required courses for all students in order to ensure physical health
among all students.
Funding is broken down into revenue, expenditures, and total operating
margin. Through the Zionsville Community Schools district the total amount of
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revenue is around $68.2 million, the total expenditures are about $55.5 million,
and the total operating margin is comparable to $12.8 million. According to data
found in 2012 the revenue per student was $12,092 and the expenditure per
student was $9,828. The majority of the districts educational funding comes from
state sources, while the school district is said to spend most of its funds in
elementary and secondary education.
Below I have provided the graphs that I have found concerning gender,
ethnicity, free and reduced lunch assistance, and the growth upon the school as
a whole.

Alexandra Martorano 5
Zionsville West Middle School

Alexandra Martorano 7
Zionsville West Middle School

For the year of 2015-2016 six thousand, seven hundred and twenty-two
student enrolled into Zionsville Community Schools. With this many students
enrolled, four hundred and eight teachers were documented to work alongside
them. Nine hundred and sixty-nine of these students attended Zionsville West
Middle School, 16% that were considered to have a learning disability. Out of
these 6,722 students, eight hundred and eight (12.2%) of them were placed into
special education courses while fifty-two (0.8%) students were considered
English Language Learners.
Zionsville Community Schools works with students with ages ranging from
three years old to twenty-two years old. Within the years of middle school in the
district, students enrolled in the special education courses begin to focus on
career exploration through the teachers efforts to provide job training. This
includes jobs at the school. Focus often falls upon inclusion, resource, and
combinations. Zionsville shows persistence with allowing the students to find
their independence and create the lives that they wish to pursue.
The mission of ZCS EL Program is to support English Learners through
their journey of language development. The English Learners program is
dedicated to working with children within their comfort zones. Acceptance of
culture is provided through the ability to share cultural events as well as
celebrations within the classroom; this includes from the United States and other
countries. ENL instructors work alongside classroom teachers in order to provide
individualized educational support to students. Due to this, ELL attend on-grade
level classes with their English speaking classmates as much as possible. Not
only is a mission statement for this program provided, but also the goals of the
program. The district hopes to develop the skills of speaking, listening, reading,
and writing. Not only do they hope to develop personal skills of the English
Learner students, but also cultivate awareness and support from their classmates
and others that may be involved throughout the Zionsville community.
Family involvement is proven to increase success rates within a school.
Zionsville encourages as much family involvement as possible, making sure to
constantly communicate with the students parents/guardians. This is especially
important through the EL students, where one of the goals within this program is
to provide effective communication between the families and school community.

Alexandra Martorano 9
Zionsville West Middle School

The schools within this district provide easy-to-use websites to families in order
to allow monitoring of student information and grades. Families are greatly
encouraged to take advantage of these tools due to keeping involvement and for
the fact that the school district does not print midterms or report cars, but a link is
sent to access the standards-based repot card through email.
This community and its schools are blessed with the same overarching
and positively causal factor in the collective success and excellence found herefamilies who do more, engage more, expect more, and provide more in their
childrens lives. Our ZCS roles of critical importance involve leveraging these
human capital assets such that all can experience educational experiences and
attainment that are good for all of life and contribution to the greater good. -Dr.
Scott Robison, Ph.D. Superintendent of Schools
Throughout my research for Zionsville West Middle School I learned that
the school isnt the only thing needed in order to pave the path for a successful
education, but a community is necessary as well. Looking back at my analysis I
realized that a major portion of information presented included the Zionsville
Community Schools district as a whole, but I believe this is the purpose of the
school system being discussed. In order to teach community, it must be acted
upon. Every school function seems to interlace back to the district and
incorporate the schools involved within the system. The representation of
community is expressed through doing rather than telling in hopes of students
following the footsteps of community, service, and giving back to not only
themselves, but also the world.

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Works Cited:
1. Reinventing the Middle School (2001)
<https://d3jc3ahdjad7x7.cloudfront.net/Jevv27UQSFgulvgrwO0VJeCRbUO
aaM4tfj3ISUh0Czd3O7bY.pdf>
2. Zionsville Community School. English Learners (EL) ProgramAcademics Zionsville Community Schools
http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?
uREC_ID=458765&type=d&pREC_ID=1001113
3. Zionsville Community Schools Special Education- Zionsville Community
Schools <http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/special_education>
4. Zionsville West Middle School in Whitetown, Indiana Zionsville West
Middle School in Whitestown, IN <http://publicschools.startclass.com/l/31484/Zionsville-West-Middle-School>
5. Zionsville West Middle. Activities/Clubs/Intramurals Students
Zionsville West Middle <http://zwm.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?
uREC_ID=496965&type=d&pREC_ID=1025416>
6. Zionsville West Middle. Zionsville West Middle
<http://zwm.zcs.k12.in.us/>
7. Zionsville Xommunity Schools ZCS Standards of Assessment of
Learning- Academics Zionsville Community Schools
<http://www.zcs.k12.in.us/apps/pages/index.jsp?
uREC_ID=458765&type=d&pREC_ID=1001127>
8. Seabrooks-Blackmore, Janice, and Gwendolyn Williams. Trainsition
Planning Strategies. Handbook of Adolescent Transition Education for
Youth with Disabilities
<https://d3jc3ahdjad7x7.cloudfront.net/usvOIQaF5k1wQl7oQ6KxJ6hAgPM
8AafIYYVhYNTz7X1isap1.pdf>

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