Principal's Page

The New Jersey State Department of Education has adopted a set of Core Curriculum Content Standards. This document developed by professional educators throughout the state, outlines minimum standards in the areas of mathematics, language arts/literacy, social studies, science, comprehensive health and physical education, career education and visual and performing arts. We continue to align our curriculum with these standards, focusing on providing a comprehensive, integrated and challenging curriculum. This school year our teachers reviewed and revised the world languages, math, science, reading and visual performing arts curriculum thereby ensuring that we develop meaningful sequencing and continuity of instruction.

Students at Pearl R. Miller School excel in all areas and continue to exceed the performance levels set by the curriculum content standards. Students engage daily in learning that provides opportunities that promotes academic achievement, creativity, initiative and responsibility. Special projects and themes such as our Science/Mathi Technology Expo, Career Day, Pi Day, and the Multicultural Fair provide our students with a challenging, integrative and exploratory program.

Staff development with regard to instructional applications has been an on going process. Questioning strategies which incorporate higher order thinking and open ended problem solving tasks is a goal for all teachers. A benchmark portfolio of student work utilizing the GEPA rubric is the focus for all English teachers. By developing writing prompts and then scoring them, all grade level teachers will be able to align their grading practices.

This school year we have again committed ourselves to an ambitious school-wide reading goal. Research has documented that middle level students do not like to read and seldom choose to read on their own. Our goal is to increase recreational reading so that ultimately our students become lifelong readers. This program has incentives and rewards and is highly visible throughout the building. On Celebrate Reading Day, students share their book in cross-grade reading circles with parent volunteers.

The success of our program at Pearl R. Miller School is related to parents and community members who volunteer their time and/or resources. Much research has been documented with respect to the correlation between school achievement, student success and parent/community involvement. Our Home and School Association, the Kinnelon Education Foundation and the Pearl R. Miller Colts Association have provided our students and staff with many innovative programs and educational materials. Ultimately, student achievement is our primary goal at Pearl R. Miller School and to that end our middle school works collaboratively with all the stakeholders - students, parents, teachers and administration - in a common vision that guides the ongoing development of our middle school.