Academics

CM’s Middle School program was designed with an understanding of the needs of seventh and eighth grade boys. Partnering with parents to help each student meet his potential is a hallmark of the school program.  The boys are engaged in their learning because they have teachers who understand the importance of this engagement.  The teachers know the boys in the building and the boys know the teachers.  There is much current research about the importance of creating smaller learning communities because there is an anonymity in larger schools that is counterproductive to student development, both in terms of learning and more global human development.  In fact, many larger schools have gone to great lengths to divide student population into smaller segments to try to create these smaller learning communities.  Fortunately, the CM Middle School, is by design, a small learning community.  

Along with a focus on student engagement across the curriculum, one of the most important facets of the CM Middle School program is the Advisor/Advisee Program.  This program, which is part of an ideal Middle School model, involves dividing the CM students into advisement groups (advisees).  Each advisement group has an assigned advisor for the entire school year.  Advisors meet with advisees as individuals and periodically as

Dr. Deborah Margolis

members of the advisement group.  Group meetings that are scheduled for the entire Middle School often involve a specific topic or theme (for example health, friendship, etc.). Individual meetings might happen around the time of progress reports or as follow-up conversations to a group advisement discussion. The advisor/advisee program enables the CM Middle School faculty to develop mentoring relationships with students.  It also provides an opportunity to think about the education of Middle School boys more holistically.  

Middle school education requires a delicate balance between nurturance and the development of independence and a sense of responsibility.  This balance is best achieved in a supportive yet academically and personally challenging environment.  The Middle School at CM is just this kind of environment.                                                      ~ Dr. Deborah Margolis