UAS & Zone - Lake Middle School
Lake Middle School
An Urban School Undertaking a Turnaround
Location: 1820 Lowell Blvd., Denver, CO
Co-Principal: Amy Highsmith
Co-Principal: Elza Guajardo
Background
Lake Middle School is one of Denver’s oldest and most historic schools, located near the banks of Sloan’s and Cooper’s Lakes. The school is an authorized International Baccalaureate (IB) school. Lake recently undertook a broad transformation to help improve its students’ lagging performance scores. The first step in the turnaround involved phasing in a new, revitalized IB Program. Second, the district co-located a charter school, West Denver Prep middle school program, in the Lake facility.
Partnering to Prepare Urban Teachers in the P-16 Zone for Student Achievement
Metro State’s CUE program has partnered with Lake Middle School for over four years. Lake is the host site for a Metro State secondary education Foundations for Educational Psychology and Philosophy class where students in the Urban Teacher Partnership also conduct their field and student teaching experiences. Our pre-service educators work in collaboration with classroom teachers to provide support for lessons and reinforce instruction in small groups and one-on-one. Our pre-service teachers also lend a professional hand at school events and activities.
In addition to these endeavors, one of Metro State’s mathematics professors is working with directors and staff of the Mi Casa Neighborhood Center housed at Lake to develop and teach an after-school computer gaming program. Initially piloted in 2009, the computer gaming program continues to grow in popularity among students and the community. For more information about this program, please see the Projects page on this website.
School Community
Student Population: Lake Middle School enrolls 650 students. The student body is 85 percent Hispanic, 3.7 percent Black, 8 percent White and 1 percent American Indian and Asian respectively. All but 4 percent of students are eligible for the free or reduced rate lunch program.
Staff: The school is notable for the high percentage of teachers with postsecondary degrees in their subject area – 84 percent compared with the statewide average of 51 percent. The average length of teaching experience is approximately 12 years. There are 38 full-time teachers at Lake with an average 15:9 student teacher ratio in the classroom.