UAS - Merrill Middle School
Merrill Middle School
A Diverse Urban School Committed to Excellence in Education
Location: 1551 South Monroe Street, Denver, CO 80210
Principal: Stacy Miller
Background
Merrill Middle School is an educational community comprised of children from across Denver’s urban spectrum guided by teachers, staff and administrators dedicated to providing each with an outstanding education. Merrill offers a strong English Language Acquisition (ELA) program that serves a student body that encompasses children who are immigrants and refugees from 40 different countries and who speak 31 different languages including Russian, Arabic, French, Somali, Burmese Vietnamese, Creole, Farsi, Swahili and others. There is also an Honors program at every level and in every core subject that prepares academically strong students well for Advanced Placement coursework in high school. The school includes three computer labs and gives students many opportunities to participate in school clubs, sports and other activities. Merrill is squarely focused on core academics, but also gives students a rich elective class line up that exposes them to a diverse, enriched learning opportunity.
Partnering to Prepare Urban Teachers
Merrill Middle School is one of the schools identified as an Urban Apprentice School, served by Metro State College’s Urban Teacher Partnership. Metro State holds its secondary education Foundations of Educational Psychology and Philosophy classes on site at Merrill. Over the past few years, Merrill teachers have generously served as cooperating teachers and professional mentors for secondary pre-service students conducting their field and student teaching assignments. Metro State’s pre-service students in turn provide support to classroom teachers, reinforce instruction by teaching lessons, working with students in small groups and one-to-one, and assist at school events as needed.
School Community
Student Population: Merrill’s student body of 618 students includes nearly 200 refugee and immigrant children who are enrolled in the schools ELA magnet program. The background of these students, from 40 different countries, varies widely. A full 31 different languages are spoken in the school. Overall, the population breaks down along more traditional urban Denver lines. The student body is 29.8 percent White, 32.4 percent Hispanic, 19.2 percent Black, 15.1 percent Asian and 3.5 percent American Indian.
Staff: There are 61 staff members at Merrill and 41 teachers. The staff speaks 8 different languages including English, Russian, Chinese, Somali, Spanish, Farsi, French and Arabic. Ten of the teachers are male and 31 are female.
Parents/Community: Parents play an active role at Merrill by participating in CSC Collaborative School Committee and PTSA Parent Teacher Student Association. They also volunteer to assist with events and in the classroom. The school partners with several organizations in the community including Jewish Family Services, African Community Center ReLay, Asian Pacific Centers and Denver Parks and Recreation which runs an after-school program for homework and recreation.