Chelan Middle School celebrates state award for closing gaps, academic growth

CHELAN — Chelan Middle School students and staff gathered in the gym Friday, September 25, to celebrate a state award recognizing the school’s progress in closing achievement gaps and helping students grow academically.

Staff posed with a banner naming Chelan Middle a 2024-25 Washington State Recognized School. The Washington School Recognition Program honored the school in two categories: Closing Gaps and Growth.

For Closing Gaps, the state cited meaningful improvement on the Washington School Improvement Framework after Chelan Middle had been identified for targeted support the previous year. Its Growth recognition reflects gains from the 2023-24 to 2024-25 school years that ranked among the top 10% of schools statewide on several measures of reading and math performance.

Those measures included gains across the student body in English language arts and math proficiency and student growth in both subjects. The state also recognized strong gains among students from low-income households.

Chelan Middle was among 379 schools in 150 Washington districts recognized for their work during the 2024-25 school year. The program is run by the State Board of Education in collaboration with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee. The school also received recognition for English learner progress in the program’s previous round of awards.

The banner was only one part of Friday’s assembly. Teachers and staff entered the gym one by one to their own walk-on music, drawing cheers from the students in the bleachers. The school also recognized students who exemplified its M.O.R.E. standards during September: motivated, open-minded, respectful and engaged.

Attendance got a round of applause, too. Students were told that 195 of their classmates had missed no more than one day during the month, and the school held a drawing among those who met its attendance standard.

Then students took the gym floor for a game led by the Associated Student Body. Paired contestants followed calls to touch their heads, shoulders and knees, shifting positions until the announcer finally shouted “CONE!” Each tried to be the first to snatch the cone between them.

By the end of the assembly, the state banner had its place in a celebration that also put Chelan Middle’s staff, students and school traditions in front of the crowd.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media