Middle School Perspective

Hamilton Heights Middle School is based upon the middle school philosophy. All grade levels are organized around team teaching concepts. The inclusionary model is incorporated into each grade to ensure students at HHMS receive a quality education.

The school's curriculum for grades six through eight is aligned to the Indiana State Standards. In addition to these standards, additional goals and objectives have been formulated to provide students with richer educational experiences. Through the coordination of the various grade levels and school personnel, the HHMS curriculum provides a spiraling learning environment that occurs as students move from one grade to the next, building new knowledge and skills upon previously learned concepts.

Program design and student progress are measured through periodic surveys, classroom summaries and testing, nine week department assessments, state testing (ISTEP Plus), and the Gates MacGinitie Reading Assessment. Refinements to programming and student remediation are made based upon the results of the data gathered and analyzed.

Hamilton Heights Middle School has been recognized for excellence in education since its beginning in 1993. The school is a member and accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. The middle school in 1995-96 and 2001-02 was named a "Four Star School" by the state of Indiana. Five staff members have been honored by the Indiana Middle Level Educational Association for their outstanding contribution to education at the middle school level. Two members of the faculty have been nominated for Indiana State Teacher of the year. The staff also includes a Fulbright Scholar, a recipient of the prestigious Golden Apple Award, a Lilly Endowment winner, two McDonald's grant award recipients, the 2005 VFW Indiana State Teacher of the Year, the 2008 Caleb Mills Indiana History Teacher of the Year, an Indiana Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commissioner appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels, a participant in the Gilder Lehrman Institute-Gettysburg Pennslyvania, and a Honeywell Grant recipicant to the U.S. Sapce and Rocket Institute in Huntsville, Alabama. The faculty at both the state and National Middle School Association conventions has presented the school's programming.

Hamilton Heights places an emphasis on technology throughout its school system. It is considered a vital element in a student's educational process. Technology is incorporated into the middle school's curriculum through the utilization of various programs in three Dell computer labs and two sixteen station mobile computer labs that are internet and printer accessible. The media center provides numerous pieces of audio-visual equipment for use by students and teachers alike. All staff members, on a continuous basis, receive in-service training on various aspects of the school's technological resources.

Over the past ten years HHMS students and faculty have raised approximately $40,000 for the World War II Monument in Washington, DC, Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, hurricane relief and local programs. The school’s Honor Society, student government, and Fellowship of Christian Athletes are very active in civic and local activities that give back to the community.