My school is a multi-track, multi-grade year-round middle school with an enrollment of over 1600 students in grades 6 through 8. Our school is organized into interdisciplinary teacher teams in which two to four teachers assume the joint responsibility for the core (language arts, social studies, math, and science) instructional program for a given group of students.

Durant Year-Round Middle School consists of four separate tracks that students may be on. Students are in school for approximately 45 days, on break for 15 days, back in school for 45 days, and so on until they complete the required 180 days for the year. I am a part of a suburban school where less than 11% of the student population are on free or reduced-price lunch. For the last two years, we have been accredited as a "School of Excellence" because over 90% of our students are at or above grade level and have exceeded the expected growth rate based on students' state end-of-grade test scores.

My classes are 18 weeks long, or what is termed as a semester. I teach, on average, 110 students a day, averaging 22 students in each class; each class period is 45 minutes. Students in my Keyboarding & Computer Literacy and Business Computer Technology, Level I courses are administered a state-mandated post-test at the end of the course which measures student mastery of course objectives. This test is called VoCATS (Vocational Competency Achievement Tracking System), a system for planning, implementing, and evaluating instruction and is based on state curriculum objectives, which leaves a limited amount of time for deviation.

I am one of 21 National Board Certified Teachers at my school. I am confident of the value of our business education program and I seek to "repair the historical split between academic and career and technical education, and non-college bound and college-bound students." I strongly believe that teacher quality impacts student achievement.