Washington C.H. Middle School was recently awarded the 2016 Momentum Award and principal Eric Wayne commended the staff and students for their continued hard work.

The Ohio’s State Board of Education granted this award to the school. The Momentum Award recognizes schools that have received A’s on every value-added measure included on the 2016 Ohio School Report Card.

“The Momentum Award is basically measured by progress our kids make in the areas of reading and math,” Wayne said. “It is a growth measure and even though our kids did not meet the achievement levels set by the state, we are showing more than a year’s growth in all of our kids in those content areas. And that is exactly what we want and like to see…you have to show growth before you can meet those achievements and get to that level.”

Washington Middle School’s report card for the 2015/2016 school year indicated that their pupils made greater than expected progress in reading and mathematics. As a winner of a Momentum Award, the school is part of a group of nearly 200 schools that are showing children of every background and ability level that they can achieve, according to a press release from the school.

“Our staff works extremely hard and our kids are working their tails off too,” Wayne said. “We are just really excited about the kiddos getting this award and showing that progress. Showing that growth is what we are after. We are on our way and our plan is to continue that growth. We didn’t meet all of the state standards, we met two, but our kids are growing and we are closing gaps.”

Wayne said that he appreciates his staff and the hard work they put in. He said “thank you” to the staff for all of their efforts day in and day out with the kids.

“We don’t do it enough in education, but we always need to praise our teachers for their efforts,” Wayne said. “One of the things we hang our hats on here is teaching bell to bell. We tell them to continue working hard and teaching bell to bell and good things will happen.”