{"id":23982,"date":"2025-01-16T21:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-01-17T04:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mountain-middle-school-wins-john-irwin-award-for-third-consecutive-time\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:46:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:46:09","slug":"mountain-middle-school-wins-john-irwin-award-for-third-consecutive-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mountain-middle-school-wins-john-irwin-award-for-third-consecutive-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountain Middle School wins John Irwin award for third consecutive time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mountain
Mountain Middle School is changing its lottery system to increase the diversity of its student body.<\/span>Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Earlier this week, Mountain Middle School announced that the Colorado Department of Education had awarded it the John Irwin School of Excellence Award for the third year in a row.<\/p>\n

Mountain\u2019s Executive Director Shane Voss announced the school\u2019s success in an email sent to the community on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The John Irwin award is given to schools that demonstrate exceptional academic achievement over time by receiving an exceeds expectations rating in math, science and English language arts on the Academic Achievement indicator of the School Performance Framework.<\/p>\n

MMS\u2019s sixth through eighth graders scored above the 90th percentile in mathematics, science and English language arts, earning the designation of exceptional academic performance.<\/p>\n

This performance was mirrored by the school\u2019s fourth and fifth graders.<\/p>\n

Tailoring instruction to meet the students\u2019 specific needs and fostering a sense of belonging has been a big part of the success, said Voss, who has been the school\u2019s executive director for 12 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put a lot of energy into getting to know each student, ensuring each one feels seen and heard while never sliding below the radar \u2026 these connections are a privilege and make all the difference,\u201d said Nancy Wickham, a seventh grade humanities teacher, in a news release.<\/p>\n

Voss also highlighted the school\u2019s purpose-learning approach to education as a reason for the students\u2019 success. Purpose learning is an educational framework that integrates academic thinking with the acts of feeling and doing.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized the school\u2019s purpose driven learning approach as being a key factor in the students\u2019 success. Purpose learning is an educational framework that integrates academic thinking with emotional engagement and practical application.<\/p>\n

In purpose learning, students publicly present their learning through exhibitions and other creative outlets, demonstrating mastery by teaching back what they\u2019ve learned, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an acceleration of agency and ownership with our performance based assessment platform,\u201d Voss said.<\/p>\n

MMS was also awarded a \u201cPerformance with Distinction\u201d rating by Colorado\u2019s Charter School Institute for the ninth time, in 2024. It is given to Colorado schools whose academic performance in the top 25% of all public schools in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerformance with Distinction,\u201d is the highest possible accreditation schools may be awarded.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see kids achieve at this level of excellence year in and year out is a testament to all of the collaboration that goes back to our shared vision of excellence,\u201d Voss said. \u201cThe students, parents and faculty are all extremely proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mountain Middle School is a public charter school for students in fourth through eighth grade. Enrollment is determined by a lottery system, ensuring class sizes never rise above 60 students.<\/p>\n

jbowman@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018To see kids achieve at this level of excellence year in and year out is a testament to all of the collaboration that goes back to our shared vision of excellence\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,28,2551],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-23982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-mountain-middle-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78347,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982\/revisions\/78347"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23982"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=23982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}