What We Do Matters!

Madison High School is committed to creating learning environments where every student’s identity, strengths, and talents are appreciated and cultivated. We are committed to ensuring consistent instructional and grading practices throughout the school. It is vital that all stakeholders clearly understand how a student's evidence of learning is entered into the gradebook and how final course marks are calculated. Student grades communicate a student’s learning and current level of mastery. This mindset is essential to the success of our students, staff, and teams.

Madison High School's instructional mission centers on three big ideas: Competency-based mastery learning, belonging, and MAD Wings.

COMPETENCY-BASED MASTERY LEARNING

Competency-based mastery learning emphasizes skill development and content application. This approach fosters a deeper understanding of content, focuses on essential curricula-based and FCPS Portrait of Graduate skills, inspires student engagement, and ensures readiness for real-world challenges. The school's commitment to professional learning and collaboration supports a dynamic and enriching educational environment.

Madison’s Competency-based mastery learning framework is an approach to instruction, learning, evaluation, assessment, and grading that focuses on a student's demonstrated level of mastery on specific skills:

• Focus on Mastery: Competency-based mastery learning prioritizes mastery of skills and knowledge over time-bound benchmarks. It encourages students to persist and work towards achieving true understanding and proficiency, rather than just aiming for a certain grade. 
• Real-World Readiness: Competency-based mastery learning aligns with the demands of the real world, where employers and higher education institutions often look for specific skills and abilities. By emphasizing growth and development of skills and abilities over time, it better prepares students for future success.
• Deeper Learning: Competency-based mastery learning allows students to delve deeper into content and challenges them by exploring advanced topics thus developing a thorough, more advanced, understanding of the material. Students are given the time and support needed to fully grasp and internalize concepts, leading to greater retention and application of knowledge.
• Reflection: Reflection is an essential part of the Madison High School competency-based learning model. Both teachers and students are encouraged to consistently reflect on their teaching and learning experiences to facilitate improvement and growth.
• Increased Engagement: Competency-based mastery learning encourages active student engagement by providing ongoing feedback, allowing for self-assessment, and fostering a sense of ownership over learning. This enhances motivation, as students experience success and build confidence in their abilities.
• Skill-Based Balanced Assessment: Competency-based mastery learning allows for a more comprehensive assessment of a student's abilities. By evaluating specific skills or competencies, it provides a clearer picture of what students know and can do with that knowledge.
• Meaningful Feedback: Competency-based mastery learning emphasizes providing meaningful feedback to students. Instead of assigning grades based on completion or percentage correct, it focuses on providing feedback on areas of strength and areas for growth. This allows students to better identify and understand their progress towards mastery and take ownership of their learning journey.
• Flexibility and Differentiation: Competency-based mastery learning supports differentiated instruction, enabling educators to tailor their teaching methods and materials to meet the diverse needs of students. It allows for the use of various instructional strategies and resources, ensuring that students receive the appropriate amount of support and challenge based on their learning styles and abilities. Our collaborative teams work to scaffold lessons for students, especially students with IEPs and multilingual learners.

BELONGING

The second big idea at Madison is our commitment to creating a community of belonging. Focusing on belonging creates a positive and inclusive environment where all students and staff feel safe, valued, respected, and empowered to learn and grow. This sense of belonging has numerous benefits for students, including:

• Improved academic performance: When students feel like they belong, they are more likely to engage in learning, participate in class discussions, and achieve better academic outcomes.
• Increased motivation and engagement: A sense of belonging fosters intrinsic motivation, making students more eager to learn and actively participate in their education.
• Enhanced social and emotional well-being: Feeling connected to their peers and teachers promotes positive social interactions, reduces feelings of isolation, and improves overall well-being.
• Greater self-esteem and confidence: When students feel accepted and valued for who they are, they develop a stronger sense of self-worth and confidence in their abilities.
• Reduced risk of negative behaviors: A sense of belonging can act as a protective factor, reducing the likelihood of students engaging in risky or harmful behaviors.

By prioritizing belonging as one of our big three commitments, we create a more supportive and inclusive environment that benefits all students and staff.

MAD WINGS

The MAD Wings program is a 9th to 12th-grade initiative focused on the curation of student portfolios and experiences. It includes an opportunity for students to create a Mastery Transcript Learning Record. Our MAD WINGS Program supports students’ growth and development within the framework of FCPS Portrait of a Graduate (POG), with a focus on student-generated portfolios and reflections. The MAD WINGS Experience supports student learning and development through experiences beyond an academic setting. All students participate in an end-of-year Presentation of Learning to honor self-reflection and celebrate a student’s strengths and growth over the year(s). Through Advisory and content courses, teachers check in with students about their growth throughout the school year.

As part of the MAD Wings program, seniors have the option to explore career and personal interests through a 30-hour shadowing experience from one of the following: Career Shadow and Community Service, Independent Study, Madison Improvement Project, or Volunteer at a Madison Pyramid School. Students document their experience and commit to sharing a reflection in a Presentation of Learning before graduation. Students who complete their WINGS presentation of learning each year and complete the Senior Experience earn a MAD WINGS Achievement Cord for graduation. 

Madison’s Curriculum Teams

At Madison High School, we recognize the value of collaborative effort in enhancing our students' academic experiences and outcomes. Our Curriculum Learning Teams (CLTs) are essential to fostering a competency-based learning environment. By working together to design, develop, and assess instructional materials that are aligned with skill mastery, the CLTs play a key role in promoting student success. We emphasize the term "learning" in the team name to highlight our belief that learning is a lifelong pursuit for both students and educators. Our focus on learning for all ensures that our instructional resources remain current, relevant, and engaging, thereby supporting the diverse needs of our student body.

We strive to cultivate a collaborative professional learning community where all staff members are dedicated to their professional growth through diverse learning opportunities. Embracing a growth mindset, we continuously refine our practices through reflection and collaboration. We view setbacks as valuable learning experiences and celebrate each other's successes. Through job-embedded learning, we are committed to refining our instructional approaches and leading the way in competency-based mastery learning. At Madison, we believe that reflective teaching fosters excellence. By analyzing student data, we adapt our instructional strategies to best meet our students' needs. We champion a supportive and collaborative environment that encourages teachers to take risks, be creative, and respect one another, while also differentiating instruction to support the diverse needs of our students.

CLT meetings foster a collaborative and positive environment where content teachers plan, develop, and assess instructional materials and review student evidence of learning. To ensure productive meetings, all team members must contribute their work to the team promptly for review and feedback. CLT meetings also serve as a platform for sharing innovative ideas, diverse perspectives, and constructive feedback on instructional resources and materials. Our school's fundamental goal is to facilitate high levels of learning for all students. As professionals, we uphold high expectations for collaborative work and rely on our teachers to meet the individual expectations outlined in the MAD CLT Expectations document.

Final Thoughts

At Madison High School, we believe in fostering a dynamic learning environment where every student's unique talents and interests are recognized, challenged, and nurtured. We set high expectations for excellence in character, academics, and leadership, essential components in cultivating this enriching atmosphere.

Our administrative team is deeply committed to our students, staff, and families. We lead with a servant's heart, prioritizing transparency and support for our school's mission and tradition of excellence. We believe that parents play a vital role in the learning process. We value the partnerships we build with parents and encourage open dialogue to ensure the success of every student.

Our community expects the best from our school, and we are dedicated to recruiting and retaining professionals who share this unwavering commitment. As you embark on this journey with us, we invite you to explore our website, engage with our staff, and ask questions throughout the hiring process.