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WSD Spotlight - "Going Clubbing" Takes on New Meaning at FMS

Posted Date: 10/19/26 (04:00 PM)
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A group of students gather around a desk with a teacher

WSD Spotlight

Limitless Potential, Real World Ready

 

"Going Clubbing" Takes on New Meaning at Foothills Middle School

At Foothills Middle School, some of the most popular clubs on campus meet during reading and math class.

Principal Craig Allan shared an update on the school’s math and reading “clubs” at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. The clubs are small groups built around exactly what each student needs to work on.

Middle school students arrive with very different starting points, Allan said, and one class pace doesn’t work for all of them. Allan explained that the academic journey of middle school students is not a straight line but rather a windy path of all the things they experience as they’re becoming teenagers. The clubs give staff a way to meet kids where they are without pulling them out of their regular classes. They’ve designated time in the day to go “clubbing”.

Right now, about 160 students are in 24 reading club sections. Some are working on English language skills, some are working toward IEP goals, and others are building reading skills through a program called REWARDS. The results are showing up. Assessment reading scores are up 15 to 20 percent across the school, and 116 students have grown at least one grade level on i-Ready.
Math clubs reach even more kids. About 320 of the school’s 520 students have already been part of one this year. Students complete exit tickets each week, and the next week they’re grouped by the skills they need to practice. The groups change every week, so nobody is stuck in one spot.

MTSS Specialist Elissa Johnston said the biggest surprise has been how much students want to be there.

“Students want to be in the clubs, and they can’t wait for them to start, they’re literally watching the clock,” she said. “It’s not something we’ve seen with intervention before.”

The group intervention approach is common in elementary schools but rare in middle school. Allan said one of the keys was simple. Calling it a club changes the way students think about it from a “have to” experience to a “get to” experience and they’re seeing success. 
Foothills club model works because of their paraeducators. A team of 15 dedicated paras works closely with teachers to review student data and figure out what students need and then teaches the small groups. Their role has grown from monitoring classrooms to teaching support and some are now thinking about becoming teachers themselves. It’s rewarding for paras and for students when they see and experience academic growth, explained Allan. 

Foothills has been recognized the past two years for closing achievement gaps and the clubs are just another way they’re supporting students in tapping their untapped potential.