A pilot project in math, aimed at teaching students understanding as well as use of math principles, put Cabot near the top of a test group. The middle school structure has other benefits, Dalton says. Fistfights just don't exist anymore. There's no down time. Even the one break, lunchtime, is more civil.
Students sit at round tables of eight.
They talk to each other, rather than shouting down a long table or across the room. Dalton himself has a similarly soothing effect on teachers, whom he hires from some 300 applicants a year. I want people who love kids, who've shown they want to involve parents and who have a good academic background. The reward for the teacher is a measure of independence, as long as the teacher meets the district's annual professional improvement goals. It's part of a rating system Dalton helped devise, a break from the checklist with numerical ratings.