Late last week Baldwin school officials learned that Midway Elementary, through its Criterion-Referenced Competency Test re-test results, had met the standard for Adequate Yearly Progress as established through the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

The students and staff at Midway deserve a applause for their efforts, but more particularly, a nod should also go their way for their intuitive thinking in the face of these challenging financial circumstances.

In a day and age where summer school program budget are frequently the first to get whittled down or fall off the radar altogether, Midway school officials put their heads together and figured out a way to deliver the extra instruction their students needed without the additional dollar.

In short, they made the most of the circumstances and resources they were given, delivering the remedial instruction during the regular school year to the students who needed it, helping to bolster their scores and put Midway over the AYP bar.

Said Midway principal Carol Goings of the move to inclusion, “After taking the CRCT, we identified at-risk students and started working on specific areas of instruction and intervening with the students. Once we got the CRCT scores in hand, we looked at our at-risk group that was already being remediated. We designated teachers who gave them intensive instruction in math, reading and English language arts.”

Instead of different teachers re-introducing the needed skills during a summer session, the students got the extra help they needed from the teachers they were familiar with, the ones who had already been with them during the other part of the school year.

This concept and effort demonstrates a willingness to deliver local students the instruction and assistance they need to succeed, and it also shows how sometimes even in trying economic circumstances, new ideas and ways of approaching issues can be created.

With the addition of Midway to Baldwin’s AYP standing, all of the school system’s schools met the academic benchmarks for AYP during the 2008-2009 year. Baldwin High’s graduation rate, which increased significantly from 2007-2008 to 2008-2009, was the only factor that kept the high school from attaining its overall AYP standing.

But the true results in the classroom will come from the overall graduates a school system produces, graduates who are ready to go to the next level in their academic training and those who are fully prepared to enter the job market.

To get them there in Baldwin County will require continued efforts to make the most of what is given and more creative ways of delivering instruction to local students and the overall support of a community that wants to see the best graduates possible complete high school and contribute to society just as Midway educators and volunteers have demonstrated.