Principal's Corner

Welcome to Warrior Territory!  School Year 2023-2024!

Dear Quantico Middle High School Stakeholders,

It is an honor to serve you and I look forward to a successful year with our wonderful students.

Programs We Offer

Quantico Middle High School is proud to offer many programs to support student success. We offer Honors and Advanced Placement courses, Virtual High School, Dual Enrollment, Fine Arts courses, CES courses, Yearbook, Creative Writing, STEM, Model United Nations, AVID, ESOL, Special Education and others! We also offer a myriad of extra- curricular activities including sports and clubs! There's something for everyone!

Academic Honor Societies

Quantico Middle High School's academic focus is supported through memberships with the National Honor Society, National Junior Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta (Mathematics Honor Society), and National Science Honor Society. We are an AP Honor Roll School (2014-15) and also a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence! (2001-2002)

We are organized into DoDEA's Mid-Atlantic District, the largest in America and we are focused on the full implementation of College and Career Ready Standards. As such, our teachers and administrators receive training throughout the school year to ensure that we are providing a challenging curriculum to fully prepare our students for post-secondary success. Our district has implemented an Alert Notification System to help keep our community informed, as well as a comprehensive assessment system (DoDEA-wide) to measure student progress. We also use AVID research-based strategies to improve our student's organizational skills and prepare them for success. 

Focus on Academics

Recognizing the need for additional instructional support for our students, we adjusted the master schedule to allow more time in the seminar block (period R4) for our students. We collect data to determine impact on student achievement. 

We have a one-to-one Chromebook program, where students are issued a school Chromebook for the school year. This program has practically eliminated the digital divide and leveled the playing field so that all students can have consistent access to resources, class materials, and study aids. 

We upgraded our academic requirements to participate in extra-curricular activities to support the scholar in all students, whether they participate in sports or other activities. All students who are involved in extra-curricular programs must maintain good grades so that they are positioned for college and career options and other opportunities for advancement.

Get Ready - STAY Ready!

Our regular school bell schedule is 7:20 a.m. - 2:15 p.m. Please see our school calendars and bell schedules for more details. In Warrior Territory, academics, character, and preparedness shape our culture. We believe that every student can succeed! In order to achieve success. There are a few items that are very important for a successful school year. Among these are:

• Strong parent involvement
• Academic Integrity
• Advocacy and accountability
• Organization and time management
• Commitment to study/research
• Continuous, open communications
• Follow-up and follow-through
• Goal setting

Each of these are important to a successful year and future.

Strong Parent Involvement: This means parents are committed to supporting our school. This is accomplished with open communication, checking school information (QMHS webpage, Social Media, email) to be current on activities and requirements, and ensuring that students are prepared for an engaging, exciting experience. It's also helpful to be involved in the Parent Educators Association (PEA), and other school organizations, if possible. These actions result in a more informed parent community, and accountability is established early for what students need to do. Attending school events is also important and shows your child that you are interested in them. Ensuring that you and your child are aware of and fully following and supporting all school rules and policies is also very important.

Academic Integrity: This means that students produce their own work and cite other's work when used. This is outlined in our Academic Integrity Code (included in the student planner) for every student. Students are trained by our instructional staff on appropriate research sites and resources.  

Advocacy and Accountability: This means from the first day, students advocate for themselves, speaking up and asking questions. Accountability means students are being held to high expectations and are prepared for instruction every day. 

Organization and time management - We expect our students to know which classes they need to attend each day, where their classes are, and to manage time appropriately. DoDEA has a clear attendance policy. This builds individual responsibility and is an excellent habit.

Commitment to study/research - Academics is our first priority. As such, we expect all students to improve their study and research skills. We will teach them how to research, but will need reinforcement in the home. This develops accountability and responsibility--two values that are very important to us and your child's success. Each student will be provided with a student planner and a Chromebook. They are expected to have these items during all classes, every day.

We want to keep in communication with all parents throughout the school year. This is accomplished in a number of ways, such as through our school website, social media, newsletters, principal updates, email, phone conferences, parent/student conferences and meetings. We want to keep you informed and welcome your feedback on how we can better serve you and your student. All parents should register for DSIS (Aspen) accounts to monitor announcements, and their child's grades and attendance. We can help you with this. Here are a few tips taken from John M. Grohol, Psy.D.:

• How you approach study matters
• Choose the same place, a quiet area to study, with no distractions
• Bring everything you need to study, but nothing else
• Outline and rewrite your notes
• Use memory games for remembering important pieces of information
• Practice by yourself or with friends
• Make a schedule that you can stick to
• Take breaks (and rewards for being consistent!)
• Keep healthy and balanced (look at work hours for those who work)
• Clearly know what the expectations are for each class

Follow Up and Follow Through: This means when assignments are due, our students are making sure that they are handed in on time, and if they are to be graded, following through to make sure that you understand why you received the grade. This is part of self-advocacy from the students. It is important that you know that you have a voice. Follow through means when students have completed an assignment, that is it their best work and they follow through until they are fully satisfied that all requirements have been met.

Goal setting - Without goals, students do not have a clear path to their future. We expect all students to look at their goals and to adjust based on guidance and further study. Each student is expected to participate in goal setting and to evaluate and reflect on their progress. Students are expected to meet with their guidance counselor several times throughout the school year to review their goals and to make adjustments if needed. This is an important component when it comes time to talk about college admission, scholarships, post-high school learning, and other opportunities.

College and Career Readiness

Training continues in CCR. We make instructional shifts to engage all students. The three instructional shifts we are making in English Language Arts are:

• Building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction
• Reading, writing, and speaking grounded in evidence from literary and informational text
• Regular practice with complex text and academic language

In Mathematics, we have implemented the Eight Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMP) which are:

1. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them
2. Reason abstractly and quantitatively
3. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others
4. Model with mathematics
5. Use appropriate tools strategically
6. Attend to precision
7. Look for and make use of structure
8. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning

Other curricular areas are also receiving training and are implementing their new information aligned with College and Career Readiness as part of DoDEA's curriculum rollout.

Our high expectations and rigorous curriculum will continue to challenge each student to reach their full potential and to have the needed skills to become effective, contributing members of a global society. College and Career Readiness and relevant digital skills are embedded in our classroom instruction and challenging activities!

Please Join Our PEA!

You may email our Parent Educators Association (PEA) Chair at peaqmhs@gmail.com. Our PEA meets monthly and would love to have you join or just come to see what all the excitement is about! Involved parents make a huge difference in a child's success! They also volunteer and raise funds to support our programs! We appreciate their strong support.

Keeping You Informed

We will continue providing timely communications to our community by using a variety of means including our school website, the Alert Notification System, DSIS (Aspen), email, social media, phone calls, conferences and monthly parent newsletters. You may also attend monthly PEA meetings and attend School Board meetings. Parent-teacher conferences are scheduled on our calendar in the fall, however parents may also contact their child's teacher if they have a concern. If there is an area or topic that you would like to have more information on, please call the front office at 571-660-9555 or e-mail me at Principal.Quantico@dodea.edu.

We are honored to serve our military-connected students, and we want this year and every year to be the best and most productive ever for your child. We focus on your child so that you can focus on your mission. We thank each of you for your dedicated service to our country.

Welcome Aboard!