Dallas ISD’s Benjamin Franklin Middle School offers its students programs and activities to make them better students now and prepare them for the future.
One of the offerings is the school’s first-year participation in the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme. If approved, Franklin would join J.L. Long Middle School and Harry Stone Montessori and International Academy as IB middle schools.
“It’s more rigorous,” said James Bryan, IB coordinator at Franklin. “And it allows for more inquiry-based learning, project-based learning.”
Not available at every district middle school, Franklin also offers athletics for sixth-graders, which lets them play a variety of sports. “They’re wanting to succeed in the game,” said Berry Jackson, sixth-grade athletics coordinator. “So it’s helping to bring them more focus in the classroom.”
Franklin is also among middle schools that offers the AVID program to seventh- and eighth-graders. AVID stands for Advancement Via Individual Determination, and the focus in on preparing students for continuing their educations after high school.
“It teaches them about college, it teaches them to do applications,” said Principal Joseph Sotelo. “It teaches them what college is about. It teaches them about organization, how to take notes, so they can make it that first year of college.”
For information about the school, visit www.dallasisd.org/franklin.
