The Essential Elements Schools to Watch program in partnership with the New York State Middle School Association is a state administered national program that seeks to identify middle grades schools that adhere to a rigorous set of criteria and are on a pathway of continuous improvement. Each school earning the designation holds that honor for 3 years then must reapply and be reevaluated to

continue the honor of calling itself a School to Watch. All of these remarkable middle schools are dedicated to the young adolescents they serve and maintain a commitment to remain on a trajectory of improvement while implementing the Regents Policy on Middle Level Education, and the seven Essential Elements of a Standards Focused Middle School and Program. 

AAK was first designated in 2009, and redesignated in 2012, 2015, 2018, and most recently 2021. We were the tenth middle school designated since the start of the program in 2006. There are currently only 36 middle schools in NYS that are a “Schools to Watch”.