SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Maple Avenue Middle School wants to be considered a model school in the national academic excellence program called “Schools to Watch.”

Teachers, administrators and parents have spent the past two years at the 1,600-student school reviewing programs and preparing for this week’s “final exam.”

A team of five educators from other middle schools in the state, along with two state Department of Education representatives, spent Thursday and Friday at the school on Route 9 just north of Saratoga Springs.

The team observed classes and interviewed staff, teachers and students in the grades 6-through-8 middle school to see if Maple Avenue measures up.

“They have been working on this for a couple of years,” said Saratoga Springs Superintendent of Schools Janice M. White.

She said parents, students and teachers were surveyed and all the school’s programs carefully scrutinized.

“It’s quite an extensive process,” Maple Avenue Principal Stuart Byrne said.

Schools to Watch is a national recognition program developed in 1999 by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

New York is one of 16 states participating in the program, according to the state Education Department.

There are currently only eight middle schools in the state, including the Oliver W. Winch Middle School in the South Glens Falls Central School District, that have been honored with the “Essential Elements: Schools-to-Watch” designation.

“It’s really a process for self-reflection,” White said of the steps taken to be considered for the honor.

The schools must distinguish themselves in four areas: academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity and organization and structure.

Besides spending time at the middle school, the investigation team interviewed the city school district’s Board of Education Thursday evening.

School board member Stephen Rodriguez said just attempting to be a Schools to Watch designee indicates the “real dedication of the Maple Avenue staff.”

“I’ve heard a lot of positive comments about the process,” said board member Mia Pfitzer.

“They didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know,” said board member Ernest Gailor about the Schools to Watch team. “It’s a great school.”

The team that has just finished its site visit will now develop a report on their findings, including recommendations, that will be forwarded to the state Department of Education.

The state Education Department will make the final decision on whether or not Maple Avenue school will be the ninth school in the state to receive the Schools to Watch honor.

The Oliver W. Winch Middle School in South Glens Falls received its designation in 2006. The North Salem Middle School in Westchester County was the most recent middle school to be granted the model school honor.

White said it may take until late spring before the district hears whether Maple Avenue school has measured up to such schools.

“It’s about continuing growth,” White said about the steps a school must take to fulfill the Schools to Watch criteria.

“High-performing schools establish norms, structures and organizational arrangements to support and sustain their trajectory toward excellence,” says a statement from the Schools to Watch Web site, www.schoolstowatch.org.

“They have a sense of purpose that drives every facet of practice and decision making,” the statement says.

The staff at Maple Avenue Middle School think they have these qualities.