Since opening in 1998, Gateway High School has sent more than 96% of its diverse graduates to college. However, each year we have faced a growing challenge: more students entering 9th grade underprepared. Our motivation to combat this challenge sooner and to increase our overall impact inspired us to extend the successful academic and educational programs of Gateway High School to the middle grades (6-8), with the opening of Gateway Middle School in 2011. Gateway Middle now serves approximately 300 economically, racially, ethnically, and intellectually diverse middle school students (grades 6-8).