This issue of the SEO Ed Digest covers recent and background research on the importance of the middle years of schooling. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind, education reform has been concentrated around elementary schools and high schools. The middle grades, which have been put on the back-burner, play a very significant role in a student’s life. This issue includes research on the middle grades, such as why they are important, how to reform the middle levels, and various models of teaching the middle schools, such as the middle school model and the K-8 model. This topic is especially relevant to the District of Columbia because Dr. Janey has stressed the importance of the middle years and has made the policy decision to go to a full middle model next year.
Articles
Transcripts and Presentations
Reports
Articles
Education Week: K-8 Structure Gives No Academic Boost, Analysis Finds (March 1, 2006)
http://www.edweek.org//ew/articles/2006/03/01/25middle.h25.html
Education Week: Mayhem in the Middle (February 1, 2006)
http://www.edweek.org//ew/articles/2006/02/01/21yecke.h25.html
New York Times: Trying to Find Solutions in Chaotic Middle Schools (January 3, 2007)
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/education/03middle.html?ex=1169787600&en=1f09f5a460cb2d3c&ei=5070
Transcripts and Presentations
Keeping Middle Grade Students on Track to Graduation (May 2006)
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/pubs/edweek/dropoutresearch_4.06.ppt
This powerpoint presentation gives the initial findings of a study by Robert Balfanz and Liza Herzog which seeks to establish how early in the middle grades large numbers of a school district's future dropouts begin to fall off the graduation track. Major preliminary findings include the following: students who enter high school two or more years behind grade level in math and literacy have only a 50/50 chance of on-time promotion to the 10th grade; ninth grade retention is a major risk factor for dropping out of high school; and student attendance, behavior and effort all influence the likelihood that students will significantly improve their achievement levels during grades six to eight. The authors argue that focusing on the middle grades is important because adolescence and living in neighborhoods with concentrated poverty have been shown to negatively impact student attendance, behavior and effort. By focusing on the middle grades, we can identify a significant percentage of students who will ultimately drop-out of school without graduating. Before they drop out, these students will have multiple years of low test scores, poor behavior and weak attendance. Intervening early and getting students back on track will not only decrease the dropout rate but will also have positive impacts on middle grade and high school test scores, attendance, and overall school climate. In order to reform the middle grades, the researchers argue middle school educators need: acknowledge the impact of adolescence; acknowledge the impact of poverty; develop preventative and proactive strategies to mitigate these effects; and provide strong school-wide instructional programs, quality teachers, and strong professional development and teacher support.
Middle Grades Reform: Breaking Ranks in the Middle and the Schools to Watch (June 2006)
http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2006/fb062306.htm
The middle years of schooling, which can range from 5th through 9th grade, are an especially vulnerable and formative period for students. The transition from childhood to adolescence involves more rapid psychological development than any age besides infancy. Middle school bridges the chasm between the worlds of elementary and high school, and the patterns of behavior and identity formed in middle school powerfully shape students’ high school experiences. The fact that more high school students drop out of ninth grade (35%) than in any other year of high school highlights the importance of strong preparation in the middle grades for students of all socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. On June 23, 2006 the American Youth Policy Forum held a forum on the middle grades. Speakers at the forum included: John Nori, Director of Instructional Leadership Resources at the National Association of Secondary School Principals; Linda Hopping, State Director of the Georgia Lighthouse Schools to Watch Program; and Dr. Irvin Howard, Director of California Schools to Watch-Taking Center Stage program. Each speaker discussed their organization and provided recommendations on how to improve education in the middle grades.
Reports
NASSP Policy Recommendations for Middle Level Reform (July 2006)
http://www.principals.org/s_nassp/sec.asp?CID=937&DID=53494
The debate over education reform has focused primarily on elementary and high schools in recent years, but middle level reform must be included as part of this conversation. It is time for all of us—policymakers, practitioners, parents, and others—to view education as a continuum and to provide the full range of support required to meet the needs of students at all levels of learning. Middle level schools face a number of unique challenges that are often overlooked in this debate such as young adolescent development, organizational structures and practices, transitions, and teacher and school leader competencies. There is also a lack of consensus about what middle level teaching and learning should look like and this has resulted in troubling inconsistencies in middle level learning opportunities from school to school, from district to district, and from state to state. This report provides recommendations for middle level reform proposed by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. They include: recognizing and supporting the middle grades as a unique developmental stage apart from the elementary and high school grades; strengthening middle level organizational structures, instructional practices, and classroom learning environments; improving middle level transitions; and identifying and promoting specialized middle level teacher and school leader competencies.
NCLB: Middle Schools Are Increasingly Targeted for Improvement (June 2005)
http://www.cep-dc.org/nclb/NCLBPolicyBriefs2005/CEPPB2web.pdf
This policy brief provides data on the number of middle schools identified for improvement in school years 2002-03 and 2004-05. It found that in 2002-03 roughly 1,062 middle schools, or 18% of all Title I middle schools, were identified for improvement. In school year 2004-05, roughly 2,140 middle schools were identified for improvement.
Reexamining Middle School Effects: A Comparison of Middle Grades Students in Middle Schools and K-8 Schools (2006)
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/resolve?id=doi:10.1086/498996&erFrom=4096595764929768624Guest
The period of the middle grades has seen numerous reforms to improve education for students in early adolescence. However, although several current reforms seek to overhaul middle schools, only a handful of studies have directly compared the effects of different configurations of grades. This analysis uses district and student data from one of the few U.S. urban districts that contain both middle schools and K-8 schools. The authors compare student outcomes in eighth grade, finding few differences by school type. Only self-esteem and perceived threat differ by type of eighth-grade school. They also show that students' self-esteem benefits academic outcomes, a benefit that primarily accrues to students in middle schools.
State-wide Middle Level Implementation: Lessons Learned (2004)
http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/publications/RMLE/rmle_vol29_no3.pdf
This paper examines the progress that Arkansas has had in implementing the middle school concept. Results of a survey distributed in 1990 were compared to results of a similar survey distributed in the spring of 2004. Progress or the lack thereof has been noted. In 1990, when principals were asked the most difficult task in designing, implementing, improving, and advancing a middle level program, 12 items emerged from the responses: teacher attrition, building space, money, training, staffing, certification, middle level program design versus traditional design, parent/community support, time, sharing teachers with the local high school, state standards, and administrators’ attitudes. In the 2004 survey, six items emerged: middle school philosophy (17%), scheduling conflicts due to shared personnel (17%), shortage of personnel (administrative support (8%), need to better understand adolescents and instructional techniques that are successful with this age group (7%), and lack of time (6%). The authors found that the 2004 survey responses indicated a higher level of implementation of the middle level concept in Arkansas public schools. By the fall of 2004, 80 percent of schools were configured in some combination of fifth through eighth grade. Further, in fall of 2004, 370 million new dollars were designated into education, allowing districts to commit the resources necessary to initiate and sustain change. Many people think that middle school is just an organizational change from 7-9 grades to 6-8 grades. Those more intimately involved in the middle level movement understand the fundamental difference between a junior high program and a middle level program. The authors conclude that good progress has been made in Arkansas to differentiate the two.
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