I taught middle school English for five years, and I can honestly say that middle schools are strange (and wonderful!) places. They are not quite elementary schools, although some students are still struggling to master basic skills, and they are not quite high schools, although some students are earning high school credit and seriously considering college and career choices.
A new study by American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades by Trish Williams, Matthew Rosin, and Michael W. Kirst appears in AEI’s January 2011 Outlook. The study takes a look at the best ways to improve academic performance of students in the middle grades.
Summary: Educators and policymakers have debated in recent years how best to improve academic performance in the middle grades. In the absence of outcomes-based research about what works, school districts have reshuffled grade configurations, bolstered their focus on “academic rigor,” and worked to ensure that students are engaged in school as they go through the turbulence of puberty. To find out what district and school policies and practices are linked to higher student performance in the middle grades, a team of researchers from EdSource, Stanford University, and American Institutes for Research spent eighteen months conducting the most extensive empirical study of this grade level to date. This Outlook highlights what policymakers can do to support the middle grades.
Key points:
–High-performing middle schools align instruction with state standards and use student data to improve student learning.
–States should align education spending with clear priorities to make the best use of scarce resources.
–Competitive grant initiatives sponsored by the US Department of Education should emphasize the importance of rigorous standards and quality assessments and the use of student data to improve teaching and learning.
For further information, see http://www.aei.org/outlook/101018. Also of note, Wave 2 funding of Next Generation Learning Challenges is currently targeting middle grades. See my post on 1/20/2011.
