Middle Grades Education Initiative: A Collection of Four Reports

Education’s Weak Link: Student Performance in the Middle Grades is the first in a series of reports on the condition of middle grades education in the South. The report, funded by a grant from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, analyzes national and international assessment data about performance in the middle grades. Among its findings: Eighth-grade students in rural areas and small towns of the South score lower than their counterparts nationwide in mathematics and science. Central-city eighth-graders across the nation and in the SREB states have the lowest achievement. However, in the SREB states, rural students’ scores are just as low as central-city students’ scores, and that is not true nationwide. The largest performance gap is between eighth-grade girls in the South and in the rest of the nation. The SREB report questions whether students — especially girls in the rural South — “are more likely to be rewarded for behavior, attendance or effort rather than knowledge and mastery of content.”

Raising the Bar in the Middle Grades: Readiness for Success, the second SREB report in a series funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, recommends that schools raise their standards for student performance. Following up on an earlier report on the gap in achievement among middle grades students, the second report links school and classroom practices to higher standards and expectations. Students should be expected to meet challenging requirements that might include reading 30 books a year, writing a research paper, completing an algebra course, and designing, conducting and presenting a science investigation, the report says. Schools also should give students actual examples of student work that meet the higher criteria and tell students how their work will be judged. For middle grades students to succeed, states need to hold all of them to high standards and support principals and teachers as they change curricula and teaching strategies, the report says.

The third report in a series from the Southern Regional Education Board, Improving Teaching in the Middle Grades: Higher Standards for Students Aren’t Enough, found that most states will allow teachers with minimal subject-area preparation to teach core subjects such as mathematics, science and English to seventh- and eighth-graders. As a result, many students are ill-prepared for high school work and often end up in remedial or “watered-down” courses in ninth grade. The SREB report recommends that states raise their standards for entrance into teacher education programs as well as for teacher licensure. Following up on earlier reports that recommended raising expectations and standards for student achievement in the middle grades, the third report links the preparation and continuing growth of teachers to student achievement.

Leading the Way: State Actions to Improve Student Achievement in the Middle Grades lays out changes in policies that states need to consider in order for students leaving the middle grades to succeed in high school and beyond. States are urged to action so that all students leaving the middle grades can do at least basic work in core academic areas; nearly half fall below that standard currently. This report, the fourth in a series on middle grades education funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, describes the critical elements in core subject areas and calls on states to review their standards to ensure that they spell out precisely what students are to learn and what is needed to be promoted from grade to grade. It calls for leadership by the states and a strategy for improving the middle grades. A comprehensive framework for improvement identifies 10 factors that states, districts and schools should consider to improve the middle grades. The report urges educators to believe that all students matter and to provide extra time and extra help for those who need them. The report also calls for strong, effective leadership from principals and more qualified teachers who will work together and use classroom practices and technology to excite students and engage them in learning. Parents also are urged to hold their children to higher standards and support the schools.

Each of these publications is available in Adobe Acrobat Reader PDF format.

For more information about SREB publications, please e-mail publications@sreb.org or call (404) 875-9211, Ext. 236.