The following article was written by Carol Abbott, education programs consultant, Middle and High School Improvement Office, California Department of Education. It is the first in a series introducing the forthcoming reform project, “Taking Center Stage – Act II: Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for California’s Middle Grades Students.”
The middle grades experience might be hard for students, but is often even more difficult for principals. These “leaders in the middle” serve a unique population of young adolescent learners whose mood swings and quirky behaviors are legendary.
Among other things, middle grades leaders must guide the school’s professional staff to work effectively with this age group, implement a vision for healthy school climate that makes learning relevant and exciting, align curriculum and assessments, analyze data to promote student achievement, and keep parents informed and involved.
Help in balancing these and other responsibilities is on the way. Middle grades educators will soon have access to an exciting new resource from the California Department of Education. “Taking Center Stage – Act II: Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for California’s Middle Grades Students” is a dynamic revision of the original middle grades reform document “Taking Center Stage: A Commitment to Standards-Based Education for California’s Middle Grades Students,” developed in 2001. The new document will be released Feb. 29, 2008 during the California League of Middle Schools Annual Conference in Sacramento.
TCS II will be delivered via a powerful new Web portal that was designed by and for middle grades educators. It provides research, in-depth discussion of school practices, video vignettes, professional learning opportunities, and links to additional resources. Look for a preview of the Taking Center Stage – Act II Web site in late fall. Visit http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/TCSII.
ACSA members have been partners throughout the development of “Taking Center Stage – Act II.” As one of the partner organizations in the California Middle Grades Alliance, ACSA helped shape TCS II through a year-long discussion about critical issues facing middle grades educators. In September 2005, members of the ACSA Middle Grades Council facilitated regional teams during a statewide Web conference to tell CDE’s Middle and High School Improvement Office what they needed from a statewide middle grades document. Their input helped change TCS II from a revised document into a dynamic online Web portal that can stay current as new challenges, practices and research emerge.
ACSA’s member input also helped shape the 12 recommendations that are the foundation for TCS II. The recommendations focus on practices that will help deliver developmentally appropriate and engaging standards-based content in a way that will help close the achievement gap. Each chapter of TCS II explores one of the recommendations in depth. The recommendations deliberately align with other major middle grades initiatives.
TCS II grew out of an awareness that despite the many reforms California educators have initiated since the publication of the original Taking Center Stage, results from the statewide testing reveal a lingering achievement gap for subgroups of students in many of California’s schools. For example, although only 43 percent of middle grades students statewide scored proficient or above in English language arts, the numbers were far lower for some subgroups of students. Approximately 29 percent of middle grades African American and Hispanic students reached proficient or above; 8 percent of English learners reached proficiency or above, and 11 percent of students with disabilities reached proficiency or above.
Academic Excellence
In light of the achievement gap and other ongoing challenges in middle grades education, there is a clear need for academic excellence – one of four sections in TCS II that mirror the Schools to Watch criteria developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle School Reform. Three chapters comprise the section on academic excellence.
Chapter 1 – Rigor. The first chapter discusses how leaders at both the district and school levels support a vision that all students can attain or exceed grade-level standards. It includes information about developing literacy across the curriculum and strategies that help align instruction, materials and assessment to the standards.
Chapter 2 – Instruction, Assessment and Intervention. The second chapter explores strategies that integrate instruction with continuous progress monitoring and timely, accelerated interventions. It provides a wealth of information about resources for instruction in each of the content areas.
Chapter 3 – Time. The content of the chapter on time explores how teaching teams weave instruction, assessment and interventions into a schedule that is flexible enough to allow students to transition to and from needed interventions without excluding them from exploratory courses or needed social engagement. The chapter also shows how site and district leaders play a critical role in making time for and supporting regularly scheduled team meetings to discuss the intersection of instruction, assessment and interventions.
Developmental Responsiveness
The second part of TCS II includes three chapters that explore developmental responsiveness, which will be the focus of the next article in this series. Ever since the release of “Caught in the Middle” in 1989, middle grades educators have been committed to designing programs that recognize the unique challenges facing young teens. It has never been an easy task, and it is complicated by the fact that there is no designated teaching credential specific to middle grades. In addition, many of the No Child Left Behind regulations leave middle grades administrators in a bind, particularly with respect to finding “highly qualified teachers” who are both subject matter experts and versed in the relationship skills needed to help young adolescents bond to a school community.
Chapter 4 – Relevance. Research on the developmental characteristics of young adolescents is both fascinating and informative for school teams as they attempt to focus middle grades students on learning when peers, play and food may seem more appealing.
Chapter 5 – Relationships. Young adolescence is a time when peer relationships take on new significance. However, it is also an impressionable time when students need strong connections with caring adults.
Chapter 6 – Transitions. Moving from elementary to middle school, and then from middle to high school, can be a scary time. Articulation agreements between schools and districts, and school practices that help teachers prepare students for course work at the next grade level, are critical for overall accountability and student success.
Social Equity
The third article will introduce the two chapters that explore issues surrounding social equity, which is a major focus of Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell’s commitment to closing the achievement gap. Although the access chapter covers equity in depth, equal access to standards-based education is the foundation for all TCS II chapters and videos.
Chapter 7 – Access. Strategies that carefully integrate instruction with continuous progress monitoring and timely, accelerated interventions are one of the hallmarks of effective schools. Site and district leaders play a critical role in making time for and supporting regularly scheduled team meetings to discuss the intersection of instruction, assessment and interventions.
Chapter 8 – Safety, Resilience and Health. The chapter on safety, resilience and health provides a specific lens for ensuring equity through provision of support services such as counseling, safe facilities, freedom from bullying and community health supports.
Organizational Structures and Processes
The last article will explore the four chapters of TCS II that focus on the organizational structures and processes that support learning. That section includes an entire chapter devoted to leadership issues, as well as a chapter on professional learning.
Chapter 9 – Leadership. The chapter on leadership outlines the interconnected layers of support needed for individual school success. Sections of the chapter focus on leadership roles for school board members, district and site leaders, and student and parent leadership roles.
Chapter 10 – Professional learning. The chapter on professional learning explores the kinds of professional development needed by all stakeholders responsible for middle grades education.
Chapter 11 – Accountability. The chapter on accountability includes links to many resources to help leaders meet the state, federal and local accountability systems.
Chapter 12 – Partnerships. The partnerships chapter explores many of the roles that education and community stakeholders can play in helping middle grades students succeed.
If “no man is an island,” it is equally true that no principal is an expert in all aspects of curriculum, instruction, assessment, interventions, organization, safety, scheduling and so on. TCS II is designed to give busy administrators and teachers easy access to resources that will help them achieve excellence in the middle grades.