Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better

This new report released February 24 from EdSource describes the policies and practices that distinguish high-performing schools for middle grade students. The report found that regardless of socio-economic factors, successful schools have a shared district and school-wide culture that places the primary focus on improvements in academic outcomes for all students, from the lowest performing to the highest, and designs its instructional program to prepare all students for a rigorous high school education.

The report is based on a survey of 303 principals, 3,752 English Language Arts and Math teachers in grades 6-8, and 157 superintendents in California. The study compared common policies and practices against the spring 2009 scores on California’s standards-based tests in English Language Arts and Math of close to 204,000 students in grades 6, 7, and 8 from the schools included in the survey.

Available at www.edsource.org/middle-grades-study.html.