Taking Center Stage—Act II

Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for California’s Middle Grades Students

What is it about the middle grades that makes leading, teaching, learning, and achieving so challenging for adults and students alike? It is an “inconvenient truth” that this population of students is different and more challenging than their younger or older counter parts. While the students eventually grow out of the tumultuous young adolescent phase of their lives, middle grades educators are held accountable for effectively reaching and educating these hormonally challenged youngsters.

Many adults are fond of telling jokes about their own awkward middle grades experiences or about the challenges of working with young adolescents. Lagging achievement data for middle grades students is not only a reflection of what teachers may or may not be doing in the classrooms, but also the receptivity of learners at this age.

Nevertheless, each year, thousands of dedicated people are making a difference for California’s middle grades students. What can we learn from them and their best practices? What do research and data show about how to organize schools that meet the academic, physical, social, and emotional needs of young adolescents and at the same time prepare them for the rigors of high school?

These types of questions will be explored — and answered — in the California Department of Education's innovative Web project for middle grades educators: Taking Center Stage - Act II: Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for all Middle Grades Students (TCSII). TCSII is the dynamic, online sequel to the original Taking Center Stage: A Commitment to Standards-based Education for California's Middle Grades Students (2001). The Web portal is scheduled to premier on February 29, 2008, at the California League of Middle Schools conference.

The Challenges Facing Middle Grades Educators

Student achievement in the middle grades (six through eight) lags behind elementary grades in both California and across the nation. For example, in California, student performance in all subgroups fell from elementary school to the middle grades, and again in high school. [1] In addition, the results of The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) found that in mathematics and science, American fourth-graders reached a higher achievement level than their peers in almost every other developed nation. However, by the eighth grade, U.S. students had slipped to the middle of the list of nations, and under-performed students from several less-developed nations. [2] Other troubling trends include the following:

· Many of the teachers and administrators in California’s middle grades are new to the field or to the job classification.

· There is no credentialing program that specifically trains or certifies people to teach or administer middle grades programs.

· In spite of the exemplary efforts of many middle grades educators, testing results reveal a lingering achievement gap for particular subgroups of students in many of California’s schools. For example, according to the Education Trust West, California’s Latino and black eighth graders read at the level of fourth-grade whites. [3]

· Only 68 percent of California’s middle schools met their API target growth in 2005-2006.

· More than 40 percent of California’s eighth graders score Below Basic on the California Standards tests (CSTs) for mathematics and reading. [4]

· According to research by American College Testing (ACT), only 13 percent of eighth grade students are on target to be ready for college.” [5]

The challenges listed above are even more troubling because the middle grades present the last chance for many students to catch up to their grade-level peers. Young adolescents, however, often have many priorities other than school on their minds. Rapid developmental changes often signal a time of rebellion from adults and dependence on peer approval. In addition, rapid physical and emotional changes often go hand-in-hand with depression, risk-taking behaviors, disrupted sleep patterns, and poor nutritional habits.

Help for Middle Grades Stakeholders

In light of these changes, how do all of the middle grades “stakeholders” — including school board members, parents, teachers, and administrators — learn to work together to raise achievement levels before students reach high school? Educators “in the middle” need strategies, research, and professional development to meet the mounting challenges facing them. Middle grades educators need resources to help them in setting a vision for healthy school climate, making learning relevant and exciting, aligning curriculum and assessments, analyzing data to promote student achievement, and keeping parents informed and involved.

Fortunately, Taking Center Stage—Act II (TCSII) is designed to help the middle grades educators and stakeholders. The online format will allow TCSII to remain current while providing users with easy-access to a wide variety of resources. The interactive TCSII Web portal provides middle grades educators with an online “book” including research and in-depth discussion of school practices. The project also includes video vignettes, slide presentations, and professional learning modules to guide school teams in using the TCSII contents.

TCSII grew out of discussions by members of the California Middle Grades Alliance (CMGA) [6] about the lingering achievement gap between subgroups. CMGA members were concerned that many schools and districts with middle grades students have entered Program Improvement status. These problems come in spite of many promising changes in the middle grades.

To understand the underlying causes of the middle grades challenges, the California Department of Education and CMGA partners gathered information about effective middle grades strategies and interviewed middle grades practitioners about the pressing issues in middle grades education. Twelve recommendations for middle grades reform emerged from their deliberations. The recommendations are the basis of Taking Center Stage—Act II: Ensuring Success and Closing the Achievement Gap for California’s Middle Grades Students. [7] The TCSII recommendations deliberately align with other major middle grades initiatives in California and the nation, and reflect emerging priorities for schools serving middle grades students. These priorities have significant implications for district and school leaders throughout California.

Each TCSII chapter and related video focuses on one of the 12 recommendations, and provides a wealth of information that school team members need to help their students succeed. All of the TCSII content is divided into four parts that mirror the four Schools to Watch criteria developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle School Reform.

· Academic Excellence. The content of the first three chapters of TCSII explore “academic excellence.” The chapters—Rigor, Instruction, Assessment and Interventions, and Time discuss the challenges and resources available to help schools deliver rigorous, standards-based content to a population of young adolescents who are struggling through major physical, social, and psychological changes.

· Developmental Responsiveness. The second part of TCSII includes three chapters that explore developmental responsiveness: Relevance, Relationships, and Transitions. These topics reflect the commitment middle grades educators have had ever since the release of Caught in the Middle (1989) to designing programs that recognize the unique challenges facing young teens. These chapters attempt to help middle grades educators as they cope with many of the No Child Left Behind regulations, particularly with respect to finding and training “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.

· Social Equity. The third part of TCSII includes two chapters that explore issues surrounding equity: Access and Safety, Resilience, and Health. These chapters address 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 TCSII chapters and videos.

· Organizational Structures and Processes. The last four chapters of TCSII focus on the structures that support learning for young adolescents. These chapters include Leadership, Professional Learning, Accountability, and Partnerships.

Coming Soon!

Taking Center Stage—Act II is a free resource provided by the California Department of Education. It was developed by middle grades educators and experts for middle grades stakeholders. You will want to make this your premier Web portal for middle grades education so you can explore its contents when it premiers at the California League of Middle Schools Annual Conference on February 29, 2008.

This article is the first of a five-part series about the content of Taking Center Stage—Act II. This issue covers Part I — Setting the Stage. Part II will cover the sections of TCSII on Academic Excellence; Part-III covers Developmental Responsiveness; Part IV highlights the sections on Social Equity; and Part V explores the issues surrounding Organizational Structures and Processes.

COMING Feb. 29, 2008:

The Taking Center Stage--Act II (TCSII) Web Portal:

http://pubs.cde.ca.gov/TCSII

Premiering at the California League of Middle Schools Annual Conference—Sacramento

JOIN THE TCSII TEAM!