Academy for Educational Development

Middle Start Q & A

Patrick Montesano, Vice President and Director of the AED Center for School and Community Services,  answers questions about AED’s Middle Start initiative to improve education in the middle grades.

 

1. Why focus on the middle grades?

Until now, education reform efforts have been largely concentrated at the elementary level. High schools are also gaining increased attention and support. But the middle grades are an equally important link for students’ long-term success and deserve a focused and proven approach.

For example, for far too many young adolescents, the seeds of dropping out are sown in the middle grades, a fact highlighted by the low achievement scores among the 14 million students in grades 5-8 being tested annually under the No Child Left

"For far too many young adolescents, the seeds of dropping out are sown in the middle grades."

Behind Act (NCLB). The failure to prepare middle-grades students for high school has severe consequences both for young people and for the national economy.

2. What is the history of Middle Start, and in how many different states does it work?

Since 1994, AED has worked with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and other partners to establish the Middle Start initiative in Michigan and to expand it to other regions. In 1998, the Michigan Department of Education designated Middle Start as an eligible provider for schools seeking comprehensive improvement services under the state-administered federal Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program.

That same year, through a partnership with the Foundation for the Mid-South, Middle Start expanded to Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi . Since 1999, Middle Start has worked with 75 grantee schools. An additional 100 schools throughout the four states have participated in Middle Start professional development as well as in leadership development and networking activities through Middle Start networks, partnerships, and other programs. More than 450 schools in the four states have participated in a Middle Start self-study.

3. What are the goals of Middle Start?

Middle Start promotes the academic success and health development of all middle-grades students by collaborating with other national and local organizations to provide professional development to educators, build support networks, conduct research, and advocate for equitable middle-grades policies and practices. In this way, Middle Start has developed a web of support that goes beyond individual schools and classrooms to help all students, teachers, and administrators excel.

"Middle Start has developed a web of support that goes beyond individual schools and classrooms to help all students, teachers, and administrators excel."

Middle Start provides intensive comprehensive school improvement services to every school. This means that we help the whole school focus on increasing learning for every student through the continuous improvement of instruction. Our goal is to help middle-grades schools transform into high-performing learning environments that are academically excellent, responsive to the unique characteristics of young adolescents, and able to demonstrate social equity.

4. What are some of the core aspects of the program?

On-site coaching is provided to every school that participates in Middle Start, so that school personnel have support tailored to the specific needs of the school in developing and putting their reform plans in place. Middle Start coaches do this by helping schools create effective school leadership teams, establish small learning communities, align curriculum, instruction, and assessment with state and district standards, and engage families and community members in the school improvement in order to make the schools stronger and more responsive to families.

In order to provide schools with the best support possible, Middle Start taps local education improvement specialists and their organizations to assist participating schools—experts who live and work in the same regions as the students they serve. The result is a web of support comprising localspecialists, resources, and advocates for middle-grades students, with back-up, including research and evaluation, provided by the Middle Start National Center at AED.

5. What are the outcomes for the schools that implemented Middle Start?

A proven track record has earned Middle Start a place in the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory’s national Catalog of School Reform Models and on the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory’s list of 30 most-implemented models in the United States. Most recently, Middle Start was named a promising school improvement intervention in Focus on the Wonder Years, a study published by the RAND Corporation (2004).

"Student achievement in reading and mathematics has consistently improved in urban, suburban and rural Middle Start schools."

Student achievement in reading and mathematics has consistently improved in urban, suburban and rural Middle Start schools in comparison with like non-Middle Start schools. In addition, students exhibited greater engagement in academics and reported a greater sense of belonging and safety in school.

6. What does the future hold for Middle Start?

With the support of the Middle Start National Center at AED and our regional collaborators, Middle Start is extending services to an ever-increasing number of schools. The work that began in Michigan and spread to Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, is now primed for expansion to several other states or regions. With the support of private and public funding, more schools, districts and states can benefit from our intensive on-site services and the local networks and policy advocacy that sustain educational improvements long after the period of direct service.

For more information, visit the Middle Start Web site or contact Patrick Montesano.