Southern Regional Education Board A New Mission for the Middle Grades: Preparing Students for A...

Southern

Regional

Education

Board

A New Mission for the Middle Grades: Preparing Students

for A Changing World

The Report of the SREBMiddle Grades Commission

Chaired by:Governor Beverly Perdue

of North Carolina

Southern

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Education

Board

Commission Members

Middle Grades Commission Report 2

James Gill Principal Alba Middle School, AL

Joseph Morton State Superintendent of Schools Alabama

Arthur Orr State Senator Alabama

Laura BednarAssistant Commission for Learning Services

Arkansas DOE

Jimmy Jeffress Chair, Senate Education Committee Arkansas

David Sokola State Senator Delaware

Frances Haithcock Chancellor of Public Schools Florida DOE

John Legg State Representative Florida

John Barge State Superintendent of Schools Georgia

Terry Holliday Commissioner of Education Kentucky

Jack Westwood State Senator Kentucky

Debbie SchumExecutive Director/Office of College & Career Readiness

Louisiana DOE

Paul Dunford Director-Middle Grades Initiative Maryland

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Commission Members


Jerry Weast Superintendent of SchoolsMontgomery County Schools, MD

Beverly PerdueGovernor of North Carolina Chair of Middle Grades Commission

North Carolina

June Atkinson State Superintendent of Schools North Carolina

Rick Glazier State Representative North Carolina

Bill Harrison Chairman, State Board of Education North Carolina

Howard Lee Executive Director, Education Cabinet North Carolina

Judith Rizzo Executive Director & CEOJames B. Hunt, Jr. Institute, NC

Jerry Tillman State Senator North Carolina

Cathy Tomon PrincipalBroad Creed Middle School, NC

Leslie Winner Executive DirectorZ. Smith Reynolds Foundation, NC

John Ford State Senator Oklahoma

Susan Paddack State Senator Oklahoma

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Commission Members


Ray Davis Education Consultant: Career Guidance South Carolina

Mark Maddox Former State Representative Tennessee

Gary NixonExecutive Director, State Board of Education

Tennessee

Robert Eissler State Representative Texas

Lizzette ReynoldsDeputy Commissioner Statewide Policy and Programs

Texas Education Agency

Vern Williams Mathematics TeacherLongfellow Middle School, VA

Patricia Wright State Superintendent of Schools Virginia

Betty Jo JordanExecutive Assistant to State Superintendent of Education

West Virginia DOE

Myk GarnDirector, Educational Technology Cooperative

SREB

Dave Spence President SREB

Gene Bottoms Senior Vice President SREB

Joan Lord Vice President SREB

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Commission Consultants


Patricia AshleyDirector of District and School Transformation

North Carolina DOE

Robert BalfanzResearch Scientist, Center for Social Organization of Schools

Johns Hopkins University, MD

Sondra Cooney Former Director, MMGW SREB

Francis (Skip) Fennell

Past President, National Council of Teachers of MathematicsProfessor, McDaniel College

McDaniel College, MD

Sam Houston President &CEO

North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center

Sandy Kress Senior CounselAkin Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, TX

Hayes Mizell Distinguished Senior Fellow Learning Forward, SC

Cynthia Shanahan

Professor, Literacy Language and CultureExecutive Director, Council on Teacher Education

Illinois

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New Mission:

Prepare more students for success in rigorous high school courses — and ultimately for most students to graduate and proceed to college, advanced training or enter employment with some type of certification.


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Middle Grades Are Critically Important

States’ goals for raising high school graduation, improving students’ readiness for college and careers, and helping more students earn a degree or credential are in jeopardy unless the middle grades are successful in this new mission.


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Achieving the New Mission

States must help districts and schools to:

1.Prepare all teachers to use rigorous reading and writing assignments to teach their subjects.


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State literacy actions

Help districts and schools develop literacy plans. Revise certification and teacher education

standards. Provide long-term professional development. Provide an accelerated language arts curriculum. Revise state assessments. Prepare discipline-based literacy tools for

teachers. Train principals to support literacy.


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States must work with districts and schools to:

2.Ensure that students acquire the math foundational skills needed to succeed in Algebra I in grade eight or nine and to succeed in advanced math courses in high school.


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State mathematics actions

Teach the foundation of arithmetic well. Place a balanced emphasis on teaching procedural

skills, conceptual understanding and reasoning skills.

Place ready students into an accelerated math path. Require seventh- and eighth-grade math and science

teachers to work toward high school certification. Support long-term professional development to

improve math instruction. Prepare principals who support improved math

instruction.


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3.Attract more students to STEM classes and careers by giving middle grades students more opportunities to discover their interests and aptitudes in using math, science and technology as tools for solving problems.


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State STEM actions

Require and support lab-based science. Support STEM teams — math, science,

technology and literacy. Establish a STEM clearinghouse. Establish pacesetting STEM schools.


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4.Get at-risk students on the graduation track through a more engaging and accelerated curriculum, coupled with extended learning time and an advocate teacher who teaches them the habits of success and how to be persistent in their studies.


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5.Allow students to explore career and educational interests and aptitudes, to connect these to future educational opportunities, to formulate an educational and career plan and to understand the level of commitment needed to achieve their goals.


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States must work with universities to:

6.Ensure that leaders’ preparation programs prepare principals for the new middle grades mission and to implement new Common Core State Standards.


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States must take steps to:

7.Ensure that all existing and new teachers can teach the new higher standards as a basis for certification.


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States must hold districts and schools accountable and:

8.Create an accountability system that focuses on continuous improvement and accelerating more students to higher levels of achievement.


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Achieving the New Vision

“We need conversations and commitment across the SREB states about the importance of middle school and the difference a really good experience can make in a student’s life. These conversations have to occur at the school board level, with parents and across the business community.”

Governor Beverly Perdue, North Carolina


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