Middle Grades

Testing data demonstrates that it is during the middle grades years that students’ academic achievement begins to slip as they make the transition from childhood to adolescence. To counter this trend, EDC has developed curricula, models of school reform, and other resources that specifically target the needs of young adolescents and the schools that serve them.

Adolescent Literacy

For years, Mary Manning, principal of the Collins Middle School in Salem Massachusetts, has seen children come into her school unable to read at grade level. After three years, many failed to catch up before moving on to high school. “After a few years of saying ‘isn’t this terrible,’ and wringing our hands, we decided to get some training and see if we could tackle this problem,” says Manning.

Adolescent Literacy and Technology

Teachers know that useful and creative materials are available on the Web, but they often don’t have the time to locate and experiment with them. To make Web resources more readily available, EDC’s Judith Zorfass and her staff at the Center for Family, School, and Community have developed the Literacy Matters Web site, an online resource for middle and high school teachers, parents, and students committed to supporting adolescent literacy.

Career Development and Exploration for Teens

As fewer young people opt for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), the National Science Foundation has funded EDC to develop a resource designed to engage young people in career exploration and development.

Sharing "College Knowledge" among Latino Communities

A shortage of “college knowledge” may hinder Latino families from realizing their dreams of a college education for their children, according to a recent study by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI).

Visionary Middle Schools

What are the best ways to educate an ever-more diverse adolescent student population? A new book, based on four years of research, provides detailed portraits of three urban middle schools in different parts of the country that developed unique and effective local solutions responsive to students, their cultures, and to school district and state mandates.

Schools Report on Success with Impact Mathematics

A new report issued by McGraw-Hill Education documents the success that eight schools across the country have had with the Impact Mathematics middle-school curriculum.

Improving Middle Grades Education

As Coordinator for Middle Grades Education in Georgia, Joanne Lee travels across her state, presenting to teachers, principals, and superintendents about what successful middle grades education looks like and how they can create high performing middle schools in their own districts. In this work, Lee has come to rely on the new Leadership Training Curriculum produced by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative

When Maine Governor Angus King first proposed last year to provide a laptop computer to every middle school student, many educational technology experts considered it to be a courageous experiment, but were concerned that it put the cart before the horse—that technology would drive, rather than serve, educational practices.

National Forum Lauded in Grantmakers Report on Middle-Grades Reform

The EDC-based National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform receives special recognition in a new report entitled, "Maturing Investments: Philanthropy and Middle Grades Reform," released last week by the group Grantmakers in Education.

Data-Based Decision Making in Action

Like most principals facing a new school year, Carol Stack, at the Jefferson Middle School in Champaign, Illinois, had set a series of goals for herself in September of 1999. One of her top goals was to reduce the school’s suspension rate. She had a hunch that particular groups of students were being suspended in disproportionate numbers, but she didn’t have a firm handle on the scope of the problem.