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.

Three States Selected to Pilot Test Middle Grades Schools to Watch Program

The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform has selected three states to expand the reach and impact of its acclaimed "Schools to Watch" recognition program. The Forum will train teams of state leaders to implement Schools to Watch in California, Georgia, and North Carolina. The three states were chosen after a competitive selection process in which teams from each state demonstrated the capacity, commitment, and vision to partner with the Forum in the implementation of the program.

National Middle-Grades Forum Calls For Mandatory Specialized Preparation and Licensure of Middle-Level Teachers

All states should establish mandatory requirements for licensing teachers who plan to teach at the middle level, and college graduate programs should establish programs that specifically prepare teachers to teach young adolescents. Those are just two of the recommendations put forth in a new policy statement issued by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

Middle-Grades Forum Calls For Specialized Preparation And Licensure Of Middle-Level Teachers

"The Game of Commerce" Teaches Hands-on History

“The Game of Commerce” makes the realities of 19th century trade concrete for middle school students. Developed by senior EDC research associate Anne Shure of the Center for Educational Resources and Outreach, it continues an EDC tradition of using educational games to teach concepts in history and social studies.

Boston Students Rise to the ScienceQuest Challenge

Middle school students in ScienceQuest, an afterschool science program offered in six low-income Boston neighborhoods, celebrated their research projects and unveiled Web sites they created about them at a party hosted by Millennium Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge July 26.

From Subject to Citizen

One spring day in 1975, as the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Lexington approached, Carol Pixton’s eighth grade history class decided to write a play about the battle. For inspiration, they turned to their innovative history curriculum, From Subject to Citizen, an EDC series that emphasized primary historical materials and experiential learning.

New Math Curriculum Features Algebra for Middle School Students

Once taught primarily to college-bound students, algebra is now recognized as a critical “gateway” course for all students. “It’s considered the entrée into higher math, the hard sciences, even into university study itself,” explains Peter Braunfeld, professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “It’s become the difference between getting in and being left out.”

Learning In Deed

Through community service, students discover they can make a difference in the world around them.

Teaching Middle School Students to Be Active Researchers

Carlo, a New York seventh-grader, had composed several questions for an interview his class would conduct with a local cardiologist. He and his classmates were preparing the interview for their social studies class, but they had composed the questions in science class and role-played the interview in language arts.