New York City Middle School Reform Initiative: Review of Planning Grant Applications

In 2008 New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) developed a strategic vision for the improvement of its middle schools, known as The Campaign for Middle School Success. This is a multi-year, strategic approach to closing achievement gaps and increasing student academic achievement with frameworks for schools to apply with flexibility. It provided 70 middle schools, chosen through a competitive grant application process, with grants that would finance their improvement planning. The EDC research team conducted a qualitative analysis of nearly 100—funded and unfunded—middle schools’ planning grant applications. The report based on this analysis highlights identified areas of schools’ needs, instructional reform strategies, and approaches to collaboration. This project had a short time frame of four weeks.