Mathematics Education in the Middle Grades Teaching to Meet the Needs of Middle Grades Learners and to Maintain High Expectations: Proceedings of a National Convocation and Action Conferences (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Organizational Issues in the Middle Grades
Organizational Issues in the Middle Grades
Pages 95-128
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From page 95... ...
Gibson, Patapsco Middle School, Ellicott City, MD. THE ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE OF SCHOOLS AT THE MIDDLE GRADES: THE ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT, SUBJECT MATTER, AND TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT Mary Kay Stein, Learning Research Development Center, University of Pittsburgh.
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From page 97... ...
Gibson Patapsco Middle School, Ellicott City, MD The key word in the three questions we were asked to consider is "meaningful." At the middle level, principals and administrators often fall into a trap of offering programs that many do not consider meaningful. To ensure that we are looking at meaningful mathematics programs, we have to represent a full scope of the types of mathematics that we offer within middle schools.
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From page 98... ...
Also, we need to make sure we are taking a look at the assessments that we give students so that we are getting a real fee} for where ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES students are as far as understanding and skills. If we can build a program where we are utilizing data, data that tells us a lot, then we wait start to build programs that allow us to have multiple levels that actually work.
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From page 99... ...
There should be places for students to be able to see and maximize the use of that understanding in terms of their learning environment. If effective teaching is really going on within a building, teachers can collaborate anti talk across subject lines anti see how it all fits together for the rel evance of the student going to school.
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From page 100... ...
ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES As principals and effective leaders of the building, we have to be able to sit down and communicate with our teachers, to understand their skills and know the support that they need to succeed. We nee(1 to push them along.
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From page 101... ...
The subject matter approach, on the other han(l, is ([riven by the imperatives of mathematics, particularly by the new ways of conceptualizing the teaching and learning of mathematics which have been recommended by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards (NCTM, 19891. At the mi(l(lle school level, these stan(lar(ls call for the broadening of topics beyond the typical review of general arithmetic, an(l, at all grade levels, for more studentcentere(1 forms of pedagogy, more cognitively challenging mathematical tasks, anti greater (1iversity in pe(lagogical practices (e.g., the use of extended
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From page 102... ...
The proposed approach to middle school reform joins professional development for teachers and administrative functions giving rise to a new middle school organization and structure that is jointly informed by subject matter and developmental concerns. THE DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH The developmental approach to middle school reform builds on our knowledge of the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual characteristics of students in their early adolescent years.
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From page 103... ...
If the second hypothesis is accepted, the problem of the middle school reforms of the last decade can be recast as a problem of not penetrating the e(lucational core, a core that by (lefinition resi(les in teaching anti learning interactions inside the classroom door anti hence needs to be informe(1 by subject matter. Teaching and learning is always about something.
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From page 104... ...
. These findings parallel the disappointing middle grades performance on the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress.
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From page 105... ...
In most schools and districts, professional development is organized and DEVE LOPME NT, SU BJ ECT MATTE R
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From page 106... ...
Without continuous attention from the highest levels of school organization, professional development, the only provision for adult leaning in the educational system, is bound to be viewed as tangential by administrators and experienced as disconnected and unhelpful by teachers. A THIRD APPROACH Although some successes can be claimed by both the developmental and the subject matter approaches to middle school reform, to date, neither has led to the level and kind of student performance that one would like to see.
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From page 107... ...
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS PART OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION The urgency of bringing professional development into the organization of schools as opposed to treating it as an afterthought is suggested by the following quotation. After noting that universities exist to nurture the ongoing learning of their faculties, as well as to educate students, Sarason (1998)
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From page 108... ...
Rather than focusing primarily on administrative work, principals need to communicate, through their talk and actions, that the continuous improvement of student learning through an unrelenting focus on instructional improvement is the school's primary mission. Daily visits to the school's classrooms, attendance at professional development sessions alongside their teachers, and bringing in and then working with school-based professional developers are just a few of the ways that principals can become deeply involved in their schools' instructional improvement efforts.
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From page 109... ...
These suggestions for bringing professional development into the mainstream of a school's organizational structure bring their own set of challenges. Principals wait find it easier to follow such an approach if it is expected and supported by the district.
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From page 110... ...
(1998~. Designing professional development for teachers of science and mathematics.
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From page 111... ...
, Minsuk Shim, Steven Brand, Antoinette Favazza, and Anne Seitsinger National Center on Public Education and Social Policy, School of Education, University of Rhode Island In recent years much has been written about the poor performance of America's middle grade students on the International Mathematics and Science Assessments ~IMSS)
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From page 112... ...
Our third and final goal is to provide some recommendations for more effective ways to address the need for continued improvement in this area than are provided by overly simplistic, blaming, and unidimensional calls to arms. THE PROJECT ON HIGH PERFORMANCE LEARNING COMMUNITIES Over the past two decades the senior author of this paper has been engaged in examining the common elements of high performing schools: those schools in which students perform, achieve and display more positive adjustment in social, behavioral, and emotional domains than would be predicted for students from similar backgrounds and environments.
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From page 113... ...
As part of the Project on High Performing Learning Communities (Project HiPlaces) we have had the opportunity to study and conduct evaluations of several major initiatives that focus on transforming middle grades education, as well as reform efforts in a number of states and communities with similar goals.
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From page 114... ...
Over the last two decades we have continuously revised and refined these instruments, based on both the emergence of new recommendations and lessons for reform (e.g., the standards movement, the work of Lauren Resnick, Fred Newmann, Michael Fullen, and others) and on the continuous testing of the mode} and the measures against their ability to predict and account for gains in student performance, achievement and adjustment on a broad spectrum of indices (e.g., everything from "New Standards" exams to nationally norm referenced tests to teacher provided grades, ratings, and reports of student performance and adjustment)
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From page 115... ...
There are a number of important features of this model that respond to the critics of current middle level recommendations versus current middle level practice. Most critically, at the heart of all major recommendations for mi(l(lle level education, inclu(ling the integrative mode} we present, are calls for a high quality core curriculum that is rigorous and embedded in high expectations for all students.
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From page 116... ...
Given this understanding why then do middle grade programs appear to their critics in the ways that fuel alternative views of middle grades as low expectation environments that lack rigor and sound instruction? What must be considered here is the degree to which current practices in many mi(l(lle gra(le programs, whether in elementary schools, in middle schools, or in junior high schools actually renect what most middle level educators would consider to be the recommendations for best practice at the mi(l(lle level (i.e., Table ORGANIZATIONAL ISSUES 11.
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From page 117... ...
While the number of schools now in this particular sample has reached more than 90, the results presented below pertain to the 31 schools that were a part of this element of the Project on High Performance Learning Communities from that second year through a fifth year of the Project. Analyses of the larger samples are ongoing and preliminary results are highly consistent with those reported next.
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From page 118... ...
STUDENT OUTCOMES Figure ~ shows the average achievement scores in reading, mathematics, anti language arts that were obtaine(1 by schools in each of these groups. There is a total number of more than 15,000 students anti nearly 900 teachers in
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From page 119... ...
These indicators included the percentage of students who are performing at grade level and scores in subsets of Figure 1. Stuclent Achievement Test Scores by Schools' Level of Implementation of High Performance Learning Communities Dimensions Mathematics Achievement Scores 248 Language Achievement Scores 248 Reading Achievement Scores 247 Project Initiative Middle Schools' Implementation Level of Middle Grades Practice High Partial None Note: State mean = 250, Standard deviation = 50 IMPROVI NG AC H I EVEME NT I N TH E Ml DDLE GRADES
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From page 120... ...
We will then consi(ler the association of such changes in implementation within schools as they relate to shifts in contextual conditions and, ultimately, student achievement anti relate(1 outcomes. The focal question here is, does student performance anti adjustment improve as the level and quality of implementation increases over time?
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From page 121... ...
Patterns similar to those found regarding achievement score gains were also found when we examined indicators of students' experiences of school climate, student adjustment, and health indices. These data complement the cross-sectional data described earlier, showing that whatever the preexisting levels of student outcomes in these areas, as schools move through levels of implementation of the elements of middle grade reform, there appear to be associated gains in key areas of student behavior and socioemotional adjustment.
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From page 122... ...
Note: All scores are the combination of the average gains in 6th and 8th grade Math and Reading achievement scores in participating schools across two, 2-year periods.
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From page 123... ...
Taken together, the above findings are extremely encouraging and show the potential impact on the achievement anti adjustment of adolescents of the ~mplementation of the elements of high performance mi(l(lle schools that are consistent with most current recommendations for mile level practice. Yet as teachers and adm~nistrators in our Category ~ schools would quickly point out, these highly implemented schools are far from fully transformed, particularly in terms of actual changes in instruction at the classroom level.
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From page 124... ...
are in keeping with much of what is now seen as the solution to the problems of middle level achievement. Our results clearly indicate this is the wrong conclusion resulting from a poorly framed understanding of what is actually happening at the mi(l(lle level.
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From page 125... ...
He added that the instruction for all students discussed at the Convocation is the same kind of instruction often prescribed for those identified as "gifted." "How can we ensure that inner city and poor community middle grades children have the same opportunities as suburban and affluent to take challenging mathematics? What structure or system will support this?
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From page 126... ...
Ms. Stein respon(le(1 that the best gift possible for middle grades students is to educate them wed in critical areas such as algebra so they can build confidence and move forward whatever their aspirations.
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From page 127... ...
He spoke for instructional leadership and the need to include principals as well as teachers in the conversation, matching principals to teams of teachers, and working with principals to ensure they bring growth to their staff and students. When pushed by the audience to describe the blend of content area specialists and attention to children, Ms.
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