Academic Excellence

High-performing schools with middle grades are academically excellent. They challenge all students to use their minds well.

  • All students are expected to meet high academic standards.
  • Curriculum, instruction, assessment, and appropriate academic interventions are aligned with high standards.
  • The curriculum emphasizes a deep understanding of important concepts and the development of essential skills.
  • Instructional strategies include a variety of challenging and engaging activities that are clearly related to the grade-level standards, concepts, and skills being taught.
  • Teachers use a variety of methods to assess and monitor the progress of student learning (e.g., tests, quizzes, assignments, exhibitions, projects, performance tasks, and portfolios).
  • The faculty and master schedule provides students time to meet rigorous academic standards.
  • Students are provided the support they need to meet rigorous academic standards.
  • ​The adults in the school are provided time and frequent opportunities to enhance student achievement by working with colleagues to deepen their knowledge and to improve their standards-based practice
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Social Equity

Social-Equity

High-performing schools with middle grades are socially equitable, democratic, and fair. They provide every student with high-quality teachers, resources, learning opportunities, and support. They keep positive options open for all students.

  • All students, including English learners, students with disabilities, and gifted and honors students, participate to the greatest extent possible in diverse classes with high academic and behavioral expectations.
  • Students are provided the opportunity to use many and varied approaches to achieve and demonstrate competence and mastery of standards.
  • Teachers continually adapt curriculum, instruction, assessment, and scheduling to meet their students’ diverse and changing needs.
  • All students have equal access to valued knowledge in all school classes and activities.
  • Students have ongoing opportunities to learn about and appreciate their own and others’ cultures.
  • The school community knows every student well.
  • To the fullest extent possible, the faculty welcomes and encourages the active participation of all its families and makes sure that all its families are an integral part of the school.
  • The school’s reward system is designed to value diversity, civility, service, and democratic citizenship.
  • ​To the fullest extent possible, the school rules are clear, fair, and consistently applied.

Developmental Responsiveness

High-performing schools with middle grades are sensitive to the unique developmental challenges of early adolescence.

  • The staff creates a personalized environment that supports each student’s intellectual, ethical, social, and physical development.
  • The school provides access to comprehensive services to foster healthy physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.
  • Teachers foster curiosity, creativity, and the development of social skills in a structured and supportive environment.
  • The curriculum is both socially significant and relevant to the personal and career interests of young adolescents.
  • Teachers use an interdisciplinary approach to reinforce important concepts and skills and address real-world problems.
  • Students are provided multiple opportunities to explore a wide variety of topics and interests in order to develop their identity, learn about their strengths, discover and demonstrate their own competence, and plan for their future.
  • All students have opportunities for voice-posing questions, reflecting on experiences, and participating in decisions and leadership activities.
  • The school staff members develop alliances with families to enhance and support the well-being of the children.
  • Staff members provide all students with opportunities to develop citizenship skills, use the community as a classroom, and engage the community by providing resources and support.
  • The school offers age-appropriate co-curricular activities to help students develop social skills and character, as well as interests outside of the classroom.
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Organizational Structures and Processes 

Organizational-Structures-and-Processes

High-performing schools with middle grades are learning organizations that establish norms, structures, and organizational arrangements to support and sustain their trajectory toward excellence.

  • Every aspect of school change is driven by a shared vision of what a high-performing school is and does.
  • The principal has the responsibility and authority to hold the school-improvement enterprise together, including day-to-day know-how, coordination, strategic planning, and communication.
  • The school is a community of practice in which learning, experimentation, and time and opportunity for reflection are the norm.
  • The school and district devote resources to content-rich professional learning, which is connected to reaching and sustaining the school vision and increasing student achievement.
  • The school is not an island unto itself; it is a part of a larger educational system, i.e., districts, networks, and community partnerships.
  • The school staff holds itself accountable for the student’s success.
  • District and school staff possess and cultivate the collective will to persevere, believing it is their business to produce increased achievement and enhanced development of all students.
  • The school and district staffs work with colleges and universities.
  • The school includes families and community members in setting and supporting the school’s trajectory toward high performance.