The Relationship Between Middle Level Grade Configuration And Model Practices On Student Achievement In Urban School Districts PDF Download

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The Relationship Between Middle Level Grade Configuration and Model Practices on Student Achievement in Urban School Districts

The Relationship Between Middle Level Grade Configuration and Model Practices on Student Achievement in Urban School Districts
Author: Dana L. Kriznar
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

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ABSTRACT: Before investing a large amount of human and financial resources in grade configuration redesign, urban school administrators need to understand whether it is the large structural changes, like grade configuration redesign, or whether it is the practices implemented within those larger structures that make the biggest impact on student achievement. In this study, 32 K-8 configured schools in the southeast United States are paired with 32 6-8 configured schools with comparable SES and minority rates within the same urban school district. This research uses the results from 192 educator surveys to determine the implementation level of established model practices, including interdisciplinary teaming, common teacher planning, heterogeneous grouping, advisory periods, exploratory courses, and looping. In addition, the reading and math achievement gain scores from the Florida Comprehensive Test of 12,727 sixth grade students are used to determine if there is a relationship between any of the practices, the grade level configuration of the school and student achievement in an urban setting. There were differences in student achievement by grade configuration, with the students in K-8 schools making significantly greater gains in both reading and math; however, that increase may well be due to other factors such as grade level size or socioeconomic differences rather than the configuration of the school. Of the model practices examined, interdisciplinary teaming was the only model practice that had a significant difference in level of implementation, which was higher in the K-8 configured schools. When achievement gains were compared to the level of implementation of each of the six model practices, no significant relationships were found. Finally, there was no difference in combined effects of grade configuration and implementation of model level practices with gains in student achievement in reading or mathematics.


What Current Research Says to the Middle Level Practitioner

What Current Research Says to the Middle Level Practitioner
Author: Judith L. Irvin
Publisher: National Middle School Association
Total Pages: 388
Release: 1997
Genre: Middle school students
ISBN: 9781560901204

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This volume provides recent research findings on important topics related to the still-expanding middle school movement. They are divided into seven parts, addressing teaching/learning, curriculum, teacher education, social context, organization, leaderships, and issues and future directions. Following an introduction to middle level education research, by Irvin and Hough, the chapters are: (1) "Young Adolescent Development" (Eccles and Wigfield); (2) "Enhancing Self-Concept/Self-Esteem in Young Adolescents" (Lipka); (3) "Motivation and Middle School Students" (Anderman and Midgley); (4) "The Effects of Interdisciplinary Teaming on Teachers and Students" (Arhar); (5) "Teaching with Time on Your Side: Developing Long-Term Relationships in Schools" (McLaughlin and Doda); (6)"Middle Level Discipline and Young Adolescents: Making the Connection" (Bennett); (7) "Ability Grouping: Issues of Equity and Effectiveness" (Mills); (8) "Differing Perspectives, Common Ground: The Middle School and Gifted Education Relationship" (Rosselli); (9) "Inclusion" (Hines and Johnston); (10) "A Multifaceted Approach to Teaching Limited Proficiency Students" (VanNess and Platt); (11) "Assessment" (Stowell and McDaniel); (12) "Middle Level Competitive Sports Programs" (Swaim and McEwin); (13) "Middle Level Curriculum's Serendipitous History" (Toepfer); (14) "Effects of Integrative Curriculum and Instruction" (Vars); (15) "Curriculum for Whom?" (Brazee); (16) "Curriculum for What? The Search for Curriculum Purposes for Middle Level Students" (Beane); (17) "Current Issues and Research in Middle Level Curriculum: On Conversations, Semantics, and Roots" (Powell and Faircloth); (18) "Middle Level Teacher Preparation and Licensure" (McEwin and Dickinson); (19) "Multicultural Issues in Middle Level Teacher Education" (Hart); (20) "Improving Urban Schools: Developing the Talents of Students Placed at Risk" (Mac Iver and Plank); (21) "Service Learning and Young Adolescent Development: A Good Fit" (Schine); (22) "Home-School Partnerships: A Critical Link" (Brough); (23) "Organizational Trends and Practices in Middle Level Schools" (Valentine and Whitaker); (24) "A Bona Fide Middle School: Programs, Policy, Practice, and Grade Span Configurations" (Hough); (25) "Components of Effective Teams" (Trimble); (26) "Transition into and out of Middle School" (Mizelle and Mullins); (27) "Collaboration and Teacher Empowerment: Implications for School Leaders" (Clark and Clark); (28) "Women in Leadership Roles" (Clark and Clark); (29) "The Middle Level Principalship" (Valentine, Trimble, and Whitaker); and (30) "Setting a Research Agenda" (Hough and Irvin). Each chapter contains references. (HTH)


Policy Statement on Grade Configuration

Policy Statement on Grade Configuration
Author: National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform
Publisher:
Total Pages: 6
Release: 2008
Genre:
ISBN:

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In recent years, several large urban districts, including Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, and Kansas City, Missouri have converted their middle schools (generally grades 6-8) to K-8 schools in the hope of improving student achievement, attendance, and behavior, while also enhancing parental involvement. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, which supports all bona fide efforts to improve schooling for young adolescents (ages 10-14), recommends that such efforts be grounded in evidence-based research. Current research on grade configuration, however, is not definitive. More evidence is needed to document the positive outcomes achieved by 6-8 and K-8 schools on young adolescents, as well as by other organizational structures. The National Forum believes that what is most important for the education of young adolescent learners is what takes place inside each middle-grades school, not grade configuration per se. The National Forum has put forth a comprehensive policy agenda for middle-grades education designed to bring about positive and lasting school improvement. This paper summarizes the history and research surrounding grade configuration, along with the Forum's own experiences in identifying high-performing schools that serve young adolescents. These suggest that focusing on changing grade configuration as the solution to middle-grades problems and challenges may not achieve the intended results. [For "Small Schools and Small Learning Communities. Policy Statement. Issue 4," see ED528790.].


Moving Teacher Education into Urban Schools and Communities

Moving Teacher Education into Urban Schools and Communities
Author: Jana Noel
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2013-05-07
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136310835

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Winner of the 2013 American Educational Studies Association's Critics Choice Award! When teacher education is located on a university campus, set apart from urban schools and communities, it is easy to overlook the realities and challenges communities face as they struggle toward social, economic, cultural, and racial justice. This book describes how teacher education can become a meaningful part of this work, by re-positioning programs directly into urban schools and communities. Situating their work within the theoretical framework of prioritizing community strengths, each set of authors provides a detailed and nuanced description of a teacher education program re-positioned within an urban school or community. Authors describe the process of developing such a relationship, how the university, school, and community became integrated partners in the program, and the impact on participants. As university-based teacher education has come under increased scrutiny for lack of "real world" relevance, this book showcases programs that have successfully navigated the travails of shifting their base directly into urban schools and communities, with evidence of positive outcomes for all involved.


Research Supporting Middle Grades Practice

Research Supporting Middle Grades Practice
Author: David L. Hough
Publisher: IAP
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2010-08-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1617350818

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Exemplary Middle Grades Research: Evidence-Based Studies Linking Theory to Practice features research published throughout 2009 in MGRJ that has been identified by our review board as the most useful in terms of assisting educators with making practical applications from evidence-based studies to classroom and school settings. The editorial team is pleased to present these studies under one cover, trusting each will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on middle grades education in ways that will enable readers to develop theories more fully and apply findings and implications to a variety of settings. Studies are presented in chronological order as they appeared in each of the four issues published during the fourth volume year (2009). Our first three issues 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) were special themes wherein guest editors provided the oversight for selection and substantive editorial revisions. Any guest editors’ introductory comments regarding previously published manuscripts appear in italics, followed by the editor-in-chief ’s comments.


The Influence of Building Configuration on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Demographic Variables in Selected Midwestern School Districts

The Influence of Building Configuration on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Demographic Variables in Selected Midwestern School Districts
Author: Catherine A. MacArthur
Publisher:
Total Pages: 116
Release: 2016
Genre:
ISBN:

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This study examined the influence of building configuration on the academic achievement and attendance of students who were considered chronically absent. A longitudinal nonequivalent groups research design was used to test the study’s six hypotheses. Data were collected from over 10,000 students within 38 K-8 schools and 40 6-8 middle schools in 24 urban school districts. These districts belonged to the Middle Cities Education Association (MCEA) in a Midwestern state. Student achievement data were collected from this state’s Department of Education’s Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) database that focused specifically on 6th (2009) and 8th-grade (2011) achievement and attendance results. Data were analyzed using an independent samples t-test to measure the differences in mean scores of the two groups, and a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to determine the intervening effects of the covariates on various demographic characteristics. Findings in this study indicate that there were no significant improvements in mathematics, reading, and chronically absent attendance rates for students who attended K-8 configured schools as compared to their corresponding peers attending 6-8 middle schools. This held true when adjusting for race, gender, Free and/or Reduced Lunch status, and students with disabilities. This study helps fill a void in the current body of literature by examining the influence of grade configuration (i.e., K-8 schools versus traditional 6-8 middle schools) on student achievement and attendance, and whether selected demographic variables (e.g., race, gender, Free and/or Reduced Lunch status, and students with disabilities) had an influence on these differences. The study concludes with several recommendations for further study.


Focus on the Wonder Years

Focus on the Wonder Years
Author: Jaana Juvonen
Publisher: Rand Corporation
Total Pages: 181
Release: 2004-03-25
Genre: Education
ISBN: 0833036157

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Young teens undergo multiple changes that seem to set them apart from other students. But do middle schools actually meet their special needs? The authors describe some of the challenges and offer ways to tackle them, such as reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; and helping parents understand how they can help their children learn at home.


This We Believe in Action

This We Believe in Action
Author: Thomas Owen Erb
Publisher:
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2005
Genre: Education
ISBN:

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NMSA's position paper This We Believe has come to be recognized as the best articulation of the middle school concept, the accepted standard. But inevitably, a position paper speaks in visionary generalizations; to move these ideals into actual practice is a very demanding task, but one that has to be undertaken if needed and fundamental changes are to be made. This resource will help in the process. Altogether This We Believe in Action is a comprehensive resource, the tool we have been waiting for to assist middle level schools in implementing the characteristics of This We Believe. Every middle school should have a copy, not just to be read, but to use in site-based professional development activities. --Publisher description.


Using Schools to Watch Program's Self-study and Rating Rubric to Examine Middle-grades Education in an Urban District

Using Schools to Watch Program's Self-study and Rating Rubric to Examine Middle-grades Education in an Urban District
Author: Arnetta P. Thompson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 133
Release: 2017
Genre: Education
ISBN:

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The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between multiple characteristics of high-performing middle schools as identified in the schools to watch rubric and how those characteristics as well as grade configurations may affect students’ progression through their first year of high school. A student’s middle level experience strongly impacts the odds of graduating from high school. This is especially true of urban districts with a high-poverty student population. This study was conducted in such a district. Middle level education is supposed to serve as a catalyst of sorts to prepare students for high school, yet the current reality is that many students are getting left further and further behind, particularly during the middle-grades years. Using the Schools to Watch Self-Study and Rating Rubric, this study attempted to determine the most effective strategies to implement during the middle-grades that will reposition students so they are performing at grade level or above when entering the ninth grade. As a result, we hope to put students in a better position to succeed and graduate on time. There were four questions that were presented and answered in this study: (a) To what extent do the schools in this study show evidence of implementation of key strategies? (b) Is there a relationship between levels of implementation and students’ progression through the ninth grade? (c) Do either of the grade configurations lend itself to greater implementation as measured by administrator and teacher responses? (d) Is there a relationship between grade level configuration and identified indicators in reference to students’ progression through ninth grade based on the dependent variables? The Self-Study and Rating Rubric was the instrument used to obtain implementation information and to assess educator responses. The rubric was created by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. Linear regressions were also applied to determine if there were any relationships between the dependent and independent variables. The following major findings were noted: strategy implementation was occurring and was almost equal within the participating schools, some indicators proved to be more important than others during the implementation process, and there was no significant difference between either grade configuration studied during this research and students’ successful progression through the ninth grade.


How Does Grade Configuration Impact Student Achievement in Elementary and Middle School Grades?

How Does Grade Configuration Impact Student Achievement in Elementary and Middle School Grades?
Author: Kai Hong
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

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Recently, there has been a move towards K-8 schools as opposed to separate elementary and middle schools, especially among urban districts. In this paper, we examine the effect of enrollment in separate elementary and middle schools relative to enrollment in a K-8 school using longitudinal data from an anonymous district in the United States. The choice to enroll in a K-8 or separate elementary and middle schools is potentially endogenous. While previous research has taken steps to address the possible endogeneity when estimating the effects for separate middle schools, previous research has not addressed the possible endogeneity when examining the effect at the elementary level. Without generating an unbiased estimate during the elementary grades, we cannot fully understand the impact of policies that have shifted the grade arrangement of separate elementary and middle schools to K-8 schools. In this paper, we employ a research design that leverages the fact that the anonymous district closed several schools and rezoned their students to other schools with new boundaries. We compare students on the side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a separate middle or elementary school to students on the other side of the new boundaries who are assigned to a K-8 school. When taking into the consideration the effect at the elementary level, our results are much less supportive of a K-8 policy than previous research.