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Remarks of Hayes Mizell at "Clark Day," a conference of
260 representatives of school systems, schools, and national and community
organizations supported by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. The conference
was held on November 5, 1992 in San Antonio, Texas preliminary to the 19th
Annual Conference of the National Middle School Association. Mizell is Director
of the Program for Student Achievement of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.
The Achieving Middle School
It is wonderful, even a bit overwhelming, to see so many of you here today.
To those of you who were at either of our two previous gatherings, at Long
Beach in 1990 and Louisville in 1991, I want to say welcome back and thank
you for your continuing interest in and commitment to middle school reform.
You will play an important role today because you have a lot of experiences
to share with people who are here for the first time. You have been trying
to make reform a reality in your schools, and for that reason you also know
how much you have to learn. As you interact today with others, I hope you
will be candid about what you have learned to date, and share information
about your failures, as well as your successes, during the past several
years. . . .
Perhaps it will be useful to remind ourselves briefly why we are here and
the purpose of our labor. First, we believe that low-achieving middle school
students can learn at high levels. Second, we believe that for middle schools
to significantly enhance the performance of all students, schools must re-form
themselves. Third, we believe that the cultures of most middle schools must
change dramatically so the normative values are high expectations, high
content, and high support for all students.
Fourth, whole-school reform is necessary; tinkering at the margins will
not produce nor sustain the changes needed to increase student achievement.
Fifth, school systems must have a vision for middle school reform and lead,
support, monitor and assess reform at the building level. Sixth, teachers
and administrators in individual middle schools must provide the leadership
to plan and implement reform that is consistent with their school system's
vision. I could say much more, but I think this is a fair summary of the
core beliefs and assumptions that will be in evidence throughout the day.
The real struggle for middle school reform
is within each of us. It is more tempting to complain than to seek solutions.
It is easier to keep silent than to protest school practices that foster
mediocrity
or waste precious instructional time.
Each one of you here today is participating in a great and important
struggle. You are seeking to enhance student performance by reforming middle
schools. But what makes this such a struggle? Some people say it is because
of your school systems' bureaucracies or lack of adequate funding. Others
say the real problem is your students' cultures, languages, communities,
families, behaviors, disabilities, peers, poverty or inadequate educational
preparation. If this is how you define your struggle, you will not be comfortable
today.
The real struggle for school reform is within ourselves
Most people here understand the real struggle for middle school reform is
within each of us. It is more tempting to complain than to seek solutions.
It is easier to keep silent than to protest school practices that foster
mediocrity or waste precious instructional time. It is more convenient to
accept the school as it is than to think about, plan and create the school
that could be. It is more comfortable to hide behind the union contract
than to go the extra mile. It is more reassuring to teach than to learn.
I know these struggles are ever present in your daily school experiences.
For many, the struggles are much less intense than they were several years
ago. You are developing skills and self-confidence that make you effective
practitioners of reform. Your schools and students are beginning to show
the positive results of your institutional and personal reformation.
On the other hand, because of the struggle within, it is difficult for some
of you to move beyond good intentions. You remain bogged down in wishful
thinking: if only students were more motivated; if only the principal was
more supportive; if only there was more time, or money, or equipment. Your
struggle is that you want things around you to change, but you do not act
to change them, or yourselves.
Yes, your situations are terribly difficult. It seems that no matter how
hard you work or how much you care, neither taxpayers nor governments give
you the support, respect, and appreciation you deserve. It is right for
you to expect more, and all citizens should speak and act on your behalf.
At the same time, we have to recognize that in the short term there is not
much hope that conditions external to the school will change for the better.
Educators have the power to change schools
In this environment, the issue is not what others should do, but what you
can do. You have more power and control than you recognize or acknowledge.
You control your attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors. You and your colleagues
can shape the operational philosophy and culture of your schools. In most
of your schools, there is even latitude for you to control your school's
budget, curriculum, organization, and use of time, but teachers and administrators
together have to take initiative to exercise this control in ways that benefit
students. All this potential, however, means nothing if you do not use the
control you have to enhance the performance of students you teach and lead.
Integral to the Foundation's middle school reform initiative is supporting
you to recognize what you can control, and to use the power you have to
reform yourselves and your schools in ways that will increase student achievement.
This requires courage to question long-standing assumptions, as well as
determination to break away from negative attitudes and ineffective curricula
and teaching methodologies. It requires humility to recognize that maybe
someone else has knowledge and experience from which you can learn, and
resourcefulness to look beyond your schools and school systems for promising
practices. It requires risk-taking to open yourselves to developing new
skills and experimenting with new school organization, curricula, and use
of time to better serve your students.
For teachers long confined to their classrooms, and administrators long
focused on school operations, it is a struggle to develop these characteristics
essential for reform. You were, after all, hired to administer schools and
teach students, not to reform yourselves or your schools. Yet, that is now
the task before you and it is the Foundation's privilege to encourage and
support you. At the same time, our primary commitment is to your students
and for that reason we have high expectations of you and your schools.
Each year reform is delayed, many of your students are not adequately
educated. They move from the sixth, to the seventh, to the eighth grades,
and eventually into high school without the knowledge, direction, and
self-confidence they need to pursue their dreams.
While we know that reform is a process that takes time, we are also
aware that each year reform is delayed, many of your students are not adequately
educated. They move from the sixth, to the seventh, to the eighth grades,
and eventually into high school without the knowledge, direction, and self-confidence
they need to pursue their dreams. This is why you have so little time to
reform your schools. You can help students create futures which are productive
and fulfilling, but to do so your reforms will have to be both deeper and
wider than they have been to date. The clock is ticking for this and successive
generations of students, and we have no time to lose.
Because you and the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation are partners in the
struggle to reform your schools, it is our collective responsibility to
create schools which inspire and support all students to achieve at high
levels. These schools will have to be enhancements of what we now think
of as middle schools or even "true" middle schools. What we need,
it seems to me, are "achieving middle schools."
Achieving middle schools create a high-achieving culture
What do I mean by an "achieving middle school?" It is a school
that intentionally creates a culture that expects and supports high levels
of performance by all students and teachers and administrators. It is a
school that defines achievement not in the narrow context of standardized
test scores, but in terms of real world performance and demonstration. It
is where teachers and administrators are determined to keep focused on the
"bottom line" of student achievement. It is a school committed
to accurately assessing and reporting students' levels of performance.
In using the term "achieving middle school," I do not want to
disparage or denigrate the middle school philosophy or the classic components
of middle schools. Instead, the term "achieving middle school"
is an attempt to link the philosophy and operation of middle schools with
an emphasis on student performance. I understand that by forging this link
I run the risk of being accused of creating an oxymoron. Some people will
argue that the whole purpose of middle schools is to create an educational
environment which legitimizes and gives priority to developmental and affective
concerns.
I know there is a considerable body of opinion which says that if middle
schools work hard at addressing these concerns, student achievement will
take care of itself. There is also an emphasis on the middle grades as a
time of transition rather than preparation, and on process over content.
In spite of these well-developed positions, it seems to me the time is long
overdue for student achievement to take its place in the middle school concept.
Perhaps it will help us focus on this issue if I describe what an achieving
middle school might look like. This is only for purposes of illustration;
I am not attempting to describe a "model" which you should emulate.
Rather, I want to encourage you to think about the concept of the achieving
middle school, and how traditional elements of middle schools can support
efforts to significantly enhance student performance.
The achieving middle school begins with a systemwide commitment
The achieving middle school begins with a school system committed to creating
quality middle schools that enable all students to meet high standards.
The school system has a coherent vision which communicates its expectations
of the schools and provides direction. It is not content with a patchwork
system of middle schools in which some are good, many are mediocre, some
are bad, or, worse, some are middle schools in name only. The school system
is prepared to take action to hold principals accountable for creating conditions
necessary in their schools to enhance student performance. The superintendent
removes principals who do not succeed in creating these conditions, and
replaces them with administrators with potential to be more effective.
At the same time, the superintendent and his staff are committed to providing
the schools with the support they need. Central office staff responsible
for curriculum and instruction, staff development, research, communications,
and categorical programs are organized, supervised, and evaluated so their
top priority is to serve the schools and strengthen their efforts to become
achieving middle schools.
In an achieving middle school, the principal tells
the superintendent that he or she will not employ
any teacher who is not qualified, either by experience
or certification, for the position for which
the teacher is applying.
The superintendent knows the achieving middle school must be led by
teachers and administrators who understand and like young adolescents. This
criterion eliminates a sizable portion of the population. In practical terms,
this means a school superintendent appoints as principal a person who previously
taught or was an administrator at the middle level, and who has been trained
in adolescent development.
Before accepting the appointment, the principal tells the superintendent
that he or she will only employ teachers who want to teach middle school,
and who have also been trained in adolescent development, or will obtain
such training before the end of their first teaching year. The principal
tells the superintendent that he or she will not employ any teacher who
is not qualified, either by experience or certification, for the position
for which the teacher is applying. There is no place in the achieving middle
school for educators who do not want to be there, or who do not bring to
the school knowledge of both the students and the content they will teach.
Together, these administrators and teachers develop a school climate of
courtesy, trust, respect, collaboration, and caring. The climate is rooted
in how administrators, faculty, and staff treat each other, from the operation
of the office, to team meetings, to faculty meetings. They create a safe
and accepting climate in which new faculty members are welcomed, guided,
and supported throughout their first two years of teaching. The school is
not likely to make the changes it must make in itself and its students if
this climate does not exist. The way in which staff members treat each other
translates into how staff treat students. They respect all students and
believe they are capable of achieving at high levels. The staff knows that
enabling students to meet high standards will require more time and resources
for some students than for others, and they take action to provide both.
The staff of the achieving middle school is not a mere collection of people
independently doing their jobs. It is more like the "outfit" of
smokejumpers described by Norman MacLean in his book, Young Men and
Fire. He writes that the firefighters describe themselves as an outfit
"when they take on the same tough job, have to be thought a little
bit crazy to try it, have to stick together and share the same training
to get it done, and shortly afterwards have to go to town together and stick
together if one of them starts losing a fight in a bar. They back each other
and they initiate each other."
The look and feel of the achieving middle school communicates to students,
staff, and parents that the school is serious about performance. Because
expectations of high performance apply to the staff as well as to students,
the school is clean and the floors are shiny. The custodian and his staff
are performing their jobs at high levels. The walls and halls of the school
are bright and colorful because the principal knows that all people, including
students, want to be in a place that is attractive and warm rather than
drab and institutional.
The hallways of the school are covered with neatly arranged, current examples
of the students' projects, homework, art and themes. On each paper and project
is a grade, with appropriate corrections. The grades on the papers have
integrity; it is apparent that papers with an "A" grade reflect
"A" level performance, and a "C" grade reflect "C"
level performance. Also on the walls are pictures of and information about
students and staff who have demonstrated high levels of achievement in non-academic
areas.
In achieving middle schools, self-esteem is a by-product of success
Some things are missing from the achieving middle school. No students are
wandering the halls during class. No class is ever interrupted by announcements
over classroom loudspeakers. The term "self-esteem" is never heard,
not because it is not important, but because the school believes students
develop positive attitudes about themselves when they are able to demonstrate
competence, both academic and non-academic, that is valued and recognized.
Teachers invest their energies in preparing students to perform at high
levels, not in mounting poorly conceived activities justified as "helping
students raise their self-esteem."
The achieving middle school never blames families
for students' problems. The school treats every family
as a potential ally for student achievement.
The achieving middle school never blames families for students' problems.
Many families are under-educated, stressed, and in poverty, but the school
recognizes they did not choose these circumstances. The school treats every
family as a potential ally for student achievement. It keeps experimenting
to find effective ways to involve families in their childrens' education.
The values and behaviors of some families are not positive, and, within
its limited capacity, the school collaborates with other community agencies
to strengthen the families of its students.
The achieving middle school holds itself accountable
In this atmosphere, the achieving middle school delineates and holds itself
accountable for attaining certain outcomes, or goals. To evaluate its success
in achieving these outcomes, the school annually collects, analyzes, and
reports data for all students who have been enrolled in the school since
at least the beginning of the seventh grade, and who are still living in
the school's attendance area at the end of the eighth grade. Here is an
example of a set of five outcomes the achieving middle school might establish:
(1) All students graduate from the eighth grade with their grade cohort;
during grades six through eight, the school provides marginal students with
the support they need to be promoted with their class each year;
(2) To graduate from the eighth grade, students meet high performance standards
established by the school system, or established by the middle school with
the receiving high school for the attendance area;
(3) To graduate from the eighth grade, all students take either pre-algebra
or algebra and earn a grade of "C" or better;
(4) Before graduating from the eighth grade, the school supports students
in identifying at least three post-secondary education options of interest
to them. These may include apprenticeship programs, six months or more of
technical training, or two or more years of college. For each student, the
school provides counseling, materials, and information about high school
courses required to pursue these options, admission requirements, and how
to prepare for the costs of each option.
(5) Prior to graduating from the eighth grade, each student visits for at
least one full school day each of two or more high schools he or she is
eligible to attend.
These are outcomes over and above those mandated by the state or school
system. Perhaps you do not agree with them. What outcomes do you think would
be appropriate for an achieving middle school? Whether or not you agree
with the ones I have suggested, my point is that the achieving middle school
establishes specific measures which focus students and faculty on how the
middle school experience relates to what comes after eighth grade, and after
high school. This is not to force students into making irrevocable choices,
but to provide a framework for their education and to prepare them to think
in concrete terms about their futures and how they can shape them.
The achieving middle school is preoccupied with student performance
The school knows that enhancing student performance means mobilizing and
focusing the entire staff on achieving that end. The job cannot be done
by the principal alone, or by a learning coordinator, or even by a team.
That is why the school creates committees with responsibility and authority
for addressing issues important for student achievement.
There are committees on school organization, school climate, curriculum,
staff development, assessment, and student support. Each faculty member
serves on a committee, and while committees may occasionally work together,
a faculty member serves on only one committee. The chair of each committee
serves on the school's leadership team. Each committee invests time in becoming
knowledgeable about the area for which it is responsible, and makes recommendations
to the leadership team for actions which can improve teaching and learning.
The committees do not merely respond to problems or assignments from the
leadership team; they are proactive. For example, the curriculum committee
provides oversight to ensure that inter-disciplinary curricula help students
develop the knowledge and skills necessary to meet performance standards.
The assessment committee develops expertise in analyzing and interpreting
the results of state and district mandated tests, and serves as the school's
advocate in urging the district to report disaggregated test results in
a format and time frame that makes them useful to teachers.
To ensure staff development is useful, the committee surveys
teachers' opinions about the quality and utility
of professional development experiences and seeks information about how
teachers use what they have learned and whether it improves student performance.
The assessment and staff development committees work together to help
teachers understand and use the test results, and develop and pilot alternative
means of evaluating student performance. The assessment committee then monitors
the results of the pilot to determine if the alternative assessment strategies
produce, in fact, more reliable information about students' levels of performance.
To ensure that staff development for teachers is useful, the staff development
committee surveys teachers' opinions about the quality and utility of the
various professional development experiences in which teachers participate.
The committee also seeks information about whether and how teachers use
what they learned from staff development, and whether and how it helps students
enhance their performance.
The purpose of the committee structure is not to create new opportunities
for teachers to become bogged down in bureaucratic tasks, or for administrators
to shift their responsibilities to teachers, but rather for administrators
and teachers to collaborate in addressing major issues related to improving
student achievement.
On this foundation, the achieving school can develop effective structures
for teaching and supporting students. House systems, inter-disciplinary
teams, advisories, and cooperative learning can do more than create personal
and caring educational environments. Schools can intentionally use them
to teach and demonstrate how small social and work groups can be productive,
how conflicts can be negotiated, how members of a group can learn from each
other, and how individuals can pool their talents to achieve objectives
that benefit the group as a whole. These are skills that will serve students
well in many different settings, as learners, workers, and citizens.
All students are challenged with high-quality content
Because the achieving middle school expects students to perform at high
levels, it involves all students in the same high content curricula. There
is only one "track," one that prepares all students to understand
and to be able to choose the option of pursuing some form of post-secondary
education. At the same time, teachers may use flexible in-class grouping
practices when these approaches prove to increase student achievement.
While the school recognizes that some students learn more quickly than others,
its staff believe deeply that all students have strengths. These may be
academic, social, technical, artistic, athletic, or communication strengths,
but the school recognizes they all are based on "intellect." Staff
members make a conscious effort to identify and develop the strengths of
each student, and build on these strengths to enhance performance in the
respective students' weaker domains. The school also draws on these strengths
to help other students learn, and improve the community life of the school.
While the school recognizes that some students learn more quickly
than others, its staff believe deeply
that all students have strengths.
For students with weak education backgrounds, and those who are less
able, the school provides the time, materials, and support they need to
meet the school's required performance standards. This is not easy. The
school has to restructure the school day, and perhaps even the school week
or year to create the additional instructional time these students need.
It has to seek and fight for additional resources to serve these students
well, and make sure these resources are used in ways that have the most
potential for enhancing student performance.
Everyone in an achieving middle school is a teacher and learner
The achieving middle school differs markedly from other schools in that
it operates on the belief that each member of the school community -- staff,
students, and parents -- has something to teach and something to learn.
Put into practice, this belief reinforces the school both as a center for
and facilitator of teaching and learning. While it affirms the strengths
of each person in the school, it also underscores that no one knows everything
and learning is a continuous process, regardless of a person's age or position.
Imagine a school that systematically identifies and catalogs the expertise
of each member of the school community, as well as what each person would
like to learn. In a school with many students from families which speak
a foreign language, why shouldn't these students and their parents teach
the school's staff and other students about their culture and how to speak
their language? Why shouldn't teachers with expertise outside their professional
discipline -- sewing, home repair, skating, dancing, poetry, painting, music,
auto repair, golf and so on -- be encouraged to pair up with other staff,
parents and students who want to learn these skills?
Why shouldn't the school celebrate when any teacher, whether the "teacher"
is a professional or student or parent "certifies" that a student,
whether the "student" is enrolled in the school or a teacher or
parent, has achieved a higher level of proficiency? Even if this teaching-learning
process is informal and ad hoc, the school can only gain by facilitating
this process. It can strengthen relationships and recognize, validate, and
encourage the use of many different kinds of knowledge in the school community.
It sends a powerful message that achievement is important.
Because the achieving middle school values and uses all the knowledge and
skill resources at its disposal, it has an effective peer tutoring program.
Researchers have found that such programs can be a powerful tool for increasing
student achievement, and the school actively promotes and facilitates peer
tutoring for that purpose. It goes further by helping organize student study
groups, and monitoring the achievement of students who participate in these
groups and peer tutoring.
Achieving schools know and ask for the help they need
Staff of the achieving middle school know they need a lot of help to enhance
student performance, and they are not shy about asking for it. However,
they do not take a shotgun, "any-help-is-welcome" approach. Based
on their planning and strategy, staff know exactly what they need to support
higher levels of student achievement, and they aggressively seek it.
The staff of achieving middle schools convince local businesses to support
a part-time staff person who works with the school leadership team to identify
and coordinate external resources which can help enhance student performance.
Trained tutors from a local college and the receiving high school are working
throughout the school. Small grants support intensive staff development
for more teachers. Experienced and effective teachers from other schools
in the district periodically visit the school to co-teach classes and provide
collegial, in-class support and coaching. In each case, the school carefully
assesses how effectively it uses the resource to increase student achievement.
Does the school's focus on student performance mean it is any less attentive
to students' developmental needs? It does not. Providing a supportive environment
and engaging instruction, hands-on learning, opportunities for exploration
and discovery, and even fun is just as important in the achieving middle
school as elsewhere. In this school, however, these approaches are purposeful
and strategic. They are conceived, planned, and implemented not for their
own sake but as means to enhance student performance.
The staff members know that site-based management, active learning,
and cooperative learning lead nowhere
if they not do not help, in direct ways, the school
and its students perform at higher levels.
The school recognizes the importance of good process, whether faculty
decision-making or student learning, but it carefully plans process activities
to achieve productive outcomes. The staff know that site-based management,
active learning, and cooperative learning lead nowhere if they not do not
help, in direct ways, the school and its students perform at higher levels.
Staff develop field trips not only to give students "exposure,"
but to reinforce and supplement specific curricula content and learning
objectives. Teachers hold themselves accountable for what students learn
from these experiences, and how they link them to curricula content.
The school seeks funding and programs not because any new initiative is
value-added to the school, but to help it provide students with specific
supports, opportunities, and challenges integral to the school's strategy
to enhance student performance. The achieving middle school is reflective
and self-critical. It asks hard questions about whether its organization,
operation, curricula, and instruction is helping all students achieve. It
grapples with unpleasant answers to these questions, discards ineffective
approaches, risks launching new practices which may be more effective, and
then asks hard questions again about the results of the new initiatives.
Young people who can count on little else depend on you
I have painted a very broad brush picture of what an achieving middle school
might look like. Let me say again that it is not my intention to present
a model. However, I do hope you will think about how your schools can join
classic middle school characteristics and a focus on student performance
with the result that all your students achieve at high levels. To do so,
I believe, requires reforms which go beyond creating true middle schools.
Yes, planning for and implementing these reforms means more hard work for
you and your students. But, to quote from a recent movie: "Of course
it's hard. It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everybody would do
it. It's the hard that makes it great."
Many people in this room can tell you that though middle school reform is
hard, it is not necessarily burdensome. They can correct me if I am wrong,
but I believe these people will tell you that because of their struggles
with reform they are more professional, more hopeful, more committed, and
more energetic than they were just several years ago. I encourage you to
join their numbers and discover the excitement and promise of achieving
middle schools.
You can begin this process today. This meeting reminds me of a church I
know where there is a plaque on the front door that reads, "The congregation
ministers here." As you attend workshops and presentations today, you
will not find high-priced guest speakers or highly publicized gurus. We
learn from and teach each other, just like the achieving middle school.
You won't find luminaries from the conference circuit here because the Clark
Foundation believes you are the real heroes. Each day in your schools and
classrooms you are fashioning a new America. Each day you have the opportunity
to prepare young people who believe they have no hope and no future to instead
become competent, caring, and self-confident. These young people who can
count on little else depend on you. We depend on you. Have a good day, turn
the straw of your dreams into the bricks of your achieving middle school,
and minister to one another.
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