EPILOGUE
from Believing in Ourselves: Progress
and Struggle in Middle School Reform. By Anne C. Lewis. Published in
1995 by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. Comments by M. Hayes Mizell,
Director of the Foundation's Program for Student Achievement.
The Long Journey of Middle School Reform
Where does reform begin? In her incisive book, Believing in Ourselves:
Progress and Struggle in Middle School Reform, Anne Lewis shows us
that true reform does not flow from wishful thinking, good intentions, or
even from a foundation grant. Reform begins when school systems, administrators,
and teachers acknowledge, even if only in their hearts, that they have not
been as effective as students need them to be. Once educators understand
that they and their institutions must change, they take the first step.
Only when they actually seek to change, however, do they begin the long
journey of middle school reform.
The Program for Student Achievement does not minimize the difficulty of
this process. Often in our conversations with teachers and administrators,
we observe that middle school reform is not just hard, it is damn hard.
It is equally hard for foundations. We, too, must acknowledge that our best
efforts have not always been good enough to yield the depth and breadth
of reform we sought. Indeed, as Anne Lewis correctly points out, some schools
actually regressed during their relationship with the foundation. While
we are pleased that other school systems and schools used foundation resources
to good effect, we wonder if we could have done more for those who fared
less well.
We are especially grateful to the teachers and administrators who were our
partners in middle school reform. Those on the receiving end of foundation
grants can often measure in more than miles the distance between the foundation's
offices in New York and the classrooms where we hope change will take place.
We thank the educators for their tolerance and patience. They were pioneers
in our mutual efforts to go beyond the structures and processes traditionally
associated with middle schools to provide students with a more challenging
education. This was, and all too frequently still is, unchartered territory.
There was scant experience to guide them, and they struggled to find their
own way.
Teachers need equal measures of leadership,
inspiration, and strong support; most of all, they need
school systems that are focused and efficient.
The past six years taught us that there are educators eager to find new
ways to better educate their students. As this book points out, however,
teachers need equal measures of leadership, inspiration, and strong support;
most of all, they need school systems that are focused and efficient. We
know that when all of these conditions are present, middle school reform
is possible, that it results in schools that are more effective and students
who learn more. Sadly, these conditions are not the norm, particularly in
inner cities.
Too many treat reform as a program or a project, a piecemeal effort that
can be "installed" at little expense, personal inconvenience,
or political cost. But reform is gritty and demanding work, frustrating
because it requires changes in attitudes and behaviors that few of us would
choose to embrace. Ironically, there are educators who make this choice,
and continue to demonstrate, in the face of almost overwhelming odds, that
they are willing to change what they think and what they do if that is what
it takes to help their students.
When school systems and schools encounter the setbacks that are inherent
in the reform process, it requires an extra measure of resolve to learn
from these experiences and forge ahead. In that spirit, the Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation has renewed its commitment to systemic middle school reform
and is applying some of the hard lessons we learned between 1989 and 1995.
We have identified school systems committed to reforming all their middle
schools, not just two or three, and with the will and capacity to do so.
We have measured that capacity, in part, by whether each school system has
made a strong commitment to education at the middle level, manifest in part
by a coherent grade configuration for schools serving young adolescents
and by an effective central office staff person who leads, coordinates,
supports, facilitates, monitors, and assesses middle school reform throughout
the district. We have also been more intentional in engaging school board
members, superintendents, key central office staff, and union leaders in
discussions about middle school reform and the goals and strategies of the
Program for Student Achievement.
Our goals in 1995 are much sharper. In 1988 we held up the "three highs"-expectations,
content, and support. Now we are much more specific in our goal for students
in urban middle schools to demonstrate high levels of academic performance
by the end of the eighth grade. This is our effort to encourage middle schools
to adopt a more academic focus, albeit still within the context of supportive
and developmentally appropriate learning environments.
As the first step towards achieving this goal, the Clark Foundation is supporting
six school systems during 1995 to develop and adopt academic standards for
what students should know and be able to do by the end of the eighth grade.
Each school system will also establish district-wide student performance
goals for the proportion of students who will meet the standards, beginning
with the class that graduates from the eighth grade in June, 2001. We believe
that if teachers, students, and parents are clearer about the desired academic
results of students' middle school education, there is greater potential
for collaborations to help young people achieve that goal.
Standards focus the mission of schools, but unless teachers
improve their performance, standards will
have little practical meaning for most students.
Of course, academic standards alone will not cause students to perform at
higher levels. There is no substitute for teachers who are confident in
their knowledge of the subjects they teach, excited about engaging students
in learning, and skilled in instructional strategies that both challenge
and support students. Standards are necessary to focus the mission of schools,
but unless schools insist that teachers improve their performance in the
classroom, and help them do so, standards will have little practical meaning
for most students.
We remain hopeful that school systems, administrators, and teachers can
rise to these challenges. The foundation is committed to using its resources
and influence to encourage school systems and their middle schools to provide
the leadership and support educators need to enable students to meet these
standards. We lack the magnitude of resources and political leverage to
persuade school systems to alter bureaucracies or their priorities, but
we are striving to identify urban systems with solid potential to implement
standards-based, middle school reform.
While our new initiative poses its own set of unique challenges, we are
proceeding with greater clarity and confidence because of what we have learned
during the past six years. For this, we are indebted to the rich experiences
we gained from working with dedicated teachers and administrators during
this period. We hope that they, too, will draw upon the lessons of the past
to push ahead more confidently towards middle school reform.
Return to The Hayes Mizell Reader index
Return to the Believing in Ourselves
contents page
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