(Vol. 1, No. 2 - Spring/Summer 1997)

The plan to retool JCPS's middle schools

A new report from the Jefferson County Public Schools, On the Road to Reform: Mapping the Progress of Middle Schools (Spring 1997) describes the district's plan for standards-based middle school reform in some detail. You can get a complete copy of the report by calling the Clark Projects office at (502) 485-3551.

Here's how the report summarizes the district's middle school agenda:

"We are basing our reform on students' achieving at a high level in a rigorous, challenging curriculum and on a belief that every child -- that's every single child, regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic background -- can learn at high levels. To achieve this goal, we have developed content-specific standards for all subject areas at the middle school level and are organizing and providing staff development sessions for all principals and staffs."

The district promises "a continuous upgrading of instructional practices" around the use of academic standards. JCPS leaders believe this will lead to improvements in KIRIS testing in the short term, since KIRIS is designed to measure student progress against "high academic standards."
In the long term, the district says it will use its academic standards to create its own measures of student performance. "Ultimately, we will assess individual student progress against high academic performance standards developed by those who find measuring student learning most beneficial --the classroom teachers."

The report describes more than a dozen steps the district believes will be necessary to make sure children do not "pass through our middle schools without acquiring the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in high school and thereafter." Here are several:

"Achieve a better balance between the school-based staff's focus on meeting the short-term goal of KIRIS and the longer-term goal of increased student achievement."
"Achieve a better balance in our middle schools between the dominant focus on nurturing the emotional and social aspects of middle school youth and the pressing need to ensure that all students meet high academic standards."
"Bring content and performance standards to teachers' conscious level in lesson preparation and presentation."
"Increase the community's and parents' awareness and understanding of content and performance standards."
"Develop classroom-based performance tasks by which teachers will immediately know whether students have learned what they teach in each content area (math, English, science, etc.) and at each grade level."
"Develop a leadership cadre of teachers from each middle school who will meet regularly to discuss school progress and challenges resulting from their standards work. This intentionally selected group will serve as leaders within their schools."
"Provide for principals summer professional development focused on the instructional leadership skills and practices critical to moving our content and performance standards agenda to a priority focus as the 1997-98 school year opens."

##

Back to the interview with JCPS's middle school reform leaders