Home | Back to the Hayes Mizell Reader Index

Introductory remarks of Hayes Mizell on June 21, 2001 as facilitator for a panel, "Experiences of Advocates," at a meeting of the Southern Forum to Accelerate Middle School Reform in Memphis, TN. Mizell is Director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.

Who Will Advocate for
Middle School Reform?


According to the dictionary, an advocate is one who "pleads the cause of another" and advocacy is "the act or process of advocating or supporting a cause or proposal." There are many different types of advocates. When people hear the word "advocate," they often think of lawyers. A few of you may remember that many years ago a popular television program about lawyers was simply titled, "The Advocates." But for some years now, other professions have adopted the concept of advocacy. I recently received a newsletter from the Partnership for Kentucky Schools with an article titled, "Turning Principals into Advocates." A year ago the National Staff Development Council devoted an entire issue of its journal to advocacy. It seems that even educators are now recognizing the need for and value of advocacy.

The role of advocates and advocacy is an ancient concept. For example, in Deuteronomy 24, verses 14 and 15, we find an advocate's statement that is relevant even today:
"You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns; you shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it)..."

And of course in the New Testament there are many examples where Jesus is an advocate. Beyond that, however, Jesus also demonstrated a keen understanding of one of the basic strategies of advocacy. To illustrate to the disciples that they should persist in their prayer, according to Luke 18: 1-5, He told this story:
In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, "Grant me justice against my adversary." For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, "Even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming!"

Even though the Bible provides about the strongest endorsement of advocacy that one is likely to find, that does not mean advocacy is well-received by many established institutions of our society. This is because advocates usually seek to advance the interests of people who are ignored or ill-served by those institutions.

For example, The Center for Patient Advocacy is dedicated to "securing patient access to quality health care." The National AIDS Treatment Advocacy Project "strives to provide the very latest HIV drug development, research, and treatment information." Every state has an organization similar to the one in California named Protection & Advocacy, Inc. that "works in partnership with people with disabilities to protect, advocate for and advance their human, legal and service rights." The State of Kentucky even has a Department of Public Advocacy which "stand[s] up for citizens who are accused by the state of having committed a crime." And the National Coalition of Advocates for Students, a group of 20 organizations in 14 states "works to achieve equal access to a quality public education for students who are most vulnerable to school failure."

These and hundreds of organizations like them -- most without the word "advocacy" or "advocates" in their titles -- have sprung up during the past thirty years, for three major reasons: (1) new laws have extended services that public institutions are obligated to provide and have defined client rights these institutions are required to observe; (2) the laws and subsequent administrative regulations have become increasingly complex, exceeding the capacity of individuals to understand and use them, and (3) many citizens have learned from experience that major public institutions do not always operate as they should nor do they always provide equal access to their benefits.

It is not surprising, then, that advocacy is usually valued by people who may potentially benefit from it, that is, ordinary citizens, but it is usually less welcomed by employees of institutions who are on the receiving end of it.

Young adolescents need our advocacy

What does any of this have to do with middle school reform? After all, for the past few decades, several national organizations have advocated educational practices that they believed would better serve young adolescents. While many schools implemented these practices, the results were often mixed, usually because the implementation was untouched by the factors of quality, consistency, and continuous improvement.

As policymakers have increased their demands that students demonstrate higher levels of performance, middle level schools have come under greater scrutiny. Everything from the viability of the schools' grade structures, to their curricula, to the preparation, content-knowledge and pedagogy of their teachers is now under review.

In this context, advocacy is both appropriate and necessary. Left to themselves, many middle level schools will not improve significantly. Every year, every day, there are hundreds of thousands of young adolescents who are attending schools that do not provide the educational opportunities the students deserve and need. Most of these students have no advocates. Many of their parents are burdened, or distracted, or simply do not know how to begin to advocate for the reforms necessary for their children to participate in more engaging, meaningful, and challenging academic work.

"...they turn a blind eye to the developmental realities and the
intellectual appetites of young adolescents, choosing to believe that
these students need little more than a firm hand and a kind heart."


The officials in charge of the schools, particularly the school boards and superintendents, continue to rationalize their neglect of the middle grades by believing that if they can only get students to read proficiently by the end of the third grade, then challenges at the middle level will diminish. In doing so, they turn a blind eye to the developmental realities and the intellectual appetites of young adolescents, choosing to believe that these students need little more than a firm hand and a kind heart.

This will not change unless and until advocates step forward, organize, and act for more effective middle level education. Anyone can be an advocate -- a citizen, a parent, a businessperson, an educator, or a community-based organization -- but because advocacy requires a good deal of intestinal fortitude, most people are more comfortable and effective acting as part of a group.

Can we expect educators to be advocates for reform?

Can we really expect educators to be advocates for improvements in middle level education, especially when the types and scale of the improvements necessary will require the educators themselves to become serious learners? Will educators become advocates if they know one result will be that they have to understand the developmental needs of the children they teach, master their subject content, hone the craft of their pedagogy, and demonstrate improved performance?

Can we really expect teachers to advocate for interests other than their own if a potential consequence is that they will no longer be able to exercise absolute discretion over what and how they teach? These are open questions and thus far there is little evidence to encourage us, but one thing is certain -- accelerating middle grades reform depends not just on parents, or concerned citizens, or advocacy organizations. Educators must also pick up the mantle of advocacy for middle school reform.

There are many types and styles of advocacy, but it is likely to be more effective if it is buttressed by moral authority and long-term commitment. In the arena of middle school reform, this means that advocacy for improvements that benefit students are more likely to be taken seriously than advocacy for the status quo.

If advocacy is just about preserving a school's grade structure or just about maintaining two preparation periods for teachers, it will probably be seen as self-serving and unrelated to serious reform. This suggests that advocates have a special obligation to focus on improvements that will make a significant difference in students' learning and development. Advocates will have the best chance of achieving this result if their goals, at least for the near term, are narrow and if the advocates are thoughtful and clear about the action steps that will most likely lead them to these goals.

Advocates seldom achieve their goals quickly but armed with a just cause, time, tenacity, patience, courage, credible information, and the ability to identify and work with others of a like mind, advocates often achieve great things.

Effective persuasion is at the heart of advocacy

The test for all of us who believe that middle level schools can and must improve is whether we can become effective advocates with the focus and savvy to have an impact on education policymakers and school system leaders. Above all else, advocacy is about persuading institutions to change their policies and practices. That is the task that confronts us.

It is not enough to have a compelling vision or criteria schools should meet to fulfill that vision. It is not enough to develop and issue policy statements. The real work takes place in face-to-face encounters with people who have the authority to set new directions and provide greater support for the educators who must pull themselves and their schools out of the muck of fatigue, resignation, and low expectations.

Yes, advocacy can be difficult, but it is not nearly so hard as sitting in a classroom bored out of your skull, wondering if anyone gives you credit for having a brain. It is not nearly so hard as knowing that you have a lot to learn but lacking the self-confidence and support you need to learn it. It is not nearly so hard as coping with a climate of fear and lack of respect, wondering from which quarter the next put-down will come.

If we keep this in mind, we will advocate for middle school reform not by proposing arcane educational practices, but by persuading persons in authority to implement practical policies and practices that will enhance the learning and development of young adolescents.

Thank you.