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[Keynote speech of Hayes Mizell on June 14, 1999 at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (NC) "First Annual Middle Schools Institute." The Institute was held at the Northwest School of the Arts and was attended by middle school teachers and administrators from throughout the school district. Mizell is Director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation.]

Six Steps to an Achieving Middle School

How did it come to this? Why did elementary and secondary educators default in their stewardship of student achievement? What happened to cause the public to believe that politicians, business leaders, and newspaper reporters care more about student achievement than do teachers and principals? How did it come to pass that standardized test results generate more apprehension among public school educators than among students and parents?

If there are answers to these questions, they are debatable and complex. Some people would say that it all began with the 1983 report, A Nation At Risk. Others would say, and have, that the report was a political document based on an incorrect analysis of student achievement data. People could, in turn, rebut that assertion by citing recent data from state assessments, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or the Third International Mathematics and Science Study, that document lagging student performance.

Our purpose today is not to engage in one more defensive discussion about whether schools need to increase levels of student achievement. I assume you are here because you are professionals who recognize that many students are not performing up to their academic potential, or because you are under pressure from your school system and state to demonstrate that you can increase levels of student performance in your classrooms and schools.

Whatever your motivation, it is right and good that you are thinking about how to carry your middle schools to higher levels. In fact, it is more than right and good, it is essential, because you are the only people who can take the actions necessary to increase student achievement. Let me say it again. You are the only people who can take the actions necessary to increase student achievement.

Yes, parents are their children's "first teachers" and they can and should foster their children's achievement, but they do not have your training or your experience. Yes, communities can and should provide young people the diverse developmental opportunities they need to build self-confidence and the desire to achieve, but community support is no substitute for what should be the schools' academic focus. If you cannot help your students achieve at higher levels, who can?

Will and Effort Produce Results

I know your work is complicated by great obstacles. There are classes that are too big. There are too many job requirements that have too little to do with teaching and learning. There are too many students who seem to have everything on their minds but learning. There are even some of your colleagues unwilling to invest the time and effort it takes to develop and apply the new attitudes, behaviors, knowledge and skills necessary to increase student achievement. These and other obstacles are daunting, and you know better than I that it is not easy to overcome them. It takes steady, hard work. That is what you tell your students it takes to achieve, and it applies to you as well.

We live in a culture that values convenience, short-cuts, expediency, and painless learning. Teachers and principals are not immune from the influences of this culture. They look for the program, or textbook, or curriculum, or technique that will make their jobs easier. Indeed, there are a lot of resources in the education marketplace, and some of them are helpful, but if educators use them properly, nearly all these resources require more rather than less work. There are no shortcuts to increase student achievement. Raising the performance levels of your students means that you as individual professionals and your schools as institutions have to also perform at higher levels, and that takes will and effort.

Let us assume that everyone here wants to increase student achievement, and that each of you has the will and is prepared to exert the effort it takes to reach that goal. How do you go about it? Well, I cannot develop and prescribe what I would call an IRP -- an Individual Reform Plan -- for each of you, but I would like to share some thoughts about how you can turn your schools into achieving middle schools. In fact, I believe there are a series of steps you can take to take your schools to the next level.

Not merely schools that include grades six through eight and that are now called "middle schools." Not merely schools that perhaps include teams, advisories, exploratory wheels, block scheduling and other structures and processes typical of middle schools. Not merely schools where teachers know about the developmental characteristics of the young adolescents they are teaching. These are characteristics of "middle schools" but they do not automatically produce "achieving middle schools." There are too many educators who are satisfied with just being a middle school but who do not use the middle school philosophy, structure, and processes as the foundation for transforming their schools into achieving middle schools.

What Is an Achieving Middle School?

What do I mean by "achieving middle school"? It is a school whose mission, ethos, culture, structure, organization, curriculum, co-curriculum, and instruction is explicitly dedicated to the achievement of every student and every adult in the building. It is a school where from the time a visitor walks in the front door there is no doubt that the school's focus is on advancing the achievement of every student and every adult. It is not a school where the administrators and teachers assume they know all they need to know and that their work is limited to imparting their knowledge to students. In the achieving middle school the administrators, teachers, and students understand that they all have something to teach and a lot to learn. This belief is stated and restated, and it is a fundamental operating principle of the school.

I want to briefly outline six steps towards becoming an achieving middle school. But let me say right up front that I am not going to include some "basics" in these steps. For example, I am not going to say that everyone in your schools, from principals to school secretaries to teachers to food service and custodial staff must come to school each day prepared to care about every student they encounter. You cannot have an achieving middle school unless it is an authentically caring middle school.

I am not going to say that your schools have to be safe; not only free of violence, harassment, and intimidation among students, but between teachers and students. No school can be an achieving middle school unless both students and staff feel safe. But there is another kind of safety that is often overlooked and that is just as basic. Middle schools have to be safe for students and adults to express their opinions, disagree, and even debate. Students and adults have to know they will be heard and that constructive dialogue will be practiced and honored.

I am not going to say that everyone in your schools, from administrators to teachers to classified staff to students, have to demonstrate respect for one another. No school can be an achieving middle school unless every person practices mutual respect every day.

I am not going to say that your school has to be more dedicated to students who are low-performing, socially alienated, or otherwise at the margins than to all other students. No school can be an achieving middle school unless it allocates more talent, effort, and other resources to the students most in need.

I am not going to include any of these practices in the steps its takes to become an achieving middle school because all of them are fundamental. If there is anyone here who does not know that caring, respect, safety, and disproportionate attention to those with the greatest needs is basic to an achieving middle school, there is nothing I can say that will help you. No matter what other steps you may take, if you ignore these "basics" you will never have achieving middle schools. Now let us consider the six steps.

Step One: Make Achievement the Primary Purpose

Forge a consensus among all the adults in the school that advancing achievement is the school's primary purpose.

This step may be obvious, but it is surprising how many schools are not really clear about their overarching purpose. These schools typically have a whole list of "priorities" even though it should be clear that not everything can be a priority. It simply is not possible to give equal attention to every issue or concern. Some things are more important than others and the most important of all is student achievement. If the adults in the school -- from the administrators to the teachers to the classified staff -- do not agree on that, then it will be difficult, if not impossible, for the school to become an achieving middle school.

Of course, it is not easy to get agreement that the school's primary purpose is to advance achievement. There are teachers who, as one principal said, "consider themselves to be the last independent contractors." In other words, they believe that once they have been hired by the school system, it is their God-given right to do what they want in the way they want to do it. When administrators and other teachers in the school allow this attitude to prevail, there can be no achieving middle school.

At one low-performing school I visited, I learned that some teachers act as though participating in faculty meetings is an optional activity; sometimes they participate, sometimes they do not. While it is essential for faculty meetings to be well-organized and substantive -- many schools now use these meetings for staff development -- it speaks volumes when teachers believe they can build a firewall between what they do and the welfare of the school. This is why in so many middle schools there may be one or two very good teams, but many more teams that are mediocre or worse.

In the achieving middle school, teachers cannot do their own thing and principals cannot hide in their offices or devote themselves almost exclusively to administrative tasks. Instead, there have to be visible manifestations of trust, give-and-take, extra effort, community, and mutual accountability among adults in the school, all focused on improving the performance levels of both students and adults. Unless there is agreement that this is the school's central focus, and unless administrators, teachers, and classified personnel work together, there can be no achieving school.

Step Two: Identify Everyone's Talents and Interests

Systematically identify and use the talents, abilities, and interests of all adults and students in the school, as well as students' families.

As most of us experience school, it is a place where there is an underlying assumption that students do not know certain things and it is the school's responsibility to help them learn those things. This is a deficit approach to education where the emphasis is on what students do not know and cannot do rather than on what they do know and can do. In schools where there are students who come from low-income families, or those who speak little or no English, or those who are from an ethnic or racial group different from the majority of teachers in the school, it is not unusual that these factors influence educators' assumptions about what students know and can do, or their academic potential.

The achieving middle school acknowledges this reality and seeks to compensate for it by systematically developing an inventory of the talents, abilities, and interests of each student and adult in the school. The purpose of this process is twofold: it makes concrete the school's belief that every person in the school is valued and has something to contribute, and it provides the school's administrators and teachers with a complete list of the human resources available to advance the achievement of individuals within the school community.

The process of developing this inventory could commence with the new school year by focusing on the class of rising sixth graders and the school's staff. It could then be repeated with each successive class of sixth graders, as well as updated for each class as it progresses through grades seven and eight. The task of developing the inventory and the database of talents, abilities, and interests could probably best be organized and carried out under the leadership of a small committee of school staff, students, and representatives of students' families.

It is important to understand that the use of the inventory would not be to identify people to perform support functions unrelated to increasing achievement. The purpose is not to find people who will bake more and better cookies, or answer the telephone in the school office, or accompany students on field trips, but to uncover and put to work the human resources that otherwise go unidentified, unacknowledged, and unused in every school.

Even though people would have to volunteer to participate in the inventory and to share their talents with others, I am confident that most people would welcome the opportunity. Consider the possibilities: Students who speak a language that teachers and other students do not speak could provide basic, practical instruction in that language. Any teacher, regardless of the subject they teach, who likes youth literature could organize and facilitate book discussion groups with students. Students who are computer whizzes could help teachers improve their technology skills. School staff who have hobbies such as chess or gardening or photography could help students develop these skills.

Each of these teaching and learning experiences might occur on a small scale, between individuals or in small groups, but the objective would be for them to be pervasive and sustained so that everyone in the school, not just students, is seeking to achieve a new proficiency. If these activities were pervasive, they could develop a powerful climate of achievement.

Step Three: Use Standards to Define Learning Goals

Embrace and use content and performance standards to clearly delineate student learning goals, and engage teachers, students and families in understanding what these standards mean.

If your school system and schools want middle school students to achieve at higher levels, the students have to know what you expect them to achieve, and the level of proficiency they must demonstrate as evidence that they have achieved it. In the past, and perhaps in too many classrooms today, the curriculum has been the textbook, even though schools did not really expect that students would learn everything in the textbook.

Instead, the schools played a guessing game with students, saying, in effect, "Here is this book; we will cover what we can, and we think it is really important for you to learn some of what is in the textbook. We will not tell you what it is we expect you to learn, but at different points during the school year we will give you a test to determine if you have learned it. If you study what is in this textbook and if you are very good at guessing what we think you should learn, you will perform well on the tests." This, of course, is not a process that fosters either good teaching or significant learning.

If schools really understand standards and use them effectively, standards can be a pathway to more effective teaching and deeper learning. Standards should result from asking the question, "What should students know and be able to do as a result of their educational experiences in the middle grades?" The challenge is for the standards that answer that question to be concrete and limited. They should not be a long list of more standards than it is possible for teachers to address or more than it is possible for students to learn, but restricted to what is most important for students to know and to be able to do.

When standards meet this criterion, they can be a constructive force for better teaching and deeper student learning. The focus becomes what students should learn, and what and how teachers should teach to cause students to perform at standard. If a student does not meet standards, the responsibility is shared equally by the student, the teacher, and the school. The student has to make greater effort. The teacher has to change his or her instruction. The school has to provide the student more time for learning, perhaps different learning contexts, and certainly additional opportunities to demonstrate that he or she can perform at standard.

The purpose of standards is not to penalize students but for teachers and schools to take whatever actions are necessary to cause students to meet the standards.

Step Four: Focus Staff Development on Student Achievement

Reform staff development so it is rooted in what teachers and administrators need to know and be able to do to increase student achievement, and evaluate the results of staff development.

If student achievement is going to increase, teachers and administrators will have to make it happen. But they cannot increase student achievement unless they have and apply the attitudes, behaviors, knowledge, and skills that are correlates of increased student achievement. We know that if for whatever reasons teachers believe that students cannot achieve much, the results will be that the students do not achieve much.

We know that if teachers are not deeply knowledgeable about the subjects they teach, and if they do not manifest a contagious excitement about those subjects, students will not believe those subjects are important and they will not devote much effort to learning them. We know that if principals do not focus their faculties on high quality instruction and student work, and if they do not consistently monitor and seek to improve teachers' instruction, then significant increases in student achievement will not occur.

Even though we know all this, most school systems and schools do not effectively use the greatest resource available to them-- staff development -- to increase the performance levels of teachers and administrators. Most staff development is not carefully conceived or narrowly targeted to help teachers and administrators develop and use the specific skills they need to increase student achievement. Even worse, staff development is almost never rigorously evaluated to determine what educators learned or how effectively they applied what they learned to their classrooms and schools. Few school systems and schools invest enough in staff development, but most do not really know what their total expenditures are because staff development activities are diffuse, spread across many different functions and programs.

In the achieving middle school, however, the principal and the school leadership team treat staff development as a precious resource. They carefully analyze the school's budget and its activities to identify both the money and the time that the school can use for staff development. They also identify staff development that is required by other entities such as the central office of the school system or the state department of education.

With this information as background, the leaders of the achieving middle school then use student performance data to identify the students' and teachers' greatest learning needs. If, for example, the math performance of students is not what it should be, the school's leadership team engages mathematics teachers and the central office's math consultant in developing staff development that will most likely increase the teachers' effectiveness in raising student achievement. The school does not stop there, however. It also creates and implements a process for determining whether and how the teachers benefited from the staff development, and whether and with what effect they are adapting their instruction to use what they learned.

This process of evaluation helps the school learn from the professional development experiences of its staff, and over time increases the school's understanding of what types of staff development are most effective.

Step Five: Engage Everyone in Discussions of Student Work

Collectively engage teachers, administrators, site councils, and students' families in analyzing and discussing the quality of student work.

How does a school know whether students are achieving? How does it know that the rate at which they are achieving is satisfactory? Sadly, most schools are dependent on the results of standardized assessments. In one sense these schools have turned over accountability for monitoring student progress to either the state or the central office of their school system. The schools rely almost totally on assessment reports from the state or district to gauge the academic progress their students are making.

Given the high-stakes nature of these assessments I suppose it is not surprising that schools are so dependent on them for information about student progress, but this is not healthy for schools or their students. These tests serve a purpose, but at best they are snapshots of what students know and can do; they do not provide schools with a sophisticated, comprehensive understanding of students' levels of performance or their academic growth.

While the achieving middle school disaggregates and studies the results of standardized assessments to learn what to change about curriculum and instruction, it does not stop there. The achieving school also engages teachers and administrators, and as many representatives of students' families as possible, in systematically examining student work over time. This usually occurs in small groups, such as department or team meetings, but faculty meetings and special evening programs are also appropriate venues. At these meetings teachers bring samples of actual student work to analyze and discuss.

This works best in schools where teachers are committed to using rubrics that describe varying levels of the quality of student work, from excellent to poor, for a specific assignment. Rubrics can also help teachers engage students in understanding the quality of work the teachers are seeking. Some teachers involve their students in developing the rubric for a particular assignment while others collaborate with students to develop a generic rubric for all work students produce. In other words, rubrics can help students understand the teachers' expectations and the criteria teachers use to assign a grade to the work students submit.

There are a number of different protocols for how a group of people might examine student work but at one middle school it works like this: Once a week the social studies teachers meet after school for two hours to examine and discuss student work. A teacher brings to the group a selection of work students completed in response to a major assignment. The teacher begins the session by explaining the content standard for the assignment addressed. She goes on to explain why and how she developed the assignment; in other words, how she intended the assignment to help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the specific content standard. The teacher then describes the rubric she developed to assess the quality of the students' work. Finally, the teacher discusses several pieces of student work which are illustrative of the range of students' performance on the assignment.

At that point, the teacher's colleagues ask questions and provide feedback. They may praise the link between the specific content standard and the assignment. They may make suggestions for strengthening the assignment, or critique certain elements of the rubric. But this process is not a show-and-tell for the teacher to proudly show off the best work of her class. Instead, it is an opportunity for a group of professionals to think hard about and discuss the relationship between their instruction and the performance of their students. This cannot occur unless each teacher is willing to learn from his or her colleagues, and unless there is enough trust and security among the teachers that they can give and take constructive criticism.

The objective of the collaborative examination of student work is to improve teacher practice so it will improve student performance. This can be one of the most effective types of staff development, but like other potentially powerful investments in education it requires sustained commitment and effort.

Examining student work is important because the bottom line in the achieving middle school is what students actually know and can do, not just how they perform on tests. In fact, the focus on student performance is a higher standard than focusing on test performance. None of us earn our livings by how we perform on tests, but all of us earn our livings by demonstrating every day what we know and can do.

Student work is the window that enables us to understand what students actually know and can do, and how well they know and can do it. However, this process is only one component of the framework for increasing student achievement. That framework includes these elements: (a) there must be challenging and engaging curriculum that is standards-based; (b) the instruction of teachers must be rooted in their knowledge of the content they are teaching and their skillful use of pedagogy to engage students in learning that content; (c) teachers must develop high-quality assignments for the specific purpose of causing students to progress towards performing at standard; and (d) teachers must collaboratively and consistently analyze student work to determine if the teachers' instruction and assignments are producing the quality of work students must demonstrate to perform at standard. If not, then teachers must change their practice to achieve this result. It is only when all these pieces are in place, consistently and faithfully implemented, that student performance will increase significantly.

Step Six: Make High School Success a Primary Goal

Focus the school on encouraging and preparing nearly all students in grades six, seven, and eight to enroll and succeed in high school courses leading to post-secondary education.

There is a statement that one hears often whenever there is a discussion about the purpose of education: "Well, you know, not everyone needs to go to college or should go to college. It is quite possible to make a good living and be happy without going to college." This is usually followed by an anecdote about a relative who did not go to college but has a good job and is making more money than another relative who did go to college.

It is, of course, true that there are some highly motivated, strong willed, energetic, and creative people with only a high school education but who are successful in spite of it. It is also true that in the next millennium there will be fewer and fewer jobs for such people.

But even before we get to the year 2000, there is compelling data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about the value of college education:

*In 1996, college graduates earned nearly 75 percent more than high school graduates.

* Each year of post-secondary education raises wages by about eight percent.

* By ages 28 to 32 the real earnings growth of men with a high school education or below is about one percent annually while male college graduates have an annual real wage growth of five percent each year.

* The likelihood of a worker experiencing a period of unemployment decreases as the worker's education level increases.

Now I ask you, in light of these facts, why would a middle school not intentionally encourage and prepare nearly every sixth, seventh, and eighth grader to enroll and succeed in high school courses leading to post-secondary education? If middle schools really want the best for their students, if they really want to prepare them for the twenty-first century, why are they not encouraging and preparing nearly every middle school student to seek and obtain as much education as possible? I believe this is what an achieving middle school must do.

I want to point out that when I use the term "post-secondary education", I mean any level of education beyond high school, not just four years of college. "Post-secondary" should include technical education, two-year colleges, or any structured educational opportunities that require a high school diploma and have other entrance criteria. The same type of post-secondary education is not appropriate for everyone, but it is both appropriate and necessary to encourage and prepare nearly all middle school students for some type of post-secondary education.

This does not mean that the middle school has any business deciding or even suggesting a specific type of post-secondary education for a particular student. It certainly does not mean that the school should assign students to classes based on what the school believes or assumes about what class is best preparation for a specific type of post-secondary education for a particular student. This is not the role of the achieving middle school.

Instead, the school educates all students about all the many different types of post-secondary education available to them. The school does not make judgments that some students are not smart enough or that their families do not have enough money for the students to pursue higher education. Rather, the school instills in all students the desire to seek additional education after high school. The achieving middle school seeds and nurtures students' interest in post-secondary education. It understands that student aspiration precedes student determination, and that in all matters the "what" must come before the "how."

But encouraging students to pursue higher education requires much more than handing out brochures, or pairing students with mentors, or even creating opportunities for students to spend time at post-secondary institutions. Students have to develop the self-confidence that with effort they can perform at higher levels. This begins with middle school teachers and administrators consistently communicating their belief that higher education is a desirable goal for students, and each day driving home their expectations that students will produce quality work in middle school.

This, of course, presents a problem. Many middle school teachers and administrators do not believe that nearly all students can or should prepare for post-secondary education, and they do not expect them to produce high quality work in middle school. In these cases, the attitudes and behaviors of the educators communicate so powerfully that anything else they may do has little effect. Middle school students are very discerning about how much their teachers care about and expect of them, and how well teachers prepare and how hard they work to help students develop academically. Therefore, it is essential for middle school educators to get their attitudes and behaviors straight before they set out to encourage and prepare nearly all middle school students to pursue post-secondary education.

Tackling this issue has other profound consequences for schools. To honestly prepare students to take high school courses leading to post-secondary education, it will be necessary to eliminate low level courses and to ensure that nearly all students participate in challenging, high content courses that are aligned with the high school courses. I know what you are thinking: How is this possible when so many of your students come to middle school with poor literacy and math skills? Of course it is not possible if your middle schools are structured and operated as they do now.
That is the point. No school can become an achieving middle school by merely tinkering here or tweaking there, making just a few changes at the margins and hoping for the best.

If middle schools are to advance significantly the achievement of all students, the schools will have to restructure, retool, and reallocate. More teachers will have to invest more time and effort in developing mastery of the content they teach, and becoming more skillful in causing students to perform at standard. The curriculum will have to become more engaging and challenging. The school day, week, and perhaps even the school year will have to change to create more time for high quality staff development and much more time for student learning. Above all, attitudes will have to change. Educators have to believe that they can reform their schools fundamentally, and central office leaders to whom they are accountable have to believe it also. Unless teachers and principals believe that middle school reform is both necessary and possible, and unless they have both the permission and support of central office leaders, it will not be possible for middle schools to become achieving schools.

Are You Really So Powerless?

These, then, are the six steps to develop an achieving middle school. At best, they represent a framework, not a recipe. Because each middle school is different, each will have to take the six steps in its own way. This is not a process for the timid, and I encourage you to be courageous and bold.
Though I know the challenge of these six steps is great, it is not as great as the challenges that will confront your students if you do not take these steps.

During the next millennium they will face an increasingly complex and competitive world. Some of you may be tempted to shrug your shoulders and say, "It does not make any difference what I do. Whatever I do, some of my students will succeed, some will not." Yes, that is the human condition, but are you really so powerless that you cannot change lives? Are you really saying that you cannot make a significant difference in how your students prepare for the future?

I do not believe that, and I hope you do not. But what is more important is what your students believe. Each day they take a leap of faith. They come to school believing that you have their best interests at heart and that no matter what, you will help them prepare for the future.

Your students almost never tell you that. Quite often some of them act as though they believe just the opposite, throwing your best efforts back into your face. But the truth is that even these students believe in you and are counting on you. I will bet there are some people in this audience who know that is true because once, many years ago, they were such students. In spite of their behavior or their apparent lack of motivation, some teacher convinced them that they could achieve.

So do not ever believe that you and your schools cannot make a profound difference in the lives of all your students. The challenge is to reform your schools and your teaching so that all students, not just some students, achieve at significantly higher levels. This is why you must make middle schools work well, and move on to make them achieving middle schools. As it says in the scriptures, "those who are well do not need a physician" (Luke 5:31).

Thank you.