WORKING TOGETHER
Harnessing Community Resources
to Improve Middle Schools

• Publish a newsletter that highlights effective schools, profiles excellent teachers, and explains their importance to students.
  
  
• Host community forums that recognize outstanding educators, spotlight effective teaching methods, and provide opportunities for students to demonstrate what they know and can do.
  
  
• Conduct a survey, and publish the results, on how students and parents experience middle schools and what improvements they recommend.
  
  
• Collect and analyze student performance data from the school system and state, and engage middle school educators in a dialogue about the implications of these data.
  
  
• Support local educators' efforts to learn more about middle school reform by subsidizing their attendance at conferences and meetings.
  
  
• Sponsor small grants or awards for innovative teaching.
  
  
• Organize meetings between school personnel and social service providers to exchange information and ideas.
  
  
• Collaborate with the school system in developing a school volunteer program and publicizing it in the community.
  
  
• Host a meeting for business people about the importance of middle school education, then facilitate connections between schools and interested companies.