The Hayes Mizell Reader
Hayes
Mizell directed the Program for Student Achievement of the Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation from 1987 to 2003. During that time, the Program focused
its philanthropy on middle grades reform, and Mizell became a nationally
respected critic of "business as usual" in America's middle
schools. Mizell is now the Distinguished Senior Fellow of the National
Staff Development Council.
Before assuming his Clark Foundation director's post in 1987, Mizell worked
for more than 20 years as an advocate for
better public schools in the South, both as a grassroots organizer and
a proponent of education policy reform on behalf of disadvantaged students.
A
former school board member in Columbia, SC, Mizell was appointed in 1979
by President Carter as chairman of the National Advisory Council on the
Education of Disadvantaged Children and he served in that capacity until
1982.
Mizell is a founder of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, the National Coalition of Advocates for Students and has served on advisory committees of the National Center for Fair and Open Testing; the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, and Youth Alive!
In this selection of speeches, some of which have been collected in the book Shooting for the Sun, Mizell shares his frank insights about the hard work of middle school change — examining the meaning of reform, the need for clear standards, the poor quality of most professional development, the importance of principal leadership, and the vital role of the central office in signaling the importance of any reform initiative.
The surest way to break the cycle of underachievement, Mizell says, is to help young people gain the skills and knowledge they need to become self-sufficient. He tempers his critique of today's middle schools by acknowledging the challenges many educators face and the need to support those who are striving to improve.
Some of Mizell's
remarks have been lightly edited to remove outdated references and improve
on-line readability. We will continue to post remarks by Mizell that relate
to middle grades issues.
Selected Remarks of Hayes Mizell
Still
Crazy After All These Years:
Grade Configuration and the Education of Young Adolescents
In an October 2004 keynote address at the annual conference of the National
School Board Association's Council of Urban Boards of Education, veteran
middle grades reform advocate Hayes Mizell reflected on the growing tendency
for urban school systems to abandon the middle school grade configuration
(typically 5-8 or 6-8) in favor of a K-8 model.
In his talk, Mizell traced the history of the middle school movement and weighed the available evidence on both sides of the grade configuration debate. "School systems may believe that educating young adolescents in K-8 schools will solve many problems," said Mizell. "But school boards and superintendents need to know that the wholesale conversion to a K-8 structure is not a matter of 'set it and forget it.'"
"Rather than
grappling with the difficult substantive issues of how simultaneously
to engage students in challenging academic work and provide them with
the personal and academic supports necessary to increase their levels
of proficiency," Mizell told the urban school board members, "some school
systems have focused on changing schools' grade configurations and reassigning
students." (Small PDF file)
Imagination
and School Reform
"If we are honest about the cultures of most schools and most school systems,
they downplay imagination, particularly among adults," Hayes Mizell told
the Middle School Leadership Team of the Corpus Christi Independent School
District recently. In fact, Mizell said, "many educators constantly seek
more specific direction so they will not have to use their imaginations.
They want principals, central office and state department of education
staff, and policy makers to tell them exactly what to do, perhaps because
they want others to be accountable for results, or lack of them." Mizell
reminded the audience that "Only when educators imagine how their students
can learn and perform at higher levels, and only when educators imagine
how they can change their practice to achieve that result, is there hope
for learning that energizes both teachers and students."
NCLB: Conspiracy, Compliance or Creativity?
"The reason the NCLB exists is simple," says middle grades reform advocate
Hayes Mizell in this recent speech to the Maryland Council of Staff Developers.
"For decades, local policymakers and school officials turned a blind eye
to a set of vexing problems in public education." Among educators, responses
to the No Child Left Behind law fixate, for the most part, on conspiracy
theories or the mechanics of compliance, Mizell says. He challenges educators
to choose a third response: Creativity. "I am speaking of creativity not
in implementing the law, but rather using the law to improve teacher quality
and enable all students to become academically proficient. Implementing
the law and using the law are not the same." (April 2003)
Guiding Questions for Middle Grades Reform
Middle level educators, eager to create "true" middle schools, have often leaped before they looked when it comes to school reform. As the pressures of No Child Left Behind begin to be felt in the middle grades, school reformer Hayes Mizell urges educators to "pause, take a deep breath, and think" before they settle on the most effective approaches to meet NCLB's proficiency benchmarks. Mizell offers eight guiding questions that can help provoke discussion about a middle school's values, priorities and practices. (January 2003)
Parents and Middle School Reform
"The challenge of the middle grades is to devote equal attention both to students' affective needs and to their academic needs," school reform advocate Hayes Mizell says in this public lecture sponsored by the Nyack NY Partners in Education. "Achieving these results is not easy," Mizell admits, "but schools are more likely to achieve them if they partner with parents." What are parents' appropriate roles in middle school reform? Mizell offers some answers, drawing on many web-based resources which are linked to this important article.
Local Education Funds: Complicity or Reform?
In these comments to the Public Education Network's Policy Initiatives Convening conference in Washington, DC (4/18/02) Hayes Mizell seizes "a useful provocation" to re-examine assumptions about the roles of local education funds and the strategies they can and should pursue. "Whether a LEF steadfastly supports a school system or aggressively challenges it, is there a point of diminishing returns in either case and how does a LEF know when it reaches that point?"
Educating
All Children Well
"School systems need to finally come to grips with the reality that reform
is a continuous process," says Hayes Mizell in this keynote address to
educators involved in middle grades reform supported by the Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation. Looking back at six years of efforts to achieve standards-based
classrooms that serve all students equally well, Mizell acknowledges some
progress but candidly points out that districts supported by the Foundation
have not fundamentally changed the way they do business. "If their primary
mission, day in and day out, is to educate all children, how do school
systems learn how to educate all children well, and translate that learning
into routine practice? The truth is that most school systems have not
figured this out. They find it very difficult to provide basic education
services while also learning and practicing new skills that will increase
student performance." (October 2001)
Who Will Advocate
for Middle School Reform?
"Advocacy can be difficult," says Hayes Mizell in these remarks presented at a meeting of the Southern Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform (6/21/01). "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."
Taking Responsibility Hayes Mizell congratulates participants at the first meeting of the Long Beach (CA) Inner-City Schools Coalition for having the courage to explore "how your schools can work and learn together to raise the performance levels of your students." The Coalition is composed of three LBUSD schools -- Franklin Middle School, the Jefferson Leadership Academies, and Washington Middle School. "Most schools plead that they do not have the time or opportunity to break out of their self-imposed isolation," Mizell says, "but I think the truth is that they are afraid of what they might learn." He urges the gathered teachers and principals to use their combined talents and experiences "to make all your schools more effective" and describes a model statement of purpose that recognizes the link between student performance gains and improvements in professional practice. (Transcript of a videotape address, 5/22/01.) Professional Development: The State It's In Much of state education policy is more like hospitalization than like administering a vaccine, Hayes Mizell tells a gathering of administrators from 40 state education agencies (2/26/01). "The role of staff development is not to treat the sick, but to prevent the illness of professional stagnation and crippling practice. Staff development can fulfill this role if states reflect on and learn from their own successes and failures in developing and implementing other policies to improve education." Mizell suggests five courses of action that states might take. Sustaining Support for Professional Development The lack of clarity among school leaders about the purpose and value of professional development has produced a skeptical audience of policymakers and funders, says Hayes Mizell in this talk before an audience of New York State staff development leaders (10/00). "It means the product you are selling is kind of like baking soda, everybody knows it is good to have a box in the pantry, but it is hard to work up much passion for buying it." Mizell urges the group to accept the difficult task of defining high-quality staff development and promises that PD evaluation help is "on the way." Is what you're cookin' what your students are smellin'? In a talk (9/00) to school leaders from the three systems that continue to receive grant support from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, Hayes Mizell plays off a popular culture icon -- professional wrestler 'The Rock' -- to challenge bureaucratic inertia and adult-focused practices that fail to raise the achievement of all middle grades students. "If your standards are what your school systems are "cook'in", they may not be not what your students are "smell'in." There may be a disconnect between the standards that your school systems say students should meet and the curriculum and instruction your school systems are providing." What Works? Who Cares? Responding to a keynote address at a national research conference on middle grades teaching and learning (7/25/00), Hayes Mizell asks a provocative question: Is understanding what constitute effective practices in the middle grades enough? Do we also need to understand "why more middle level educators are not using what we already know about practices that increase student learning?" The War We Are In It's time to go to war to raise the achievement of young adolescents, Hayes Mizell told participants at the Southern Regional Education Board's "Making Middle Grades Matter" conference in Nashville, TN (7/10/00). "The educational development of young people ages 11 to 15 is besieged by a set of complex but independent forces that do not array themselves in a frontal assault," Mizell said. "The forces of attack...operate in three divisions -- low expectations, ineffective instruction and leadership, and schools that resist reform. They have many allies." Mizell describes the arsenal of weapons that committed foot soldiers can deploy in their fight to overcome the defenders of mediocrity and status-quo thinking. What If There Were No State Accountability? "We have reached a sad state of affairs when educators do the right thing not because they understand and act on what they know must be done for their students to perform at higher levels, but because the state establishes and enforces thresholds of satisfactory performance," says middle grades reform advocate Hayes Mizell in this speech ("What If There Were No TAAS?") to a group of Texas educators. School leaders who want to be treated like professionals must become "self-accountable," Mizell says. He describes eight essential steps educators must take "if they want to take control of their own destiny and that of their schools, and if they see themselves not as victims but as potentially powerful agents for change." Middle School Reform: Where Are We Now? Middle level education is now firmly established as an important link in the chain of young people's educational experiences, says Hayes Mizell, speaking at a conference of middle grades educators involved in the Middle Start Initiative for Mississippi, Arkansas, and Louisiana. "Yet, there is disquiet in the middle school community," Mizell says, as policymakers criticize the lagging performance of middle graders and local educators and school board members frequently show "little or no practical understanding of the purpose of middle schools, or the levels of supervision and support necessary for middle schools to operate effectively." Mizell describes core issues facing the middle school movement and points to some key resources available to educators who are serious about middle grades reform. Watching for Mr. Hyde Thoughtfully conceived, conscientiously implemented, and carefully evaluated, educational standards can benefit students and education, Hayes Mizell tells the Twelfth Annual America's At-Risk Youth National Forum. "But those three modifiers -- thoughtful, conscientious, careful -- do not describe the policy or political environment in which most educators operate. What begins as Dr. Jekyll often turns into Mr. Hyde." Mizell takes a measure of the standards movement's evolution and proposes a list of questions that put the movement "to the ultimate assessment." The Beauty and the Terror "Having" standards is not enough, just as "being" a middle school is not enough, Hayes Mizell tells educators at a conference for Kansas City educators. "Neither ensure more effective education nor higher levels of learning. If the quality of standards matters, and it does, then Missouri and Kansas have real problems." Two ideologically opposite organizations, the "conservative" Thomas B. Fordham Foundation and the "liberal" American Federation of Teachers, have both found the standards in these states fail to make the grade, Mizell says. A Middle Grades Reformer Tells It Like It Is Hayes Mizell pulled very few punches during a presentation at the 1999 annual conference of the National Staff Development Council. Appearing on a panel titled "What Key Reformers Have Learned About Reform," Mizell, speaking from the perspective of more than a decade, observed: "The capacity among teachers and administrators to do what we are now saying is important, to cause all students to perform at significantly higher levels, simply does not currently exist among most educators." Mizell adds: "(U)ntil local educators take the collective initiative to hold themselves accountable for causing students to meet and exceed academic standards, and until they persuasively demonstrate, for all the world to see, what their students know and can do, we can expect education to be more about performance on state tests rather than about deeper student learning." Evaluating Staff Development: The Kickoff At the first meeting of the national advisory board for the National Staff Development Council's project, "Evaluating Staff Development: Demonstrating the Impact," Mizell offers some opening remarks and describes his role as "like that of the kickoff specialist at a football game. . . I will try to kick the ball away from those who think it is impossible to evaluate the effects of staff development." At the heart of the NSDC project, Mizell says, is the need to reach consensus about what staff development should be. "It is not possible to evaluate that which one cannot define or describe. Implicit in evaluation is a set of standards about what constitutes good practice. Evaluation that merely asks, 'What happened?,' unrelated to what one intended to happen or what should have happened, is not worth much." (November 1999) Hitting the Wall High on the mountain, climbers experience the symptoms of "hitting the wall," where every muscle is screaming to quit. Mizell compares these debilitating symptoms to those experienced by educators "who have now reached the higher altitudes of systemic, standards-based reform. You have been trudging through knee-deep snow, cautiously climbing over rocky ledges, and learning how to get across yawning crevasses. For some of you, the summit that is represented by eighth grade students performing at standard is within sight, for others it only momentarily appears before heavy clouds obscure it again. All of you, I suspect. are tired because you have been the leaders of your respective expeditions, trying to find the best route to the summit while many others remain at the base camp." (Speech to Clark Foundation grantees, 9/12/99) Six Steps to an Achieving Middle School What is an achieving middle school? Hayes Mizell offers this definition to a group of North Carolina educators: "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.... In the achieving middle school the administrators, teachers, and students understand that they all have something to teach and a lot to learn." (Keynote speech of Hayes Mizell on June 14, 1999 at the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC Schools' "First Annual Middle Schools Institute.") The Middle School Movement: 30 and Counting. . . During the past three decades, says Mizell, "there has been a lot of loose talk about middle schools being 'student-centered.' If middle schools had truly been student-centered there would be more impressive evidence of student performance than is currently the case. In fact, most middle schools have been more adult-centered than anything else. It is, after all, the adults in the schools who have been the most resistant to change and who have been inclined to expect so little of themselves and their students." (Speech to a Middle Grades Education Conference sponsored by the Southern Regional Education Board, May 1999.)
Find out more about the Program for Student Achievement by visiting the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation website
Order a free copy of Shooting for the Sun: The Message of Middle School Reform, a new collection of Mizell remarks.
