Resources for Breaking Ranks at the Middle level

Satisfaction Survey – How Well Does Your School Serve Each Student

This survey can be used to generate conversations about how well the school is currently meeting the needs of each student.

Importance vs. Practice Survey

This survey asks respondents to reflect on how their school is implementing the recommendations found in Breaking Ranks in the Middle and their level of satisfaction with the implementation of the practice.

Academic Rigor and Support

This instrument can be used to compare the respondents’ perceptions of the importance of academically rigorous practices and support with the level of implementation existing in the school.

21st Century School Leadership Skills

This instrument will provide school leaders with information about their strengths and improvement needs in 10 skill dimensions essential for successful leadership. Can also be used with colleagues to provide one with their perceptions of your skills.

NASSP Policy Recommendations for Middle Level Reform

The debate over education reform must include middle level schools. To address the dropout crisis, NASSP supports providing targeted assistance to low-performing schools with middle grades and requirements for states and districts to develop an early identification data system to identify those middle level students most at risk.

Annotated Bibliographies
Creating Developmentally Appropriate Middle Level Schools Middle Level School Restructuring	Transitions – elementary to middle level Transitions – middle level to high school

National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform

NASSP is a member of this alliance of over 60 educators, researchers, national associations, and officers of professional organizations and foundations committed to promoting the academic performance and healthy development of young adolescents. This organization also oversees the Schools to Watch Program that recognizes quality middle level schools in nearly 20 states.

National Middle Level Association

NMSA is a source of publications, resources and research that promote quality middle level education

The Center for Secondary School Redesign (CSSR)

NASSP has worked closely with CSSR in the development of many of the Breaking Ranks materials. The resources and technical assistance CSSR provides is based heavily on the Breaking Ranks framework.

The International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE)

NASSP and the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) have partnered together in order to combine each organization’s unique strengths to create a shared vision for empowering school leaders to improve student performance.

Documents

Suggested Activities for Leadership Groups
Successfully working with middle level students calls for creativity, enthusiasm, and a constant variety of new ideas.
Developing a Leadership Program
It takes an enthusiastic and skilled leader with a heart for young adolescents to run an effective leadership program. Just as you want to hire the best math teacher to teach math, you want the best person possible to serve as the adviser to your leadership program, and that person may not be a teacher or administrator.
Teaming - Recommendations in Practice
A number of schools featured in Breaking Ranks in the Middle highlight effective teaming practices that banish anonymity, limit the number of students with whom teachers have instructional contact, experiment with alternative uses of time, and integrate the curriculum.
Building Leadership Capacity: From a Teacher-Leader’s Viewpoint
Middle level task force member Nancy Chodoroff shares her thoughts on how she was able to move into the role of a teacher-leader.
Practical Suggestions for Developing Leadership Capacity in Others
A compilation of ideas gathered from the NASSP Middle Level Task Force and other seasoned middle level leaders for building leadership capacity in others in your school.
Connecting Students With the Right Summer Books to Raise Achievement
Providing students with high-interest books that are appropriate for their reading abilities—and that promote reading growth—can be a challenge. Durham Public Schools and Durham County Library in North Carolina launched a community-wide effort to do just that last summer.
Responding to RTI in the Middle Grades
The idea that RTI is merely a new approach to get students “identified” continues to be a misconception that needs to be corrected. Response to Intervention is so much more.
Middle Level Practices That Promote Personalization
Four middle level principals discuss practices at their schools that personalize the learning environment.
The Schedule as a Tool to Improve Student Learning
A school’s schedule is one of the most powerful tools a principal can use to shape the instructional program. The schedule can facilitate or inhibit opportunity for teacher collaboration. It can provide teaching teams with the flexibility they need to vary the length of classes and to accommodate a range of teaching strategies.
By Ronald Williamson
Collegial Collaboration: An Important Component of Developing a Rigorous Curriculum
Julie Fondell, Director of Assessment and Staff Development at DC Everest Middle School in Weston, WI (and an NASSP Middle Level Task Force Member) recounts collaborative work between a teacher and the media specialist that resulted in challenging literature units.
Nancy Doda on Leading for Professional Conversations
Flexible Schedules in Practice
They Want to be Heard
The results of the 2007 NASSP/PDK Middle School Poll are in and they should come as no surprise to those who work with young adolescents—middle level students want to be heard!
Grade Configurations in Middle Grade Schools
Recent research suggests that improving student academic (and other) outcomes is less likely to be associated with the specific grades housed in a building as opposed to how young adolescents are being educated in these schools.
By Steve Mertens and Vince Anfara
Rick Wormeli on Leading for Differentiation
Linda Robinson on Leading for Student Achievement
A Voice from the Middle
A May 2007 poll released by NASSP and Phi Delta Kappa, A Voice from the Middle, reveals middle level students' high aspirations for college, but a lack of clarity about how to get there. A panel of middle level students gathered to discuss the poll results at a press conference to release the poll.
Survey Tool: How Well Does Your School Serve Each Student? (pdf)
This survey tool provides a starting point for principals and their faculties to assess and discuss their school's performance on several key indicators of highly successful middle level schools.
Survey Tool: Middle Level Academic Rigor and Support Assessment (pdf)
This survey tool allows school leaders to gauge their schools' performance against a set of characteristics of middle level academic rigor and support.
Survey Tool: BRIM Recommendations' Importance vs. Practice (pdf)
This survey tool prompts school leaders and faculties to assess the importance of Breaking Ranks in the Middle recommendations and compare their importance to actual practice in schools.
Annotated Bibliography-Creating Developmentally Appropriate Middle Level Schools.pdf
Annotated Bibliography-Middle Level School Restructuring.pdf
From the Field: Ashe County Middle School
Annotated Bibliography-Transitional Programs-Elementary to Middle Level.pdf
Middle Level Sports: Recommendations for Reform
Annotated Bibliography-Transitional Programs-Middle Level to High School .pdf
Breaking Ranks in the Middle Executive Summary

Breaking Ranks in the Middle order form
Academic Rigor Planning Pyramid (pdf)
What Will It Look Like When We Get There? (pdf)
Business/Education Partnerships—Self-Assessment Tool for Partnership Improvement (pdf)
Take It Personally: The Millennial Middle Level Student
Our classrooms are filled with Millennials, those born after 1981 who, like the Generation Xers and Baby Boomers, possess certain generational characteristics. Fortunately, those characteristics can inform the way we reach those students each day in our schools.
Service Learning: Project HAM
A middle level leader shares a service learning project that students began in 2001 after learning about the needs of a local shelter for the homeless.
A Framework for Rigor
NASSP middle level task force members Rose Colby (administrator-in-residence, New England League of Middle Schools) and Patsy Dean (principal, Upson-Lee Middle School, Thomaston, GA) share a framework for rigor that helps middle level leaders identify practices that promote rigor in the classroom.
High Expectations for All
Principal Janice Koslowski explains how rigor has become an integral part of school life at Eagle Ridge Middle School in Ashburn, VA.
Practices and Programs that Increase Rigor
Principal Terry Wolfson (NASSP Middle Level Task force member) shares challenging practices currently in place at West Hopkins Junior High in Minnetonka, MN.
Increasing Rigor through Questioning Strategies
Principal Rob Stephenson of Farnsley Middle School in Louisville, KY, analyzes classroom questioning as an indicator of rigor and has adapted a quick observation tool to look specifically at the rigor of the verbs teachers use in questioning and task design.
Student Council in the Middle: Gotta Have It!
While middle level administrators and educators may have diverse viewpoints of the purpose, place, and structure of student councils in a middle school, the bottom line is that student councils can fulfill multiple roles within the educational, personal, and social growth process of young adolescents, especially in creating a positive school climate.
By Jeff Sherrill
Advisories: Advice from the Field
Two former middle level teachers share their expertise on effective advisory programs. In What Works, Jill Spencer shares her observations of what elements are necessary for an effective advisory program, and in AA (Advisor-Advisee) Throughout the Day, Theresa Hinkle explains how her team was able to maintain the core of their program even after advisory time was eliminated from the schedule.
Advisory Design and Implementation: What Are Our Insights?
For the past three years, a small cadre of public school and college middle level educators with advisory experience has provided assistance to approximately 35 Rhode Island middle level schools as they have designed and implemented their individual advisory programs.
What I Wish I Had Known When I Was a Middle School Principal
Reflecting on the perceptions that she held for so many years, Maureen Furr shares the following as counsel for others who may not have yet had the breadth of experience she now enjoys.
From the Field: Middle and High School Collaborations
Seeds of Change: Disciplined Growth and Shared Responsibility
Without safe and reasonably orderly environments to work in, the mission of our schools becomes increasingly difficult.
From the Field: Positive Behavior Support
Setting clear expectations; teaching, not telling, them to the students; and reinforcing positive behaviors helps make these schools safe places for students to learn.
Help! The Test is Only "X" Weeks from Now!
From the Field
Middle level leaders from around the country were asked how they help prepare students for taking their state assessments. Learn from their examples.
From the Field
Leadership and Effectively Integrating Educational Technology: Ten Lessons for Principals and Other Educational Leaders
Effective integration of technology is about increasing student engagement and learning. And it’s not just about changing the way education happens. It’s also about changing the way we think about teaching and learning.
NASSP Policy Recommendations for Middle Level Reform
The debate over education reform must include middle level schools. To address the dropout crisis, NASSP supports providing targeted assistance to low-performing schools with middle grades and requirements for states and districts to develop an early identification data system to identify those middle level students most at risk.
From the Field: Examples of Technology Implementation
There’s no question that technology and its continual advances has had a dramatic impact on schools. Things are changing so fast it’s hard to keep up with what’s available. Take a look at how a few principals from schools across the country are using technology to enhance learning.
Connecting Eighth Grade Students to Americanism Through Service and Our Veterans
A middle level teacher describes a project that has enhanced the study of U.S. history by connecting students at her school with local veterans.
Reach, Teach, and Engage with Service Learning
Through service learning, students acquire knowledge, find a sense of purpose, experience self-discovery, and have the opportunity to interact with others, all while improving their communities and world. It is education brought to life.
Leadership Priorities for Novice Middle Level Principals
NASSP Middle Level Task Force members Ken McEwin and Nancy Chodoroff provide guidance in setting priorities for new middle level administrators remind us of what’s important for experienced school leaders as well.

Links

Public School Insights
An inspiring Web site that presents a fresh, 21st-century vision for public schools, with real examples of what is working in all kinds of public schools and districts. Hosted by the Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 18 major national education associations that represent over 10 million dedicated educators, parents and education policymakers.

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Resources for Breaking Ranks at the Middle level

Resources for Breaking Ranks at the Middle level

Documents

Links