Southern Regional Education Board A New Mission for the Middle Grades: Preparing Students for A Changing World The Report of the SREB Middle Grades Commission Chaired by: Governor Beverly Perdue of North Carolina

Southern Regional Education Board Commission Members Middle Grades Commission Report2 James GillPrincipalAlba Middle School, AL Joseph MortonState Superintendent of SchoolsAlabama Arthur OrrState SenatorAlabama Laura Bednar Assistant Commission for Learning Services Arkansas DOE Jimmy JeffressChair, Senate Education CommitteeArkansas David SokolaState SenatorDelaware Frances HaithcockChancellor of Public SchoolsFlorida DOE John LeggState RepresentativeFlorida John BargeState Superintendent of SchoolsGeorgia Terry HollidayCommissioner of EducationKentucky Jack WestwoodState SenatorKentucky Debbie Schum Executive Director/Office of College & Career Readiness Louisiana DOE Paul DunfordDirector-Middle Grades InitiativeMaryland

Southern Regional Education Board Commission Members Middle Grades Commission Report3 Jerry WeastSuperintendent of Schools Montgomery County Schools, MD Beverly Perdue Governor of North Carolina Chair of Middle Grades Commission North Carolina June AtkinsonState Superintendent of SchoolsNorth Carolina Rick GlazierState RepresentativeNorth Carolina Bill HarrisonChairman, State Board of EducationNorth Carolina Howard LeeExecutive Director, Education CabinetNorth Carolina Judith RizzoExecutive Director & CEO James B. Hunt, Jr. Institute, NC Jerry TillmanState SenatorNorth Carolina Cathy TomonPrincipal Broad Creed Middle School, NC Leslie WinnerExecutive Director Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, NC John FordState SenatorOklahoma Susan PaddackState SenatorOklahoma

Southern Regional Education Board Commission Members Middle Grades Commission Report4 Ray DavisEducation Consultant: Career GuidanceSouth Carolina Mark MaddoxFormer State RepresentativeTennessee Gary Nixon Executive Director, State Board of Education Tennessee Robert EisslerState RepresentativeTexas Lizzette Reynolds Deputy Commissioner Statewide Policy and Programs Texas Education Agency Vern WilliamsMathematics Teacher Longfellow Middle School, VA Patricia WrightState Superintendent of SchoolsVirginia Betty Jo Jordan Executive Assistant to State Superintendent of Education West Virginia DOE Myk Garn Director, Educational Technology Cooperative SREB Dave SpencePresidentSREB Gene BottomsSenior Vice PresidentSREB Joan LordVice PresidentSREB

Southern Regional Education Board Commission Consultants Middle Grades Commission Report5 Patricia Ashley Director of District and School Transformation North Carolina DOE Robert Balfanz Research Scientist, Center for Social Organization of Schools Johns Hopkins University, MD Sondra CooneyFormer Director, MMGWSREB Francis (Skip) Fennell Past President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Professor, McDaniel College McDaniel College, MD Sam HoustonPresident &CEO North Carolina Science, Mathematics and Technology Education Center Sandy KressSenior Counsel Akin Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, LLP, TX Hayes MizellDistinguished Senior FellowLearning Forward, SC Cynthia Shanahan Professor, Literacy Language and Culture Executive Director, Council on Teacher Education Illinois

Southern Regional Education Board New Mission: Prepare more students for success in rigorous high school courses — and ultimately for most students to graduate and proceed to college, advanced training or enter employment with some type of certification. Middle Grades Commission Report6

Southern Regional Education Board Middle Grades Are Critically Important States’ goals for raising high school graduation, improving students’ readiness for college and careers, and helping more students earn a degree or credential are in jeopardy unless the middle grades are successful in this new mission. Middle Grades Commission Report7

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must help districts and schools to: 1.Prepare all teachers to use rigorous reading and writing assignments to teach their subjects. Middle Grades Commission Report8

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission State literacy actions Help districts and schools develop literacy plans. Revise certification and teacher education standards. Provide long-term professional development. Provide an accelerated language arts curriculum. Revise state assessments. Prepare discipline-based literacy tools for teachers. Train principals to support literacy. Middle Grades Commission Report9

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must work with districts and schools to: 2.Ensure that students acquire the math foundational skills needed to succeed in Algebra I in grade eight or nine and to succeed in advanced math courses in high school. Middle Grades Commission Report10

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission State mathematics actions Teach the foundation of arithmetic well. Place a balanced emphasis on teaching procedural skills, conceptual understanding and reasoning skills. Place ready students into an accelerated math path. Require seventh- and eighth-grade math and science teachers to work toward high school certification. Support long-term professional development to improve math instruction. Prepare principals who support improved math instruction. Middle Grades Commission Report11

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must work with districts and schools to: 3.Attract more students to STEM classes and careers by giving middle grades students more opportunities to discover their interests and aptitudes in using math, science and technology as tools for solving problems. Middle Grades Commission Report12

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission State STEM actions Require and support lab-based science. Support STEM teams — math, science, technology and literacy. Establish a STEM clearinghouse. Establish pacesetting STEM schools. Middle Grades Commission Report13

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must work with districts and schools to: 4.Get at-risk students on the graduation track through a more engaging and accelerated curriculum, coupled with extended learning time and an advocate teacher who teaches them the habits of success and how to be persistent in their studies. Middle Grades Commission Report14

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must work with districts and schools to: 5.Allow students to explore career and educational interests and aptitudes, to connect these to future educational opportunities, to formulate an educational and career plan and to understand the level of commitment needed to achieve their goals. Middle Grades Commission Report15

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must work with universities to: 6.Ensure that leaders’ preparation programs prepare principals for the new middle grades mission and to implement new Common Core State Standards. Middle Grades Commission Report16

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must take steps to: 7.Ensure that all existing and new teachers can teach the new higher standards as a basis for certification. Middle Grades Commission Report17

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Mission States must hold districts and schools accountable and: 8.Create an accountability system that focuses on continuous improvement and accelerating more students to higher levels of achievement. Middle Grades Commission Report18

Southern Regional Education Board Achieving the New Vision “We need conversations and commitment across the SREB states about the importance of middle school and the difference a really good experience can make in a student’s life. These conversations have to occur at the school board level, with parents and across the business community.” Governor Beverly Perdue, North Carolina Middle Grades Commission Report19