We know that different grade levels face many different issues. Middle Matters addresses the special needs of NAESP administrators serving the middle-level, grades 5-8. Get the help you need from this e-newsletter.

 

 

Tracking Students and Mathematics Achievement
In “Tracking and Detracking: High Achievers in Massachusetts Middle Schools,” Brookings scholar Tom Loveless examines tracking—the practice of putting students into separate classes based on prior academic achievement—at the middle school level. Tracking was once a prevalent practice in the United States, but it has lost favor in recent decades due to opponents’ assertion that it leads to unequal education opportunities. Loveless’ study focuses on Massachusetts, a so-called leader in tracking reform. He concludes that detracking is more prevalent in schools that serve children of lower socioeconomic status, and that while detracking has no effect on student performance in English-language arts classes, middle schools that use tracking have more students performing at the advanced and proficient levels in math than schools that have detracked. 

 

The Effect of Longer School Days on Middle School Students
As states have increased academic standards, they have not made much effort to give students more time to reach these standards. “Tracking an Emerging Movement: A Report on Expanded-Time Schools in America” examines a group of 655 “expanded-time schools” that have opted for school days substantially longer than the normal six-hour day. Some of these schools have also switched to a school calendar that exceeds the standard 180 days. The study reveals a moderate, yet statistically significant, association between the number of minutes spent in school and student performance for grades 7 and 10 on mathematics assessments and English-language arts assessments. The seventh-grade students who attended schools with longer days significantly outperformed their peers in both math and English-language arts. 

 

 

 

Improving Middle Grades Students’ Performance
The Southern Regional Education Board released “Keeping Middle Grades Students on the Path to Success in High School,” which argues that insufficient improvements on state reading and mathematics assessments indicate too many middle school students are not prepared for high school courses. A majority of the states examined by the report showed a rise in scores on statewide assessments from 2003 to 2007, but the rate of these improvements does not ensure that the states will meet the 2014 achievement standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act. The second half of the report contains a detailed plan that states can implement to try and increase academic achievement in the middle grades.

Health-Related Fitness
To combat the rise in childhood obesity, middle and high school physical education teachers are increasing their focus on health-related fitness activities. According to a survey conducted by the National Association for Sport and Physical Education and Polar, two-thirds of middle and high school PE teachers say health-related fitness activities lie at the core of their curriculum. To help students meet fitness goals, physical fitness devices, such as pedometers and heart rate monitors, and exercise focused games, such as Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution, are being used in a higher percentage of PE classes.

 

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