You can use this PowerPoint presentation to lead staff conversations in your district or school about the practices and examples in the Middle Grades Action Kit for Superintendents and Principals. You can adapt the presentation to suit local needs.

This presentation is part of a larger Middle Grades Action Kit for Superintendents and Principals that also includes:

• A Middle Grades Playbook that describes how the classroom, school, and district levels each can contribute to stronger middle grades education-including self-assessments and a compendium of actionable practices.
• Nine school profiles that describe how selected schools from the Gaining Ground study are thinking about, undertaking, and improving their practice.
• Principal and teacher survey tools designed to help you evaluate practices in your school or district.
• A CD with electronic versions of all the materials, plus the original study documents.

   Back to Middle Grades Action Kit for Superintendents and Principals

 

EdSource thanks the Stuart Foundation for its generous project support of the development, design, and dissemination of the Middle Grades Action Kit.

Read the Research

• Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better - This EdSource study, released in 2010, is based on survey responses from 303 principals, 3,752 English language arts and math teachers in grades 6-8, and 157 superintendents. The study was designed to identify practices and policies that differentiate higher- from lower-performing middle grades schools that serve similar student populations.
• Improving Middle Grades Math Performance - This follow-up analysis to EdSource's landmark Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades study inquires further into the study data to provide a more in-depth look at middle grades mathematics practices and policies. The centerpiece is an empirical exploration of grade 8 Algebra I placement, based on longitudinal data linking the mathematics CSTs that students took in grades 7 and 8.