Overview

=Overview of the Campaign for Middle School Success=

Through the Campaign for Middle School Success, we plan to set high expectations for middle schools and for our middle grade students’ performance. We also plan to achieve dramatic growth in student achievement across our nearly 500 middle schools. The development of the Campaign for Middle School Success was a highly collaborative effort involving educational leaders from across the Department of Education’s central offices, as well as principals, teachers, parents, students, and community partners. During the first phase of our work, we conducted an extensive analysis to understand better the nature of the middle school challenge and to discover what is working, from across the department and elsewhere, in order to build on our strengths and successful middle school 4 practices. Specifically, we: • Performed a rigorous diagnosis of current performance in our middle schools using State performance data and City accountability tools and investigated past DOE reform efforts; • Conducted external research in best practices in the areas that our research identified as key elements of middle school success, including academic rigor, adolescent development, teacher and school leader quality, family and community engagement, and school structure and organization in the middle grades; • Visited many of our highest-performing middle schools to understand the situation from the ground, identified successful practices on which to build, and investigated best practices from outside New York City, both national and international; • Interviewed principals, teachers, internal and external experts in policy and practice, community partners, and other key stakeholders across New York City to learn from their observations and experiences; and • Reviewed the recommendations outlined in national and State middle school reform reports, including SUNY Albany’s // What Makes Middle Grades Work //, as well as the recommendations of  the New York City Council Middle School Task Force Report and the Coalition for Educational Justice Middle Grades Action Plan.