Improving Middle-Grades Education
Middle-grades education presents unique challenges. For more than
two decades, EDC has focused on developing innovative solutions
to those challenges—through curriculum, professional development,
and whole-school reform initiatives.
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TOUR EDC'S ONLINE
RESOURCES
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High-Performing Schools |
The "Schools to Watch" Web site presents online tours of four schools that are well on their way to meeting the Forum's criteria for high performance.
Visit the "Schools to Watch" Web site.  |
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Improving Schools |
AIM at Middle-Grades Results is a comprehensive school improvement program that assists middle-grades schools in becoming high-performing learning and caring organizations. AIM guides schools in becoming academically excellent, responsive to the developmental needs of young adolescents, and socially equitable. The program's goal is to ensure that all middle-grades students meet challenging standards and are prepared to succeed at the next stage of learning and growing.
Visit the AIM Web site. |
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Middle-School Science Assessment
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Evidence of Understanding, recognized by the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse as a top online resource, allows educators to view examples of various assessment tools from a variety of instructional materials. The guide is broken down into five categories (Observations, Interviews, & Discussions; Written Assessments; Performance Assessment; Graphics; Self-Assessments) distributed equally among the earth, physical, and life sciences.
View the guide on the Center for Science Education (CSE) Web site. |
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Choosing Curriculum
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The Middle-Grades Curriculum Guide Series assists middle
grades educators in identifying curriculum materials that
can help young adolescents achieve high standards in language
arts, mathematics, and science.
Read a feature article about the guides.
Find out how to order the guides:
- Mathematics:
- Science:
- Language Arts:
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Science
Teacher Mentoring |
The Middle Grades
Science Mentoring Program is establishing a model program
for the development
and support of middle grades science mentor teachers.
The project's goal is to decrease attrition of novice teachers
and develop their capacity to teach standards-based science.
Read a feature article about this project.
Learn more about this project on the Center for Science Education (CSE) Web site (PDF, requires Adobe Acrobat). |
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Student Health |
EDC's Reach for Health Project has found that community service programs-when combined with curriculum-not only promote community values and good citizenship, they may also protect students from risky health behaviors during adolescence.
Read a feature article about this project. |
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Special Education / Inclusive Practices
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The Beacons of Excellence Project created case studies of three inclusive urban middle-grades schools in order to highlight practices that work. The schools combined excellent middle-grades education with strategies for including students with disabilities in rigorous curricula and instruction.
Read an article from Mosaic about the Beacons of Excellence Project.
Draft:Builder is an innovative software tool created by EDC to help children, particularly those with disabilities, develop the skills they need to become adept at writing. The technology used in Draft:Builder was originally designed
to help middle grades students both with and without learning disabilities to take notes, outline, and create drafts for reports. Read a feature article about Draft:Builder. |
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