Middle schools: Strengthening the connection

By Sally Wherry, September guest blogger

Can we act on what we know? Research has identified the strong link between a student’s experience in the middle grades and the likelihood of graduating from high school (Balfanz). Specific risk factors for dropping out include course failures in math and/or reading, missing more than 20% of school time, and receiving poor behavior grades in a core class. Studies have also indicated that during the middle grades it is possible to identify up to 50% or more of eventual dropouts. Advances in technology now allow us to gather powerful information leading to targeted help for middle school students. And Minnesota has been responding with policies and programs to assist our middle schools.

Beginning in 2006, the Minnesota Legislature appropriated funding to reimburse districts for the cost of assessing 8th grade students with the ACT’s EXPLORE test and 10th grade students with the PLAN test. Aligned to the ACT, these assessments provide parents, students and teachers with valuable early college and career readiness benchmark information. Of the more than 40,000 Minnesota 8th graders who tested in 2010-2011, 40% of these students met three or four of the four readiness benchmarks, however 25% of those tested met none of them. Since the fall of 2008, MDE has trained over 700 counselors to use EXPLORE and PLAN data to promote college and career readiness. To apply a medical analogy, it’s not enough just to take your child’s temperature...appropriate treatment is necessary if he registers significantly above 98.6.

So what are we doing? We know that Minnesota’s student to counselor ratio is almost 800:1, making the implementation of additional support systems and networks critical. In order to assist every Minnesota middle school student to not only graduate from high school, but also be prepared to successfully pursue postsecondary education and career opportunities, we need to increase their awareness of the importance of the choices they make.

• When students choose a sequence of more rigorous courses, it opens up the widest variety of choices for colleges and careers. In 2010-2011, MDE launched a campaign to provide Minnesota 8th graders with information regarding college and career readiness in order to encourage more rigorous course-taking in high school, especially for students in underrepresented groups. This project provides information to students and parents in a variety of ways. Additionally, a framework of tools, resources, strategies and WebEx presentations related to the research-based core components of preparing students for postsecondary success has been developed for middle school educators.
• Ramp Up to Readiness a program of the University of Minnesota’s College Readiness Consortium, also aims to increase the number and diversity of students prepared for postsecondary success. Students develop personal postsecondary plans and are then supported by a multi-year framework of specific goals, steps, curriculum, rubrics, and an evaluation system. This program spans the middle school/junior high grades through high school, providing a much needed link.
• Beginning in 2006, MDE and McREL partnered with four Minnesota high schools, to launch a pilot program, the Minnesota Model of Systemic High School Redesign. Since then, working in collaboration with the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP), more than 86 principals and schools across Minnesota have become involved in training and networking. Middle school principals then indicated they desired an aligned model as well, so in 2010, MDE launched a middle level school redesign initiative. The goal of both of these efforts is to provide cost-effective, research-based support for our secondary schools, leading to increased success for all of our students.

A new opportunity for community involvement with middle school issues is coming up later this month. Consider attending a conference on Sept. 27 at TIES in St. Paul that aims to promote community and statewide collaboration leading to high school completion and postsecondary success. And of course, efforts to support our students do not begin and end at the doorstep of our schools. This month’s issue of Blueprints, MDE’s online high school newsletter, identifies additional collaborative efforts occurring across Minnesota.

We must combine and leverage our efforts to ensure that all Minnesota’s students not only graduate from high school, but are also effectively supported during their middle school years on the path leading to postsecondary readiness and success.