Members Speak Out

Douglas Mac Iver - February 2007
Keeping Student on a Graduation Path in Middle School

Forum Member, Douglas Mac Iver and fellow researchers Robert Balfanz, Johns Hopkins University and Lisa Herzog, Philadelphia Education Fund share their research about what they have been learning about keeping students on a path that leads to high school graduation. They present findings from longitudinal analyses following all 13,000 of the students in Philadelphia who were sixth-graders in October 1996 until one and a quarter years past their expected graduation date. Read more about their research or view their PowerPoint presentation.

Hayes Mizell - July 2006
It's Time to Take Action to Cut School Dropout Rate

Once again, the issue of school dropouts has tarnished South Carolina's national reputation for impressive efforts to improve public schools. A recent report by the respected news journal Education Week cited our state as having one of the worst high school graduation rates in the nation.
Read the full text

Hayes Mizell - October 2004
Still Crazy After All These Years: Grade Configuration and the Education of Young Adolescents-

Forum member Hayes Mizell gave the keynote address on October 1, 2004 at the annual conference of the National School Board Association’s Council of Urban Boards of Education. Mizell is the Distinguished Senior Fellow of the National Staff Development Council. Read the full text.

Pat Benson - April 2004
High-Performing Teams:What Have We Learned?

Forum member Pat Benson explores the importance of collaboration and effective teaming to the creation of a high-performing middle-grades school. She states that "collaboration, whether given the name 'learning organization,' 'professional learning community,' synergistic environment,' or 'collaborative decision-making,' appears to be both an organizational and functional characteristic of high-performing schools." Click here to read the entire article in pdf. Pat Benson is the Director of Michigan Schools in the Middle. This article is the first to be written specifically for the Forum's "Members Speak Out" feature of our web site.

Susan Tave Zelman - April 2004
Ohio to Establish Charter Colleges

Forum member Susan Tave Zelman, the superintendent of public instruction in Ohio, was consulted for an April 28th Education Week story. Ms. Zelman and other state officials lobbied congress to provide federal support for the state to begin a program that will allow teacher colleges to use new creative strategies that do not have to meet current state regulations. The state is currently soliciting proposals for such charter schools of education, which must prove that they will create highly trained and effective teachers. To read the full story, visit Education Week's web site.

Sue Swaim - April 2004
Strength in the Middle

Sue Swaim, Forum member and Executive Director of the National Middle School Association, responds to a report released in March, "Focus on the Wonder Years:Challenges Facing the American Middle School". She asserts that new grade configurations won't improve the education of young adolescents. She states, "school structure is not, in and of itself, the answer". Visit Education Week's web site for the full story.

Kathy Egawa - February 2004
Federal Reading Education Policy

Forum member Kathy Egawa, associate executive director of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), shares two letters written by Council members to the editor of Education Week. The letters, written in response to reporter Kathleen Kennedy Manzo's article, "Reading Programs Bear Similarities Across the States" (February 4, 2004), take issue with federal reading education policy.

Sue Swaim - November 2003
This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents

In the fall of 2003, the National Middle School Association (NMSA) announced 14 qualities that have the potential to dramatically improve the academic and developmental growth of 10- to 15-year-olds. The announcement was made at the National Press Club, and the recommendations in the NMSA position statement, This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents, were formally released at the association’s 30th annual conference in Atlanta. A companion document, Research and Resources in Support of This We Believe, was also released. "It’s important to note that there are schools in our country that are well on their way to providing the best possible education for young adolescents," said Sue Swaim, NMSA executive director and member of the National Forum. "Yet, having some successful schools is not enough. All schools must rise to this higher standard." Read more about the 14 qualities in this document released by NMSA. (Clicking on this link will begin a PDF download.)

Hayes Mizell - June 2003
Importance of Imagination in School Leadership Teams

"If we are honest about the cultures of most schools and most school systems, they downplay imagination, particularly among adults," says Hayes Mizell. "Many educators constantly seek more specific direction so they will not have to use their imaginations. They want principals, central office and state department of education staff, and policy makers to tell them exactly what to do, perhaps because they want others to be accountable for results, or lack of them." Read Mizell's recent speech to the Middle School Leadership Team of the Corpus Christi Independent School District.

Nancy Ames - March 2003
What Does it Mean to Be Truly Educated?
In the March issue of NASSP's Principal Leadership magazine, the Forum's Nancy Ames, a vice president at Education Development Center, says the three R's are no longer enough. The article, "To Truly Educate", describes the "new literacies" needed for student success in today's world. Clicking on the link above will begin a download. Copyright 2003 National Association of Secondary School Principals. Reprinted with permission.

Cecil Floyd - November 2002
Lamar Middle School
Forum member Cecil Floyd, Executive Director of the Texas Middle School Association, was quoted in a recent article that appeared in the Dallas Morning News. The article highlights Lamar Middle School. Lamar adopted the middle school model in the 1980's and is now known for its personal attention to students.

Hayes MIzell - August 2002
Shooting for the Sun: The Message of Middle School Reform
http://www.emcf.org/programs/student/shootingforthesun.htm Shooting for the Sun: The Message of Middle School Reform, a collection of speeches and essays on improving student academic performance in the middle grades, is now available from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. The featured works, all written by Forum member Hayes Mizell, director of the Foundation's Student Achievement Program, discusses the challenges that teachers and principals face in their work to improve student achievement in grades six through eight.

Monica Martinez - November 2001
CSR Implementation Success Story
Forum member Monica Monica R. Martinez, Director of Outreach for the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform, shared a success story. During the 2000-2001 school year NCCSR staff visited five schools across the country. They strove to understand each school's experience of engaging in school wide improvement and highlight the strategies and theories schools are using to create fundamental changes in teaching, learning, and school culture. One of the schools profiled, the Gila Crossing Community School, a U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs charter-operated school on the Gila River Indian Reservation in Laveen, Arizona, recently expanded to serve Pre-K through 7th grade students. By expanding the school, its leaders hope to provide students a chance to continue developing in healthy ways through the critical transitions of the middle level years. This school's CSR implementation story is about gaining independence, restoring community faith and pride, raising the caliber of the curriculum, and holding high expectations for student achievement. To read Gila Crossing's story, please visit the National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform's web site.

Hayes MIzell - June 2001
Experiences of Advocates
Forum member Hayes Mizell, Director of the Program for Student Achievement at the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, gave some introductory remarks as facilitator of a panel called "Experiences of Advocates" at a meeting of the Southern Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform in Memphis. The panel was one component of a training module on Communication and Advocacy being developed by the National Forum, as part of its Leadership Development Curriculum.