Research on Middle School Renewal: Should Middle Grades Students Be Left Alone after School?

TY - JOUR

T1 - Research on Middle School Renewal

T2 - Should Middle Grades Students Be Left Alone after School?

AU - Mertens, Steven B.

AU - Flowers, Nancy

AU - Mulhall, Peter F

N1 - Funding Information: The Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD) at the University of Illinois has been working with middle level schools throughout the country for more than a decade using a self-study process. The School Improvement Self-Study is a data collection system consisting of surveys completed by teachers, students, principals, and parents. It is intended to assist schools in their school improvement efforts by providing data concerning school characteristics, educational practices, and personal background and experiences in middle level schools (Iackson & Davis, 2000; Middle Start, 2001; National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, 2001). The Self-Study provides data to schools for needs assessment, goal setting, program planning, implementation, and data-based decision making for school improvement. Self-Study data are also linked to local and state achievement scores to ascertain academic gains and to understand the relationships between student and school factors and standardized achievement scores. The data presented here are from a large sample of more than 121,000 students attending 287 middle grade schools in Arkansas (59 schools), Louisiana (51), Michigan (127), and Mississippi (50) during 2000-01. The middle grade schools in this sample are located i11 IMgt: auil siuall urban areas, Suburban areas, and small town or rural communities. In addilion, 92% of these students are in Sixth, seventh, or eighth grade, 48% report receiving a free/reduced lunch and 40% identify themselves as an ethnic minority (e.g., black/African American, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, multicultural). These schools participated in the Self-Study as part of the Michigan and Mid South Middle Start Initiatives under the direction and leadership of the Michigan Middle Start Partnership and the Foundation for the Mid South, and funded by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.

PY - 2003/5/1

Y1 - 2003/5/1

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77954619206&partnerID=8YFLogxK

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U2 - 10.1080/00940771.2003.11494517

DO - 10.1080/00940771.2003.11494517

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:77954619206

SN - 0094-0771

VL - 34

SP - 57

EP - 61

JO - Middle School Journal

JF - Middle School Journal

IS - 5

ER -