The Foundation began work in urban middle school reform in 1989 under the Program for Disadvantaged Students and continued it through the Program for Student Achievement, which operated from 1995 to 2003. The initial efforts assisted individual middle schools, while the later ones promoted standards-based reform as a means for entire middle school districts to raise the achievement levels of all students.

The Foundation helped six school districts develop and implement academic standards—goals for what middle school students should know and be able to do in language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies—and benchmarks for what percentage of eighth graders should meet these standards. The standards provided guidelines for what teachers should teach and, more importantly, for what all students regardless of race, gender, or socioeconomic background should learn in grades six through eight. The six districts were located in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Louisville, Kentucky; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Long Beach and San Diego, California.

In addition to supporting the school systems directly, the program made grants to organizations that assisted the districts in areas such as professional development, parent involvement, student assessment, and in-depth evaluation of each district’s reforms. Grants to community-based organizations enabled citizens to understand and advocate for middle school improvement. The Foundation also provided assistance to national and regional organizations supporting education reform in the middle grades and sponsored communications efforts to promote it more widely.

Assisted by the Foundation and technical consultants, several districts made strides toward the goals they set for eighth graders. Other districts’ efforts were overwhelmed by leadership transitions and social and political issues that make system-wide reforms difficult to implement and sustain.

Program Director M. Hayes Mizell and grantees produced an extensive body of knowledge about the challenges of school reform and the impact that standards and attendant changes in teaching and learning can potentially make on student achievement. These writings demonstrate the need for clear standards, the critical contribution of professional development (which is inadequate in most districts) to helping teachers and schools align curricula and instruction with standards, the importance of principals’ leadership, and the vital role the central district office plays in promoting and institutionalizing educational reform.

Additional Resources

Shooting for the Sun: The Message of Middle School Reform

A collection of speeches and essays written by M. Hayes Mizell, former director of the Foundation's Student Achievement Program. The featured works discuss the challenges that teachers and principals face in their work to improve student achievement in grades six, seven, and eight. Mizell also offers suggestions on how schools can more effectively educate our nation's youth and improve student academic performance in the middle grades.  download report

Standards-Based Middle Grades Reform in Six Urban Districts, 1995-2001: A Report on the Program for Student Achievement of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation
Anne Mackinnon, 2003. This report is a comprehensive examination of the Foundation's effort to introduce standards-based reform in middle schools in several urban school districts, documenting both the successes and disappointments of the program. The report is intended for foundations, school district officials, educators, policymakers, researchers, and other organizations and individuals interested in learning about the challenges of using academic standards to improve student achievement.  download report

Making Our Own Road: The Emergence of School-Based Staff Developers in America's Public Schools
Alan Richard, 2003. This report discusses the rise of on-site, “job embedded” training for teachers to sharpen teaching skills and raise student achievement across the nation.  download report  

Additional middle school resources can be accessed via www.middleweb.com website