Development; Program Evaluation IDENTIFIERS Reform Efforts

Disagreement exists about the role and function of middle schools. Demand for improved student achievement, greater accountability, improved test scores, and greater responsiveness to parents characterize tensions. This paper reports on the efforts of one community to examine its middle-school program and reposition it to become more effective at serving its students. The study looked at five schools in one district located in the suburbs of a major midwestern metropolitan area. All schools offer a similar academic program. It used a modified case-study approach that recognizes the uniqueness of each school setting. Tensions identified in the reform process included real involvement for all concerned versus superficial involvement, levels of trust, narrow interests versus broad reform, and focusing on student interests versus employee interests. The paper describes how a program-review committee was formed and conducted itself, including the selection process, use of an external facilitator, use of data to identif