Middle Schools
Using Early-Warning Data to Improve Graduation Rates: Closing Cracks in the Education System 
Policy Briefs
August 26, 2008
This brief explores the power of early-warning data in predicting whether a student will drop out, offers examples of current efforts to use such data to guide secondary school interventions across the country, and discusses the policies that can support these efforts.
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NCLB and Middle Schools: Confronting the Challenges Policy Briefs
July 1, 2003
America's middle schools have a problem. Like elementary and high schools, they must meet a barrage of new requirements as the result of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). But NCLB treats middle schools like high schools some of the time, like elementary schools at other times, and lets individual states determine their status in some situations. NCLB and Middle Schools clarifies the NCLB mandates particular to middle schools. The brief describes the difficulties that school boards, superintendents, and school administrators are likely to face as they try to meet the NCLB requirements by their impending deadlines, and offers a series of recommendations designed to help train middle school teachers in academics and in meeting the unique developmental needs of their students, provide them with critical professional development resources, and provide incentives to attract highly qualified teachers to high needs areas.
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