Successful Turnaround Strategies for New York City Middle Grade Schools

Performance in the middle grades has a strong impact on high school outcomes. But proficiency levels in NYC middle schools have continued to stagger behind those of the elementary grades. This in-depth qualitative study seeks to identify and explore key factors that contribute to middle school success, and more specifically, school turnaround in the middle grades. The one-year study compares two subsets of initially low-performing schools – those that have shown significant growth and those that have shown little or no growth in student achievement. The cross-comparative analysis provides a richer understanding of which specific factors contribute to or inhibit school turnaround for schools serving middle grade students. Investigation focuses on measures within four broad areas: school leadership, teacher capacity, student engagement, and parent engagement.

This study is funded with Research Alliance general support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Robertson Foundation.

Key Staff

Adriana Villavicencio, Michael Segeritz, Thomas Gold

Publications

Final Report: February 14, 2012