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"Governor Bush's Middle Grades Reform Act
builds on our elementary schools success, and
will bring more rigor and higher performance into
our middle grades. Using proven methods, we are
enhancing the focus on reading and providing all
students the necessary tools to achieve their
dreams."
- Commissioner John Winn
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Middle Grades Reform Background
The 2004 Legislature passed SB 354, Public School Educational
Instruction, and Governor Jeb Bush signed it creating
the Middle Grades Reform Act. Through related funding,
approximately three-quarters of Florida’s middle schools
will have a reading coach, with resources being targeted
at the lowest-performing middle schools first. Reading
coaches provide on-site professional development for
teachers and help them teach reading more effectively.
The funding for these reading coaches will impact more
than 285,000 students in middle schools throughout Florida
by providing 282 coaches to train 2,275 middle school
teachers at 342 middle schools.
 Purpose:
The Middle
Grades Reform Act (PDF) was created
to provide added focus and rigor to middle grades academics, with
reading as the foundation, so that students promoted from the eighth
grade will be ready for success in high school.
There are four main components to the Middle Grades Reform Act:
- Middle Grades Curricula and Coursework
- Rigorous Reading Requirement
- Comprehensive Reform Study on the Academic Performance of Middle
Grade Students and Schools
- Personalized Middle School Success Plan
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Overview:
Middle Grades Reform
The purpose of this section of the legislation is to bring focus
and rigor to middle school curricula and instruction, beginning
with reading. The focus on successful reading and academic performance
will be directed toward schools that include grades 6, 7, and/or
8, and toward each middle grades student. Rigor will be added to
the middle school curriculum based upon the results a review of
reading and language arts courses and curricula and upon a Comprehensive
Reform Study of all aspects of middle grades education.
Reviews and Studies of Middle Grades Education
A review will begin immediately of middle grades reading and language
arts courses, teacher qualifications, instructional practices, and
materials so that recommendations for courses based upon research-based
proven effective programs may be made by the Commissioner of Education
and rules adopted by the State Board of Education by March 1, 2005.
In development of findings and recommendations, the Department must
consult with the Florida Center for Reading Research, Just Read,
Florida!, reading specialists, and district curriculum supervisors.
Implementation of new courses will begin no later than 2005-2006
and will be completed by the end of 2008-09.
- A Comprehensive Reform Study on the Academic Performance of
Students and Schools, which will focus on improving middle grades
student school performance. In conducting the study and making
recommendations, the Department will consult with the Florida
Center for Reading Research, Just Read, Florida!, district school
board members, superintendents, principals, parents, teachers,
district curriculum supervisors, and students across the state.
The elements that must be reviewed in the study include, but are
not limited to:
- Academic expectations: alignment of middle school expectations
with elementary and high school graduation requirements, best
practices to improve reading and language arts courses based upon
research-based programs for middle school students in alignment
with the Sunshine State Standards, strategies that focus on improving
academic success for low-performing students, rigor of curricula
and courses, instructional materials, course enrollment by middle
school students, student support services, measuring and reporting
student achievement
- Attendance policies and student mobility issues
- Teacher quality: preparedness of teachers to teach rigorous
courses, teacher evaluations, substitute teachers, certification
and recertification requirements, staff development, availability
of effective staff development, teacher recruitment and vacancy,
highly qualified teacher requirements based upon No Child Left
Behind
- Identification and availability of diagnostic testing
- Middle school leadership and performance
- Parental and community involvement.
The Commissioner of Education must report the recommendations from
the study to legislative leadership and the State Board of Education
no later than December 1, 2004.
Focus on Reading and Academic Performance of Middle Grades
Students and Schools
Assistance to students is prescribed through a Personalized Middle
School Success Plan, to be developed beginning with the 2004-2005
school year for all sixth graders who scored below 3 on the most
recently administered Reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive
Assessment Test. The purpose of the plan is to assist the student
in meeting state and district expectations for academic proficiency
and prepare the student for success in high school. The plan will
be developed by certified staff members designated by the principal
in collaboration with the student and his/her parents. Many of these
students will have existing academic plans in place (Individual
Education Plan, Academic Improvement Plan, Federal 504 Plan, English
for Speakers of Other Languages), and the bill requires the success
plan to be incorporated into such existing student plan. The success
plan must minimize paperwork and may be incorporated into a parent/teacher
conference, included as part of a progress report or report card,
included as part of a general orientation at the beginning of the
school year, or provided by electronic mail or other written correspondence.
The Department of Education must provide technical assistance to
school districts, school administrators, and instructional personnel
in the development of plans which will minimize paperwork and maximize
the interaction among the students, parents, and school staff. Each
plan must identify educational goals and intermediate benchmarks
for the student in the core curriculum areas, be based upon academic
performance data and an identification of the student’s strengths
and weaknesses, include academic intervention strategies with frequent
progress monitoring, and provide innovative methods to promote the
student’s advancement.
The focus on reading at the school level is implemented through
a Rigorous Reading Requirement (RRR), which will be the primary
component of the school improvement plan for any school with less
than 75% of students in grades 6, 7, or 8 reading on grade level.
The Department must inform districts which schools are affected
by June 30 of each year, and the RRR must be incorporated into the
school improvement plan by the following October 1. The RRR must
address ways to meet desired levels of performance in phonemic awareness,
phonics, fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary for the school’s
low performing students. Implementation must include research-based
reading activities shown to increase the performance of struggling
readers.
Quarterly reports must be provided by each of these schools with
a RRR to the district superintendent, and the results of the RRR
shall be used as part of the evaluation for the school’s instructional
and administrative staff. The Department must provide school districts
and administrators with technical assistance needed for RRR implementation.
The State Board of Education is provided authority to enforce and
to write rules to implement the provisions of this bill.
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Legislation:
Click here to see Senate
Bill 354 (PDF)
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Memos
and Department of Education Technical Assistance Papers Issued to
School Districts:
As the Department of Education sends out documents to districts
to help with the implementation of Middle Grades Reform, this is
where they will be posted. Stay tuned for more information.
- 2004 Legislation: Middle Grades Reform Act (June 11, 2004)
- Memorandum
(PDF)
- Attachment
(Senate Bill 354) (PDF)
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