Use this chart to research key components of state and national initiatives that relate to accountability.
Recommendation 11—Accountability. Organize district, school, and community stakeholders to hold high academic and behavioral expectations for all middle grades students and to be accountable for closing the achievement gap. Provide sufficient time, talent, training, and resources to support student learning and rigorous standards-based curriculum, instruction, and assessment.
Initiatives that Support Student Achievement |
Key Components that Relate to this Recommendation |
Essential Program Components for School Improvement:
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Essential Program Components #1, 5, and 7
- Use State Board of Education (SBE)-adopted English-language arts and mathematics instructional materials, including intervention materials. The school/district provides the most recent SBE-adopted core instructional programs, including accelerated interventions, for reading/language arts and mathematics, documented to be in daily use in every classroom with materials for every student.
- Student achievement monitoring system
- Ongoing teacher collaboration by grade level
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No Child Left Behind
(NCLB) |
Under the Act's accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including those who are disadvantaged, achieve academic proficiency. They must produce annual state and school district report cards that inform parents and communities about state and school progress. Schools that do not make progress must provide supplemental services, such as free tutoring or after-school assistance; take corrective actions; and, if still not making adequate yearly progress after five years, make dramatic changes to the way the school is run. |
National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform (Outside Source)
California Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage (STW-TCS) School Self-Study and Rating Rubric (DOC; 413KB; 9pp.)
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Social Equity #1, 3, and 10; Organizational Structures and Processes #3, 6, and 7
- To the fullest extent possible, all students, including English learners, students with disabilities, and gifted and honors students, participate in heterogeneous classes with high academic and behavioral expectations.
- Teachers continually adapt curriculum, instruction, assessment, and scheduling to meet their students' diverse and changing needs.
- The school rules are clear, fair, and consistently applied.
Organizational Structures and Processes #3, 6, and 7
- The school is a community of practice in which learning, experimentation, and reflection are the norm.
- The school staff holds itself accountable for the students' success.
- District and school staff possess and cultivate the collective will to persevere, believing it is their business to produce increased achievement and enhanced development of all students.
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| Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) (Outside Source) |
Essential Elements #4, 9, 10, 11
- AVID students must be enrolled in a rigorous course of study that will enable them to meet requirements for four-year university enrollment.
- AVID program implementation and student progress must be monitored through the AVID Data System, and results must be analyzed to ensure success. All sites must complete the online General Data Collection, the online Certification Initial Self-Study and Certification Self-Study. High school sites with seniors must complete the Senior Data Collection.
- The school must identify resources for program costs, agree to implement the AVID Program Implementation Essentials (all 11) to participate in AVID Certification, and commit to ongoing participation in AVID professional development.
- The school must have an active interdisciplinary site team that meets regularly and collaborates on issues of student access to and success in rigorous college preparatory classes. This site team should routinely set site goals, develop and implement a site plan, and document evidence to illustrate support for students’ access to and success in rigorous curriculum.
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| GEAR UP (Outside Source) School Self-Assessment Rubric (PDF; 92KB; 15 pp.) |
Development of a College-Going Culture; Intensive Academic Support; Intensive College-Going Support |
Breaking Ranks in the Middle
(Outside Source) |
Cornerstone Strategy #1
Establish the academically rigorous essential learnings that a student is required to master in order to successfully make the transition to high school and align the curriculum and teaching strategies to realize that goal. |
Turning Points Principle
(Outside Source) |
Teach a curriculum grounded in standards. |
This We Believe (Outside Source)
and Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades (Outside Source) |
Curriculum is relevant, challenging, integrative, and exploratory.
High expectations are set for every member of the learning community. |
Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center (PDF; Outside Source) |
Key issues in middle school
Literacy and reading (p. 15)
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Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center Report on Middle and High School Comprehensive Reform Models (PDF; Outside Source)
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This report provides specific details about research results on key school reform models at the middle and high school levels.
Developed by American Institutes for Research (AIR) for the Comprehensive School Reform Quality Center, October 2006.
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