The George W. Bush Institute today announced the selection of three middle schools to receive intensive on-site support throughout the year from...
The George W. Bush Institute today announced the selection of three middle schools to receive intensive on-site support throughout the year from some of the Nation’s leading experts in reading, math and writing instruction and intervention, dropout prevention, data management and advanced reasoning.
These three selected schools were among the eight invited to participate in the Bush Institute’s Middle School Matters (MSM) event held earlier this summer at The University of Texas at Austin and were chosen from an applicant pool of 44 schools nationwide. MSM, a key component of the Bush Institute’s Education Reform initiative in partnership with The University of Texas at Austin’s Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk (MCPER), is designed to translate proven research into practical applications, with a tiered method of supporting public, private and charter schools and districts.
The selected schools are: Lindale Junior High School of Lindale, Texas; Roosevelt Middle School of Erie, Pennsylvania; and Uplift Mighty Preparatory of Fort Worth, Texas.
“When it comes to ensuring that students finish high school ready to pursue new educational and career opportunities, the middle grades are critical,” said Bush Institute Education Reform Director Dr. Kerri Briggs. “The George W. Bush Institute’s goal is to help Tier III schools measure their success and areas for growth and help them make critical changes to ensure gains in both areas.”
As part of its goal to help ensure that all students graduate from high school prepared for college or a career, the Bush Institute created MSM. The program builds support models around strategies for schools to use in the middle grades based on the best research available on how to teach students. As Tier III schools, the selected three will receive intensive support in implementing these strategies.
“The MCPER team is excited to begin work with Lindale Junior High, Uplift Mighty Preparatory and Roosevelt Middle School – we have high hopes for them, and we know they're ready to begin the hard work of improving the middle grades experience for their students,” said Dr. Saro Mohammed, assistant director of MCPER at The University of Texas at Austin. “This is why we educators do what we do – we all want students to have meaningful school experiences that adequately prepare them for lifelong success.”
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About Middle School Matters
The Bush Institute launched Middle School Matters as part of its Education Reform initiative in February 2011 to focus on the crucial middle grades (grades 6-8) where children gain the skills needed to succeed in high school and beyond. By intensely focusing on the improvement of the middle grades and leveraging some of the best available research and practice, the Bush Institute seeks to increase the number of students who are prepared to complete high school and earn a diploma.
The mission of the Bush Institute’s Middle School Matters initiative is to act as a catalyst for transforming the middle grades. We will do this by promoting the use of research-based tools, practices and solutions and driving policy development to support improved student outcomes. Middle School Matters has two primary elements that will help achieve its mission: 1) promote the urgent need to reform the middle grades by working with leading organizations and individuals that influence decisions made for/in the middle grades, and 2) integrate research into the work of other middle grade reform initiatives, school districts and middle school campuses by developing practical tools and offering escalating levels of support through the Middle School Matters Institute. Middle School Matters is made possible because of the generous support of our funding partners: Harry W. Bass Jr. Foundation, Meadows Foundation, Sid W. Richardson Foundation, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Bank of America Charitable Foundation, and the Esping Foundation.
For more information on Middle School Matters, Middle School Matters Institute’s approach to support middle school educators, and to learn more about the Education Reform Initiative at the George W. Bush Institute, please visit www.bushcenter.org.
