Page:  of 155
 

CHAPTER FOUR
Academic Achievement
As Chapter Two reviewed, middle schools have shifted focus several times between
academic achievement and meeting the social, emotional, and psychological needs of
early adolescents. In recent years, the pendulum has swung back toward achievement.
This emphasis has been further reinforced by the standards and accountability
movement and NCLB, the 2001 federal legislation that mandates testing of all stu-
dents in the middle grades and imposes sanctions on schools designated as “low per-
forming.”As before, today's focus on achievement stems in part from the belief that mid-
dle school students should begin to think about and prepare for college (Riley,
1997). Such programs as the federally funded Gaining Early Awareness and Readi-
ness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) earmark funds and services for low-
income middle schools in an effort to increase the number of students who are pre-
pared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education. Increased attention on
achievement also stems from mounting criticism levied at middle schools for being
academically undemanding (Carnegie, 1989; Jackson and Davis, 2000; Schmidt,
McKnight, et al., 1999; Cooney, 1998a). Detractors point to the relatively poor
standing of middle school students on international mathematics and science tests, to
lagging test scores on state assessments, and to low performance on national tests as
evidence that middle school education needs to be more challenging.The goal of this chapter is to assess the accuracy of the often-publicized
accounts of unacceptably low achievement of middle school students. We review
achievement data by relying on various comparisons across nations, over time, and
among some key demographic groups. Among the questions we address are the fol-
lowing:
• How do middle school students fare in mathematics and science compared with
their peers in other4 countries?
• What progress have middle school students made in the past three decades?
• What percentages of middle school students are currently achieving at the profi-
cient level on NAEP?

-28-

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com

Publication Information: Book Title: Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School. Contributors: Jaana Juvonen - author, Vi-Nhuan Le - author, Tessa Kaganoff - author, Catherine Augustine - author, Louay Constant - author. Publisher: Rand Education. Place of Publication: Santa Monica, CA. Publication Year: 2004. Page Number: 28.
    
This feature allows you to create and manage separate folders for your different research projects. To view markups for a different project, make that project your current project.
This feature allows you to save a link to the publication you are reading or view all the publications you have put on your bookshelf.
This feature allows you to save a link to the page you are reading, which you can later return to from Projects.
This feature allows you to highlight words or phrases on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to save a note you write on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to create a citation to the page you are reading that you can paste into your paper. Highlight a passage to include that passage as a quotation.
This feature allows you to save a reference to a publication you are reading for your bibliography or generate a bibliography you can paste into your paper.
This feature allows you to print the page you are reading, including your notes or highlights (IE users must have "print background colors and image" setting selected.)
This feature allows you to look up words in encyclopedia.
  About Questia Tools
Close Window  
Questia's powerful research tools allow you to highlight, take notes, bookmark and even create instant citations and bibliographies. To use these features and save hours of work, you must create a Questia account.
Need a Questia account?
Sign up for a FREE trial now. Save time, stress and hassle, and get better grades with trusted, online research.

» Click here for our free trial

Already have a Questia account? Login now!
Error
Working...
Printing Preferences
Format for black and white printer: On Off
Print highlights: On Off
Print notes: On Off
Choose one of the options for printing:
Print this page (No Charge)
Print pages to