Mayhem in the Middle: How Middle Schools Have Failed America--and How to Make Them Work.

Mayhem in the Middle: How Middle Schools Have Failed America--and How to Make Them Work. Cheri Pierson Yecke (Fordham Foundation).

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This brief monograph takes a hard look at the phenomenon of middle schools (housing grades 5-8 or 6-8), arguing that an infatuation with student personal development and "socialization" has transformed these institutions into academic backwaters. Observing that some middle schools, like the KIPP academies, have enjoyed enormous success by focusing on academics and establishing a culture of high expectations, Florida education commissioner Cheri Yecke seeks to overturn the conception of middle schooling that derides the importance of academic instruction. Yecke argues that modern practice took root in the 1970s and 1980s as a consequence of "plateau learning theory." This theory, that brain growth slows during the middle-school years, combined with an undue concern for nonacademic considerations to produce the modern middle school. Criticizing both the scientific basis and the results of the middle-school concept, Yecke calls for establishing higher academic standards, shifting toward K-8 schools, and expanding the availability of advanced courses for students in grades 6 to 8.