The Weak Link

By Ann Bradley and Kathleen Kennedy Manzo

The middle grades are feeling the squeeze. For the past 30 years—and with particular intensity since the late 1980s—educators have labored to create distinctive middle schools, whose mission is to attend to young adolescents' social, emotional, and physical needs as well as their intellectual development.

Yet, both proponents of the middle school model and critics of the approach recognize that too many such schools have failed to find their academic way. Instead, the original concept has been undermined by ill-prepared teachers guided by ill-defined curricula.

Middle-level education is now squarely on the defensive. The standards and accountability movement is placing unprecedented demands on the middle grades, typically 6-8. So far, middle schools don't have much to boast about when it...