Mayhem in the Middle

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Is high school reform the key to academic improvement in the United States—or are public schools sagging in the middle? In this Education Week Commentary, Cheri Pierson Yecke, the state chancellor for K-12 public schools in Florida, claims that the seeds of high school failure are sown in grades 5-8. She argues that the combination of lowered academic and behavioral expectations for middle school students, part of the "middle school concept," contributes to slumping achievement in later grades.

Do you agree with Yecke? Are America's middle schools the place where academic achievement goes to die? Or is the middle school concept sound?