Before the pandemic, middle school students’ test scores in math tended to decline as they moved through each grade. But the depth of this problem was obscured as most states, and thus most newspapers, reported achievement trends by comparing each new year’s eighth graders to the previous year’s eighth graders. The disruptions caused by the […]
Middle School
Middle school is often synonymous with the awkwardness, uncertainty and sheer terror of early adolescence. But it can also be an amazing time of brain development, when children’s growing sense of self can blossom as they take more agency in their lives and learning. In this special report, Hechinger looks at what schools should do to help children at this critical inflection point in their personal development and academic careers.
