The Forgotten Middle

We must focus on getting more students on target for college and career readiness by the end of eighth grade, so that they are prepared to maximize the benefits of high school. There are specific factors that influence college and career readiness and these factors can have their greatest impact during a student’s educational development. In the current educational environment, this is a critical defining point for students in the college and career readiness process—one so important that, if students are not on target for college and career readiness by the time they reach this point, the impact may be nearly irreversible.

Under current conditions, the level of academic achievement that students attain by eighth grade has a larger impact on their college and career readiness by the time they graduate from high school than anything that happens academically in high school. The good news is, students’ academic readiness for college and career can be improved when students develop behaviors in the upper elementary grades and in middle school that are known to contribute to successful academic performance.

If we want not merely to improve but to maximize the college and career readiness of U.S. students, we need to intervene not only during high school but also before high school, in the upper elementary grades and in middle school. Even improving high school course rigor may not succeed unless we first increase the number of entering high school students who are prepared to benefit from such rigorous courses.

College and career readiness is not something that suddenly “happens” when a student graduates from high school but instead is the result of a process extending through all the years of a student’s education. College and career readiness is not a high school issue—it’s a K–12 issue.

Recent years have seen a heightened awareness of the importance of early childhood education and high school as intervention points in the educational lives of America’s children. Less attention, it seems, has been paid to the importance of the upper elementary grades and middle school and the role they must play in the preparation of students for life after high school.

The amount of progress toward college and career readiness that students have made by eighth grade is crucial to their future success. Despite the fact that students may pass eighth-grade exit tests, too many are arriving at high school so far behind academically that, under current conditions, they cannot become ready for college and career regardless of the rigor of the high school curriculum, the quality of high school instruction, or the amount of effort they put into their coursework.

Students who leave eighth grade without the essential skills they need to be on target for college and career readiness too often leave high school not ready for any kind of meaningful future. If students are to maximize the benefits of high school, a strong start is essential. It is therefore imperative for us to turn our attention to the students in the “Forgotten Middle” to help ensure that they are prepared to benefit from the high school experience.