Tonya R. Moon
Carol A. Tomlinson
Carolyn M. Callahan

The Middle School Academic Diversity Study was conducted by The National Research Center on the Gifted and Talented (NRC/GT) to determine the ways in which the current practices described in the middle school literature on meeting the needs of diverse learners are reflected in the policies, beliefs, and instructional practices of administrators and teachers in those settings. Six research questions guided the study: (1) What do middle school practitioners believe about the nature of middle school learners and what do these beliefs foreshadow for academically diverse middle level learners?; (2) To what degree do middle schools appear to engage in developmentally appropriate structures and practices likely to address the wide range of academic readiness, interests, and learning profiles inevitable in middle level populations?; (3) What is the nature of the curriculum and instruction at the middle level and to what degree does it seem appropriately responsive to academic diversity?; (4) How do middle level teachers and administrators understand and enact the concept of differentiating or modifying curriculum and instruction based on learner readiness, interest, and learning profile?; (5) To what degree do middle schools appropriately employ effective alternatives to homogeneous as well single-size-provisions and single-size expectations for all learners in heterogeneous settings?; and (6) To what degree do middle level practitioners seem to understand and use a full range of cooperative strategies and to what apparent effect for academically diverse middle school learners? The administrator survey sample, drawn using stratified random sampling procedures, included a sample of 500 principals. The teacher survey sample, also drawn using random sampling procedures, included a sample of 449 teachers. The principal survey was developed to obtain information on school characteristics, school organization, principal beliefs, curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices, and cooperative learning practices from the viewpoint of an middle school administrator. The teacher survey was developed to obtain information on teacher beliefs, curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices as well as cooperative learning practices. Response rates were 25% (with no follow-up) for the principal survey and 61% (with one follow-up) for the teacher survey. The major finding of the study is that teachers and principals report that academically diverse populations receive very little, if any, targeted focus. Both principals and teachers hold beliefs that would appear to under-challenge advanced middle school students. The overwhelming majority of responding educators believe middle schoolers are more social than academic, concrete thinkers, extrinsically motivated, and work best with routine. More alarming, is the belief of nearly half of the principals and teachers that middle school learners are in a plateau learning period—a theory which supports the idea that basic skills instruction, low level thinking, and small assignments are appropriate.

Reference:

Academic Diversity in the Middle School: Results of a National Survey of Middle School Administrators and Teachers
Tonya R. Moon
Carol A. Tomlinson
Carolyn M. Callahan
 

Conclusions

1. There is much room for greater awareness of the needs of academically diverse populations in the middle school and the specific instructional skills required to meet these needs.
2. Classroom standardization and a “one-size-fits all” environment predominates over classroom flexibility as the norm in today’s middle schools.
3. Educators’ beliefs about differentiating the curriculum through instructional strategies often do not convert into practice. Therefore, instructional and structural strategies, which support curriculum differentiation, appear to be underused.
4. Middle school practitioners substantiate the middle school literature which promotes cooperative learning as an effective alternative to homogeneously grouped classes. Yet, a dichotomy occurs when comparing their implementation of cooperative learning strategies to a model of accepted standards.
5. Principals and teachers agree that heterogeneous cooperative groups prevail more than half the time when teachers implement cooperative learning strategies in their classrooms while cooperative groups, which are homogeneous in regard to readiness, culture, or gender, are used infrequently if at all.
6. Middle school practitioners, who perceive the middle school learner as being in a plateau learning period tend not to create and deliver high level, engaging curricula, but rather teach basic skills, low-level thinking, and less complex reading assignments.
7. When middle school practitioners focus on the diverse middle school population, advanced/gifted learners and culturally diverse learners typically receive less attention than special education or remedial students.