Chapter 2: The Importance of Having a Highly Qualified Principal in Every Middle Grades School

The National Middle School Association and the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform speak with one voice by emphasizing the importance of creating high-performing middle schools that are academically excellent, developmentally responsive, and socially equitable. In the vision statement for the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, academically excellent middle schools are defined as schools that “challenge all students to use their minds well, providing them with the curriculum, instruction, assessment, support, and time they need to meet academic standards.” Developmentally responsive middle schools “create small learning communities of adults and students in which stable, close, and mutually respectful relationships support all students’ intellectual, ethical, and social growth” and socially equitable middle schools “seek to keep their students’ future options open. They have high expectations for all their students and are committed to helping each child produce work of high quality. These schools make sure that all students are in academically rigorous classes staffed by experienced and expertly prepared teachers” (National Form to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform Vision Statement, 1999).