Breaking Ranks in the Middle (BRIM):
Strategies for Leading Middle School Reform

The “Breaking Ranks in the Middle (BRIM): Stategies for Leading Middle School Reform” report was produced in 2006, by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Education Alliance at Brown University. The purpose of the report was to provide school leaders with information on how to apply the latest research to improve middle level learning. It outlines comprehensive, research based strategies that emphasize coaching and on-going professional development to improve teaching and learning in individual schools and classrooms.

The BRIM report is the fifth in a series of works that, so far, have focused on the developmental and academic needs of early adolescents and on high school reform. This middle school focused report does not adopt a ‘one model fits all’ approach, but details nine cornerstone strategies and 30 specific recommendations for improving student achievement.

The nine strategies are based on the experiences of schools implementing their own strategies consistent with Breaking Ranks in the Middle recommendations, and are concentrated in three key areas:
 (1) Collaborative leadership, professional learning communities and the strategic use of data
 (2) Personalizing the school environment
 (3) Creating rigorous student-centered curriculum, instruction and assessment.
 They are designed to give schools possible “entry points” to pursue fundamental changes, recognizing that each school’s priorities and stage of reform may require different entry points.

 A commission of middle level practitioners and experts had an active hand in developing the report, which includes four full-length profiles and a number of vignettes of schools that put the recommendations in action. It forms the basis for a nationwide reform of middle school teaching and the NASSP is providing training, tools and resources to help schools implement the strategies outlined in the report.

This work has been welcomed nationally by teachers, educators and administrators, who recognize the need for middle schools to adhere to high academic standards, to prepare students for the rigors of high school, as well as attend to students’ social-emotional development.

The Newton Schools Foundation supported the multidisciplinary teams of teachers from the four Newton public middle schools to attend workshops aimed at developing the interdisciplinary units during the 2007-08 school year.

The executive summary of the BRIM report is available free online at www.nassp.org.
Other websites used in the research for this article are:
http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/wested/view/pro/556
www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2006/fb062306.htm