Creating Middle Schools: Technical, Normative, and Political Considerations

Abstract

A new generation of state and local middle school reformers is attempting to reconceptualize their mission to avoid past failures. Against the background of earlier thinking and failed reforms, we explore in this article the content of the new reforms, paying particular attention to how they diverge from conventional school practices, school norms, and school politics. We argue that to achieve fundamental change it will not be enough to reform existing technical practices; rather, norms of community and integration will need to replace many of the competitive, individualistic, and bureaucratic norms embedded in current practice, and existing political relations will need to be restructured to ensure that the reform process reflects a fair and democratic distribution of authority. These normative and political considerations fill out the usual technical reform picture-portraying the new middle school reforms as inherently complex, value laden, and politically loaded. We conclude with the implications of our analysis for the implementation of this ambitious and complex set of reforms.