Additional Program Information

Developer and contact

No general contact or developer information is available for accelerated middle schools. Additional information about the program model and the implementation experience of districts that have used it can be found in the Hershey, Adelman, and Murray (1995) report listed in the "References" section of this report.

Scope of use

While many districts operate accelerated middle school programs for students who are behind grade level, the full scope of use of this model is not known. The three accelerated middle schools described in this report—the Griffin-Spalding Middle School Academy in Griffin, Georgia; the Accelerated Academics Academy in Flint, Michigan; and Project Accelerated Curriculum Classes Emphasizing Learning in Newark, New Jersey—were created in the early 1990s as part of the School Dropout Demonstration Assistance Program, under which the U.S. Department of Education awarded grants to school districts and community organizations to implement dropout prevention programs. Of the three accelerated middle schools described in the report, only the Accelerated Academics Academy in Michigan was still operating in 2008.

Description of intervention

Accelerated middle schools aim to help middle school students who are behind grade level "catch up" to their age peers by covering core academic curriculum at an accelerated pace. Students are typically one to two years behind grade level when they enter the program and cover an additional year of material during their one to two years in the program. To make room in the school day for additional instructional time in core academic subjects, these schools often offer relatively few electives. Accelerated middle schools can be structured either as separate schools or as schools within a traditional middle school. Varying somewhat in their approach to instruction, the programs share several common elements. Classes are often linked thematically across multiple subjects. Instruction is more experiential and "hands on" than is typical in a traditional middle school. The programs generally offer smaller classes than traditional middle schools and provide additional academic and social supports, such as tutoring, attendance monitoring, counseling, and family outreach.

Cost

Researchers estimate the annual per student cost of accelerated middle schools to be more than $13,000 in New Jersey, about $11,000 in Michigan, and about $7,000 in Georgia.³ The annual per student cost exceeded costs in traditional middle schools by about $5,000 in New Jersey and by about $2,000 in Michigan. In Georgia the annual per student cost was lower than in a traditional middle school by about $2,000.