Features of Exemplary Middle and High School Instruction

Different classrooms and schools produce very different results even when their student populations are similar. Why? What are the features of outstanding English teaching in middle and high schools? It is particularly important to understand these features in places where high risk students are successfully acquiring high level literacy skills. Teachers, administrators, and policymakers need to know, for example, 1) what kind of English instruction helps students -- especially poor students -- become good thinkers and users of language; 2) how effective teachers strengthen and build their own classroom skills; 3) what role, if any, interdisciplinary instruction plays in fostering literacy; and 4) how innovations relate to one another and to student achievement.

Three primary sets of activities addressed these questions: They included on-site studies in four states -- California, Florida, New York, and Texas; a combination of on-site research with national surveys; and a cross-study analysis across all the sites in this study as well as others included in the work of the Center as a whole.  The major questions were:

• What are the essential features that lead to exemplary instruction in English?
• What role does interdisciplinary instruction play in students' acquisition of English skills?
• How do various innovations relate to one another and to student achievement?

January 2007