WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva’s bill, H.R. 3406, the Success in the Middle Act, was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senators Barack Obama and Jack Reed.

This bill will provide additional federal support to help students successfully complete the middle grades, help raise student achievement, support our teachers and turn under-performing middle schools around.

“I am very grateful to Senators Obama and Reed for initiating the Success in the Middle Act in the Senate,” said Rep. Grijalva.   “Middle Schools have long been a forgotten area in our school system. This legislation will reverse this pattern and invest in the most crucial years of the education pipeline to ensure our students succeed.”

 H.R. 3406 would drive student improvement and school turnaround by: 

• Requiring State Education Agency’s to create a middle school improvement plan for eligible schools and developing an early warning data system to identify at-risk students.
• Calling for increased technical assistance and support in order to raise student achievement and foster successful professional development.
• Establishing professional learning communities focused on student and teacher success in the middle grades and across middle grades throughout and between school districts.
• Funding a clearing house and database dedicated to housing and disseminating best practices in the middle level.

“In order to have any real chance of turning around our nation’s lowest-performing high schools and raising the graduation rate, we must work to turn around our lowest-performing middle schools,” said Grijalva. “The middle years are a critical time in a student’s education and the schools and educational programs they experience will have a significant impact upon their future.  We must not let middle schools fall behind.”

This legislation is supported by the National Education Association, National Association of Secondary School Principals, National Middle School Association, Alliance for Excellent Education, ACT, College Board, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, International Reading Association, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, National Council of Teachers of English, National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform, and many others.