EKU's College of Education has established a Center for Middle School Achievement and partnered with Murray State University in an effort to address an "alarming" nationwide dip in middle school test scores and issues related to teacher preparation.

EKU received a $400,000 grant from the Council in Postsecondary Education to establish the Center.

"We are committed to collaborating with the Kentucky Department of Education, middle school teachers and other individuals and organizations interested in the continued improvement of middle schools in Kentucky," said Dr. Dorie Combs, co-director for the Center. "The bottom line is higher achievement for middle school students."

The Center will focus on three goals:

** Collaboration with the Kentucky Middle School Forum that involves middle school teachers and principals, teacher educators, the Kentucky Department of Education, professional and private organizations, the Education Professional Standards Board and the Council on Postsecondary Education in regional- and state-level planning that will oversee the Center's activities. The Forum currently is developing a proposal to create a Kentucky Middle Schools to Watch Program, modeled on the National Schools to Watch Program.

** the creation of a statewide system of Institutes for Middle School Teachers that provide professional development and graduate credit on content- and research-based instructional strategies via convenient, easily accessible delivery systems and multiple instructional methods. The Institutes will be focused on the Kentucky core content for assessment and the middle grades Program of Studies and will be based on identified professional development needs by middle school teachers, administrators and assessment data. Min-grants are available to collaborative teams of content specialists and teacher educators who would like to develop courses for the program.

** the establishment of a Kentucky Virtual Middle Schoolhouse, a web-based network created by and for middle school teachers and educators to disseminate research about best practices, share teaching and learning strategies and provide technical assistance. The site is under construction at www.middleschoolhouse.eku.edu.

Combs said middle school language arts, mathematics, science and social studies teachers fall into one of several certification categories: the old K-8 certification that was heavy on methods and child development but not as strong on content in any one specialty, the old 7-12 certification that is essentially the reverse, the current middle school certification for grades 5-9 that requires two subject emphases, and the current high school certification.

"Some middle school teachers need more depth in their content; others have a lot of content, but aren't well grounded in teaching middle school students," Combs said. "The question is, 'Can they teach to the high standards that Kentucky has set for middle grades students?'"

That, Combs said, is not an indictment of middle school teachers, but instead is the responsibility of the Commonwealth's teacher education programs.

The vast majority of teachers, she said, are professionals who seek a variety of avenues to improve their knowledge of the subject they have been hired to teach, including professional development activities as well as self-study.

"But there is clearly a mismatch between the kind of graduate courses they need and what is available," she said. "This grant will address that problem."

The Center will distribute mini-grants to other post-secondary institutions to address the content gaps. The Center also will utilize distance learning to reach greater numbers and work to ensure that credits transfer easily between institutions.

"At this stage," Combs said, "we've awarded five grants to Kentucky graduate faculty to plan and develop courses in English (EKU), Math (EKU), Arts and Humanities (EKU) and Science (Western Kentucky University). We will continue to accept additional applications into the spring. By next summer, I'm hopeful that we'll have a variety of new graduate courses all across the state."

Several meetings have been and will be scheduled with middle school teachers and administrators to better identify coursework needs. Also, stipends are available for teachers willing to help field-test graduate-level content courses.

"The Kentucky Department of Education, the Council on Postsecondary Education and the Education Professional Standards Board are now talking with each other about the barriers to improving our middle schools," Combs noted, "and it's important that dialogue continues."

For more information about the Center, call 859-622-1513 or e-mail Dr. Combs at CMSAA@eku.edu.