The To&Through Middle Grades Network is a group of schools dedicated to creating more equitable and supportive educational environments where middle grades students can thrive. The network seeks to build the capacity of practitioners to understand the developmental, social-emotional, and non-academic factors critical for student success and to make changes in practice that improve middle grades indicators for success in high school and beyond.
Practitioners from selected schools participate in customized professional learning and receive dedicated in-school coaching as they engage in a student-centered improvement process grounded in data, research, and the expertise of participating schools. This process involves articulating a problem of practice connected to the experiences of middle grades students; designing, implementing, and iterating a strategy to address this problem; and codifying and demonstrating promising tools and practices relevant to middle grades outcomes district-wide. Schools will learn and apply research from the UChicago Consortium on School Research and others on adolescent development, continuous improvement, social-emotional learning, early warning indicators, equity learning environments, and effective middle grades practices from around the country.