The importance of relationships in the renewal process of one middle school

Abstract

[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] This study was conducted primarily to investigate the restructuring and renewal activities of Study School District (SSD) as it reorganized its middle schools to support the vision of the Middle School Improvement Team (MSIT). The MSIT participated through the entirety of Cycle One of the action research study, intervening to research the best practices and tenets of successful middle schools, ultimately making a recommendation to the Board of Education for middle school restructuring in Study School District. During Cycle Two of the action research study, two middle school building principals and one district administrator, also study researchers, collaborated with building teachers and staff in both participating middle schools to implement a second intervention based upon the renewal and improvement activities within the individual middle schools, driven by the MSIT vision, and designed to support the work of the MSIT completed in Cycle One. Teachers and staff representatives from the building steering committees participated collaboratively with leaders/researchers through Cycle Two of the study to undertake action research investigating the extent to which improvement toward the MSIT vision was progressing. Thus, in Cycle Two, participatory action research was conducted regarding the renewal and improvements in the advisory program at Queen Valley Middle School in an effort to understand if, and to what extent, the MSIT vision was being realized.