Middle School Matters Institute Rubric for Evaluation and Posting of Clearinghouse Resources

Rubric for Evaluation and Posting of Clearinghouse Resources
Middle School Matters Institute

(Adapted from the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center, the High School Comprehensive Center, the Center on Instruction, and the Texas Center for Learning Disabilities)

Title of Resource:

The Middle School Matters Institute (MSMI) uses the following criteria and process to evaluate resources to post on its Clearinghouse. For descriptive information, see the Glossary of Terms for Rating Middle School Matters Institute Clearinghouse Resources.

Part I: Screening Criteria

Relevance to the Middle School Matters Institute
1) Is the resource relevant to middle schools (grades 6–8) and the goal of increasing the number of students who are well prepared to enter high school and earn a meaningful diploma?
Yes / No
2) Does the resource pertain to at least one of the Middle School Matters Research Platform content dimensions?
Yes / No
If yes, which? Check all that apply.
Advanced Reasoning
Dropout Prevention
Effective Teachers
Extended Learning
Learning and Cognitive Science
Mathematics and Mathematics Interventions
Performance Management / Reading and Reading Interventions
School Climate and Culture
Student Behavior Supports
School, Family, and Community Partnership
School Leadership
Writing and Writing Interventions

If the answer to question 1 or 2 is no, discontinue rating this resource.

3) Is the content current (2000–present)?

Yes / No

If earlier than 2000, why should this resource be reviewed? State supporting evidence.

4) Is the product available free of charge?

Yes / No
If no, what is the associated cost?
5) Is this product exempt from formal review? If no, proceed to Part II.
If yes, indicate rationale and proceed to Part III:

Part II: Resource Review Criteria

Fill out the table, including notes when necessary. (Note: If this resource is exempt from formal review, proceed to Part III.)

Rating scale: 0 = not at all, 1 = limited, 2 = moderate, 3 = extensive; NA = not applicable

Content Quality / Rating / Notes
Alignment with Middle School Matters Research Platform: To what extent does the resource align with the information presented in the platform (specifically, the content dimensions and principles on page 4)? / 00.511.522.53NA
Goals: To what extent does the resource clearly state, cover, and meet its objectives? / 00.511.522.53NA
Standards: To what extent did the developers of the resource use well-accepted literature, standards, research, or theory? / 00.511.522.53NA
Completeness: Are all important steps, sequences, or practices included? / 00.511.522.53NA
Accuracy: Is the information and/or data presented accurate and free of bias? Is the content supported by evidence and research? / 00.511.522.53NA
Value: To what degree does the resource add value for its intended audience? / 00.511.522.53NA
Average of Content Quality section: / 0
Communications Quality / Rating / Notes
Organization: Is the information well organized, and does it follow a logical sequence? / 00.511.522.53NA
Language: Do the authors avoid jargon and communicate well with the intended users? / 00.511.522.53NA
Visual representation: How effective are the charts and graphs in communicating the data and material? / 00.511.522.53NA
Average of Communications Quality section: / 0
Utility / Rating / Notes
Relevance to audience needs: Does the resource address an important or urgent need for middle schools? / 00.511.522.53NA
Usefulness: Is the content clear, easy to understand, and timely for the intended audience? / 00.511.522.53NA
Motivates users to action: How useful are the next steps (if the resource includes next-step action items)? / 00.511.522.53NA
Supplemental resources: How useful are the suggested resources (if the resource provides suggestions)? / 00.511.522.53NA
Average of Utility section: / NA
Evidence of Effectiveness / Rating / Notes
Informed by current research: To the best of your knowledge, does the resource take into account the highest-quality research on the topic available to date? / 00.511.522.53NA
Level of research-based findings: To what degree are you confident in the research supporting the findings? / 00.511.522.53NA
Average of Evidence of Effectiveness section: / NA
Average of Content Quality section: / NA
Average of Communication Quality section: / NA
Average of Utility section: / NA
Average of Evidence of Effectiveness section: / NA
Average of all sections: / NA

For a resource to be posted on the MSMI website, every section’s average must be 2.0 or greater. If any section’s average is less than 2.0, discontinue. If all averages are 2.0 or greater, continue to Part III.
Part III: Resource Coding Sheet

Title of Resource:
Developing Organization:
Link to Resource:

Intended Audience (check all that apply)

Administrators
Campus leaders
District leaders
Parents
Researchers and faculty members / State leaders
Teachers
Technical assistance providers
Other

Type of Resource

Research meta-analysis or summary / Practitioner guide
Professional development module and training materials
Tool / Other
Video / Lesson Plan

Middle School Matters Research Platform Content Dimensions (check all that apply)

Advanced Reasoning

Principle 1: Reinforce the importance of inhibiting extraneous detailed information to optimize strategic attention needed to focus on important information.

Principle 2: Strengthen the capacity to construct “bottom-line meaning” across all content areas and lessons.

Principle 3: Teach students to condense and synthesize information from texts and class readings through summarization by incorporating core ideas, pivotal inferential meanings, and at least two supporting facts.

Principle 4: Require students to paraphrase information to make it personally relevant and thus more memorable.

Principle 5: Bolster cognitive strategies that enhance higher-order gist reasoning by constructing abstracted ideas and principles from the content, rather than listing facts that quickly become forgotten and obsolete.

Principle 6: Foster advanced reasoning and curiosity by requiring students to generate thought-provoking questions about what is yet to be discovered and to anticipate the importance of taking certain paths in new explorations.

Principle 7: Combine strategic attention, abstraction of meanings, and innovative and generative thinking to construct novel macro-level texts.

Dropout Prevention

Principle 1: Use data systems to identify students who are at risk of falling off the path to high school graduation.

Principle 2: Assign adult advocates to students who are at risk of falling off the path to high school graduation.

Principle 3: Provide academic support and enrichment to improve academic performance.

Principle 4: Implement programs to improve classroom behavior and social skills.

Principle 5: Personalize the learning environment and instructional process.

Effective Teachers

Principle 1: Select motivated, knowledgeable, and experienced teachers with strong academic backgrounds and above-average performance in raising student achievement.

Principle 2: Monitor teacher performance in a systematic way that is connected with a plan for instructional improvement and professional development.

Principle 3: Provide effective demonstrations, professional development, and leadership support to teachers on the necessity of using data to inform, plan, and adjust instruction, in addition to other areas.

Principle 4: Recognize, praise, and reward teachers for student growth and learning.

Principle 5: Implement ongoing, intensive professional development that targets what teachers are expected to teach; that aligns with district, state, and national standards; and that matches teacher and student needs.

Extended Learning

Principle 1: Align the Extended Learning Time (ELT) program academically with the school day.

Principle 2: Maximize student participation and attendance.

Principle 3: Adapt instruction to individual and small group needs.

Principle 4: Provide engaging learning experiences.

Principle 5: Assess program performance and use the results for program improvement.

Learning and Cognitive Science

Principle 1: Distribute presentation, practice, and testing over time.

Principle 2: Ground ideas in perceptual-motor experiences.

Principle 3: Provide timely, qualitative feedback on students' learning activities.

Principle 4: Encourage the learner to generate content.

Principle 5: Select challenging tasks that require explanations, reasoning, and problem solving.

Principle 6: Design curricula, tasks, and tests in different contexts, media, and practical applications.

Principle 7: Promote self-regulated learning.

Mathematics and Mathematics Interventions

Principle 1: Establish schoolwide practices for enhancing mathematics understanding within relevant content area instruction.

Principle 2: Screen all students, using a universal screener, to identify those at risk for mathematics difficulties and provide interventions to students identified as being at risk. Monitor the development of mathematics knowledge and skills in identified students.

Principle 3: Help students recognize and expand their understanding of number systems beyond whole numbers to integers and rational numbers. Use number lines as a central representational tool in teaching this and other fraction concepts.

Principle 4: Develop students’ conceptual understanding of mathematics and provide ample opportunities to improve procedural fluency.

Principle 5: Provide explicit and systematic instruction during intervention.

Principle 6: Interventions should include instruction on solving word problems that are based on common underlying structures.

Principle 7: For students who struggle in mathematics, intervention materials should include opportunities to work with visual representations of mathematical ideas. Interventionists should be proficient in the use of these visual representations.

Principle 8: Establish a schoolwide plan to identify and improve teachers’ mathematical content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge.

Principle 9: Discontinue using practices that are NOT associated with improved outcomes for students and teachers.

Performance Management

Principle 1: Establish and communicate a strong commitment to evidence-based decision making.

Principle 2: Identify and monitor indicators aligned with campus goals.

Principle 3: Guide and support teachers in the use of data to meet the needs of students and to support them in reaching their goals.

Principle 4: Guide and support parents and students to stay on track to postsecondary success by selecting goals and monitoring their progress toward those goals.

Principle 5: Ensure that school-level and student data needs are incorporated into districtwide data management system planning and implementation.

Reading and Reading Interventions

Principle 1: Establish schoolwide practices for enhancing reading for understanding within all content area instruction.

Principle 2: Teach word-meaning strategies within content area classes.

Principle 3: Activate and build appropriate background knowledge for understanding text content.

Principle 4: Teach students to use reading comprehension strategies while reading complex text.

Principle 5: Provide intensive reading interventions to students with reading problems.

Principle 6: Guide students during text-related oral and written activities that support the interpretation, analysis, and summarization of text.

Principle 7: Maximize opportunities for students to read and connect a range of texts.

Principle 8: Organize students into collaborative groups for reading tasks.

Principle 9: Discontinue using practices that are NOT associated with improved outcomes for students.

School Climate and Culture

Principle 1: Create a “can do” school culture marked by a shared mission among the staff members that centers on academic achievement and a shared belief that they can collectively enable students to succeed.

Principle 2: Create a school environment in which mutually supportive relationships between students, teachers, and parents can develop.

Principle 3: Engage in schoolwide efforts to increase student attendance, promote positive behaviors, and increase student effort (where needed).

Student Behavior Supports

Principle 1: Consistently teach, model, and recognize appropriate and positive academic and social behaviors across all classrooms.

Principle 2: Provide classroom instruction in self-monitoring and regulation, academic organization and study skills, goal setting, persistence, and healthy behaviors.

Principle 3: Establish processes for identifying problem behaviors early, diagnosing their causes, identifying effective interventions, applying the interventions at the scale and intensity required, and monitoring their effectiveness.

School, Family, and Community Partnerships

Principle 1: Focus the school-family partnership on communicating to students the importance of high academic and educational aspirations and showing the steps that need to be taken to actualize these aspirations.

Principle 2: Conduct student-need and asset analyses and select community partners and supports based on student need. Design and manage a plan to link community supports to success in school and use common metrics to gauge their impact.

School Leadership

Principle 1: Maintain and communicate a vision for a student-focused culture and environment essential to high expectations and achievement standards for all students.

Principle 2: Practice collective leadership by including teachers, administrators, students, and parents in instructional planning and decision making.

Principle 3: Demonstrate organizational leadership by defining the school’s mission, including setting clear and measurable goals for teacher performance and student learning and achievement.

Principle 4: Maintain instructional leadership and focus on developing goals for teaching and learning, assessment, feedback on progress, and accountability.

Principle 5: Develop a culture of collegiality and professionalism among the staff by practicing distributive leadership and establishing frequent opportunities for participation, clear roles and responsibilities for leaders, and high expectations of others.

Principle 6: Develop relationships and outreach to parents and the community through ongoing communication and opportunities for participation.

Principle 7: Ensure a safe and orderly environment through established school safety routines and explicit expectations for student behavior.

Writing and Writing Interventions

Principle 1: Establish consistent schoolwide practices for using writing as a tool to support student learning in all content areas.

Principle 2: Explicitly and systematically teach students the processes, knowledge, and skills of effective writing.

Principle 3: Establish word processing as the common medium for student writing.

Principle 4: Assess and monitor student writing to improve instruction and identify students who require more intensive writing instruction.

Principle 5: Provide extra assistance and instruction to students who experience difficulty learning to write.

Principle 6: Discontinue using practices that are NOT associated with improved outcomes for students.

Principle 7: Improve teacher capacity to teach writing and use it as a tool for learning.

Description/Summary of This Resource (to be included on MSMI website)

This resource supports the implementation of the following dimensions of the MSM Research Platform:

Reviewer:
Organization:
Date:
Additional Comments