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The War Against Excellence

  • Writer: Michael Connolly
    Michael Connolly
  • Oct 7
  • 1 min read

Updated: Oct 26

The War against Excellence: The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in America's Middle Schools by Cheri Pierson Yecke, Rowman & Littlefield Education, 2005. 


Middle School Movement

The National Middle School Association was founded in 1973. It is easier to create a new institution than to change an existing institution. That is why the activists did not simply repurpose junior high schools. The activists renamed junior high school (grades 7 and 8) as middle school (sometimes also including the sixth grade). They objected to junior high schools as they had traditionally been designed, because they were too much like high schools, that is, too academic. The reformers wanted the younger children to place less emphasis on academics and more emphasis on socialization.


Favored Agendas

  • bright students teaching slow students

  • egalitarianism

  • community service


Things Fought Against

  • competition

  • ability grouping

  • individualism

  • rigorous curricula

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