LAST BEST CHANCE

FOREWORD

Public education has undergone significant change since Last Best Chance, North Carolina's ground breaking study of middle level education, was published in 1989.

Last Best Chance advocated for specific reforms in middle level programs and services, and became the guiding light as schools and districts instituted sweeping changes at grades 6-9 in the 1990s.

Last Best Chance 2004: Educating Young Adolescents in the 21st Century extends the solid foundation of research and best practices of the 1989 report. It is especially appropriate as we look at the demands of No Child Left Behind that we focus once again on the middle grades.

This Agency is indebted to the task force members listed on pages 4-5 for their commitment to the research, shared vision, and practical understandings of an academically rigorous middle school that are inherent in this document.

I commend this report to you for intensive study.

Sincerely,

Michael E. Ward
State Superintendent
August 2004

<< Back | Table of Contents | Next >>