AIM for Results: About Aim

Blue background with Yellow Star

WHAT IS AIM?

AIM is a comprehensive school reform program that assists schools in becoming high-performing learning and caring organizations. AIM guides schools in becoming academically excellent, responsive to the developmental needs of young adolescents, and socially equitable. AIM schools improve learning and foster healthy development for all students.

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Key Design Elements

Two Essential Questions

What Schools Do: Scope and Sequence of AIM Implementation

Background

Guiding Principles

National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform

AIM Sites

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KEY DESIGN ELEMENTS
AIM schools agree to implement the six key elements of the comprehensive design.

Rigorous and developmentally appropriate curriculum, instruction, and assessment

A safe and healthy school climate for learning and development

Ongoing professional development that leads to an inclusive and powerful learning community

Strong links between family, school, and community

Collaborative leadership

Innovative use and integration of technology to support curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development

Click here to explore the design elements in greater detail.

TWO ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
AIM school faculties collaboratively study teaching and learning to improve student performance. They keep two key questions at the center of all conversations:

What is essential for students to learn?
What is the evidence that learning is taking place?

WHAT SCHOOLS DO: SCOPE AND SEQUENCE OF AIM IMPLEMENTATION
With the guidance of an AIM site developer, AIM schools generally take a series of steps, over the course of three years, to implement the AIM model.

Click here to view the scope and sequence of AIM implementation.

Click here to learn about the services that AIM provides to facilitate implementation.

BACKGROUND
AIM for Results, a project of Education Development Center (EDC), was one of several initiatives chosen by the US Department of Education to develop, test, and disseminate a comprehensive school reform model for the middle grades. AIM draws heavily on EDC's decade-long experience with ATLAS Communities, a school improvement model that spans grades K-12. The model also builds on EDC's leadership in The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform.

Created in 1992 as one of several "break the mold" designs for comprehensive school reform, ATLAS is a collaboration among four partners:

Project Zero at Harvard University (Howard Gardner),
The Coalition of Essential Schools at Brown University (Ted Sizer),
The Comer School Development Program at Yale University (James P. Comer), and
Education Development Center, Inc. (Janet Whitla).

GUIDING PRINCIPLES
The guiding principles of ATLAS also serve as the underlying foundation for AIM for Results:

Authentic teaching and learning is driven by questions; focuses on habits and understanding; and involves challenging, purposeful, and sustained work.
Ongoing cycles of planning, action, and reflection characterize effective teaching, learning, and organizational change.
Relationships matter because learning is a social activity.
Shared leadership, commitment, and communication build a collaborative culture for learning.
Member schools see themselves as part of a broader network of learning communities.

NATIONAL FORUM TO ACCELERATE MIDDLE-GRADES REFORM
Based on principles identified by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, AIM focuses on creating schools that promote learning and healthy development for all students. According to scientifically-based evidence, high-performing schools are academically rigorous, responsive to the unique developmental needs of adolescents, and socially equitable. These schools provide highly qualified teachers and ample materials and equipment for all learners, and establish a support system that embraces family, school, and community to ensure each student's success.

One of the key initiatives of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform was the identification of the Schools to Watch Criteria, which are used in AIM's Creating Tomorrow process as a tool for self-assessment for all AIM schools. The Criteria address Developmental Responsiveness, Academic Excellence, Social Equity, and Organizational Structures. Furthermore, the ultimate goal of the National Forum is the same as AIM for Results, namely, to improve learning and achievement for all students by creating high-performing schools.

AIM SITES
AIM was initially tested and implemented in seven pilot schools, spanning urban, suburban, and rural communities. The urban sites included two middle schools in New York City District 22, and the suburban sites included two middle schools in the Waltham, MA school district. The rural sites included middle schools in Forrest City, AR, Monroe, LA, and Starkville, MS. As the program was developed and pilot tested in these schools, the input from faculty and administration at all seven schools proved valuable to the overall improvement of the design of the model. Since that time additional schools have been added to the AIM network and additional schools are currently being recruited.

Click here for information about current AIM schools.

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