Lots of attention this week to the "missing link" problem of middle school. The NY Post is on the case with a multiple-part series, and the NY Times is out with the first look in an ongoing series about what to do about the mess we have on our hands.

The problem is obviously not new. The old Board of Education was zeroing in on the problem at the time that power over the NYC school system was granted to the mayor in 2002. After several years of significant investments in the early grades (beefed up literacy assessments, smaller classes, etc.) the numbers were starting to show that merely improving the front-end inputs would not automatically "take care of the middle school problem." (Time will tell whether eliminating social promotion, as we did again starting in 2003, will have the same limited impact further up the road.)

So yes, it is now somewhat clear that the same old middle schools aren't cutting it (in the city or elsewhere in the state for that matter) so the question turns to what do we do about it? The reporters are poking around to show some of the experiments that are underway in the city. Hopefully one of them will take a good look at successful models like Deborah Kenny's Village Academies, which have gone gangbusters academically, even if under the radar.

NY Times' take on the middle school issue is here. NY Post series is here, here, and with a special KIPP/charter school angle here.

Meanwhile, the NY Sun looks at where charter schools fit in for Mayor Bloomberg's lobby-team.

UPDATE: Julie at the School of Blog describes how she learned to love the middle school beast.