She said the middle grades had been a point of focus in the past.

We've seen that there has not been a clear vision of what the middle grades are about.

"If you look at the entire five years since 1999, performance has not improved in the middle grades," he said.

Now those babies are mostly in school and moving into the middle grades.

In the middle grades I don't think we've been able to get that level of attention.

The problem, they said was that - especially in the middle grades - those standards had never before been tested.

Their places are taken.by a lower or middle grade.

How important is the parent-teacher relationship for the middle grades?

Textbooks are generally not used in the elementary and middle school grades.

A. Usually it starts in the upper elementary and middle grades.