Schools to Watch® is a national initiative launched in 1999 by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The National Forum is an alliance of more than 60 educators, researchers, and officers of national associations and foundations dedicated to improving schools for young adolescents across the country.

Through the Schools to Watch® initiative, the National Forum identifies schools across the United States that are well on their way to meeting the forum’s vision and criteria for high performance:

• Academic excellence
• Developmental responsiveness
• Social equity
• Organizational structures and processes

The Schools to Watch® program continues to grow and gather momentum. The four national associations participating in the National Forum and Schools to Watch initiative have been instrumental in conceptualizing, promoting, and supporting the effort:

• National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
• National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP)
• National Middle School Association (NMSA)
• National Staff Development Council (NSDC)

The Schools to Watch® program is a state-level model of the nationally recognized Schools to Watch program created by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. The forum has now expanded the state-level program to include 16 states: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia.