The Middle School Quality Initiative

MSQI is a collaborative community with a goal far bigger and more important than our program itself, the goal that all New York City middle school students will graduate eighth grade reading on grade level and therefore better prepared for success in high school and beyond.

We support principals, assistant principals and literacy coaches in deepening their literacy leadership practices in their schools, and we support teachers in continuously improving their literacy instructional practices to positively impact students' reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Grounded on the MSQI Literacy Framework, we strive to build a network based on trust and ongoing learning, in which leaders and teachers share promising practices and learn from each other alongside centrally offered professional learning, coaching services, and resource sharing.

MSQI Framework

Literacy Instruction

  • Enact a comprehensive assessment system

  • Focus on literacy across the content areas

  • Program and offer interventions aligned to aggregate data trends and individual student need

Literacy Infrastructure

  • Establish a shared literacy vision, aligning resources and professional learning to annual goals

  • Schedule time for teachers to meet about and respond to literacy data

  • Develop professional learning plans that foster collaboration and shared responsibility for student achievement

Literacy and Family Partnerships

  • Share literacy data with families and support families in interpreting the information

  • Help families better understand what skills are critical to literacy success, how their child is progressing, and how they can best support their children at home