“My goal is to eliminate the schedule and for your team to sit down together and decide how you want to use the instructional day.” When our administrator made this statement, we laughed, but we were...

Assessment is a tricky thing. Many people, including educators and students, hear the word assessment and think “test.” However, assessment is much more than that—it’s a way to gather,...

When you think about guidance counselors, do these words come to mind: isolated, unaccountable, uninvolved, inaccessible, or out of touch? Counselors can have the reputation of being reactive crisis workers who...

Interdisciplinary teams with common planning time have been a hallmark of the middle school organizational structure since the 1960s, yet research on the effective use of common planning time is limited. This study...

As the number of immigrants and refugees grows in the United States, the linguistic and cultural diversity that comprises the middle grades classroom continues to increase. Given the need for resources and specific...

Many educators support the idea that young adolescents should and can be involved in classroom curriculum planning. Such involvement could include helping to determine curricular goals, content, methodology,...

Dean has a recipe for lemonade. To make 14 servings, Dean will need 4 cups of lemon juice. How many ounces of lemon juice will Dean need if he wants to make 35 servings? Students in the United States are taught to...

Located in the northern district of Stanly County, North Carolina, New London Choice Middle School is a small K–8 school that enrolls only 353 students, yet the student body represents a wide spectrum of academic...

Collaboration is one of the essential attributes of successful middle grades schools. The benefits of working together are apparent in the joint efforts of a small midwestern college and an urban middle school to...

Developing relationships with parents and community members is critical to building support for your school. But mailing home a newsletter and making an occasional call to a media outlet isn't nearly enough. Educators...