Exemplary middle schools have a variety of programs that support students' needs and help them adjust socially and emotionally; advisory programs can be one structure to effectively provide some of this support. This article shares the story of how a group of middle level teachers and teacher leaders within a culturally diverse school reclaimed…

The process through which teachers transform the curriculum over time is best explained by incremental change theories. Teachers will tinker at the margins of the curriculum, effecting incremental change, until they begin to feel comfortable with the dissolution of disciplinary boundaries, and they are willing to cede control of some curricular…

The transition from the security of a middle level school to a high school isn't easy. The new independence, challenging workload, and high expectations are often enough to send freshmen into a whirlwind. To help offset these challenges, Louisburg (KS) High School developed a freshmen transition program that includes a preview of what high school…

The school visit is an effective tool for stimulating the continued professional growth of middle level educators. In the past, however, a major problem with school visits was that they were conducted with positive expectations, but very little preplanning activities, little or no on-site structure, little or no debriefing for either the visiting…

When faculty members at Furman Middle School in Sumter, South Carolina, expressed concern about the lack of time in each day to provide the interventions, remediation, and enrichment the students needed to be prepared for state testing, their principal devised a creative flexible schedule to meet student needs. These include: (1) a morning…

A part of a day's work for middle school educators involves making decisions about school expenditures, academics, activities, and hiring. This brief article observes that student leaders are increasingly participating in decisions about school programming, finances, activities, and even hiring. If given the chance to contribute, middle level…

A school or district's technology education program consists of a series of courses that address standards. Recent trends (e.g., No Child Left Behind), administrative pressures to increase student achievement, or the school's desire to align with standards, challenge the technology education teacher to implement new courses into the technology…

Classroom guidance for all students is an important element of the program delivery system for middle school counselors. Effective classroom management is essential to implementing classroom guidance and may be challenging at times. This article presents strategies and management techniques to facilitate middle school counselors' planning and…

This article presents a framework for school administrators developed by Mesa Unified School district used in identifying and assisting the subtly struggling adolescents. Mesa's "safety net" approach targets middle grades students in the midst of their formative, pre-high school experience. Here, it is stated that the first step to identify a…