An important component of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Standards is the equity principle: All students should have access to a coherent, challenging mathematics curriculum. Many in the mathematics reform community have maintained that this principle can be achieved through one well-designed curriculum. However, the extant…

This article describes a strategic approach for reading and comprehending scientific information from a middle school science textbook. First, the word-reading skills of children with and without reading difficulties are compared. Second, studies investigating the effectiveness of a syllable-based reading approach on the word-reading skills of…

This study used self-monitoring, coupled with a student/teacher matching strategy, to improve the classroom social skills of five inner-city middle school students, who were at risk for school failure. Using a multiple-probe across students and settings (class periods) design, we evaluated intervention effects in up to six different settings.…

In 1979 and 1980 "Child Care Information Exchange" ran a series of five articles about what was then called school-age day care: "Getting It Off the Ground," "Designing an Effective Structure," "Developing a Responsive Curriculum," "Selecting and Motivating Staff," and "Managing the Money." These articles from 25 years ago captured the essence of…

This study describes perspectives of participants in a substance abuse and HIV prevention (HIVP) program targeted to middle school students and families in an urban Phoenix, Arizona, school district. Data collection and analyses complement past quasi-experimental, pre/post designs which found the program to be successful in terms of increasing…

Need in Deed (NID) is a non-profit organization which has been serving Philadelphia schools since 1987. The organization aims to promote youth engagement in their schools and communities by working with teachers to develop and implement service learning projects in which students can apply academics to real life problems. Until recently, NID staff…

"Hands-on" activities play an important, but controversial, role in early science education. In this study we attempt to clarify some of the issues surrounding the controversy by calling attention to distinctions between: (a) type of instruction (direct or discovery); (b) type of knowledge to be acquired (domain-general or domain-specific); and…

The perspectives of three rural middle school principals as they implement Georgia's A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 were investigated in this study. A case study approach was used, employing both within case and cross case analyses. Three interviews were conducted with each of the three participants, resulting in a total of nine interviews.…

Schools that become part of the "Making Middle Grades Work" network are expected to use the middle grades comprehensive improvement framework to show progress in changing school and classroom practices in ways that advance student achievement. True school reform is not a quick process. It is a continuous effort to make purposeful and planned…

In this article, a distinct type of adult-youth relationship found in some youth programs and characterized as instrumental is discussed. Such relationships focus primarily on joint work on a task or project, or in a discipline, with the adult having expertise and a strong identity in the substantive domain involved, rather than in youth work per…

This study explores the effects of Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI) training on school personnel and the students they serve. The goal of the study was to evaluate how LSCI was being used by staff and whether interventions reduced school-wide disciplinary referrals. Results showed that LSCI was used frequently by trained school personnel from…

There are a number of middle school students who experience difficulty making the transition from childhood to early adolescence and may be described as high-risk. This article describes an after-school program designed to promote healthy identity and adaptive personal choice behaviors in a high-risk group of middle school students.

The Healthy Learners Asthma Initiative (HLAI) involved collaboration between Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS), local health care providers/payors, parents, and other partners. The intervention included development of enhanced asthma care in school health offices and clinic performance improvement projects to foster adoption of National Institutes…

The authors examined a model of instruction for English-language learners (ELLs) who were learning academic English while they tried to meet content standards required by the nation's education reform movement. In previous work (J. Echevarria, M. E. Vogt, & D. Short, 2000), the authors developed and validated a model of instruction (Sheltered…

A mental health education program designed by school nurses for children ages 10-12 was developed in 2000-2001 and expanded with broader distribution in 2004-2005. Six classroom sessions, each 45 minutes in length, provided information and activities to increase children's awareness of mental health and illness. Education program content included…