Key ingredients for achieving academic success include being prepared, taking responsibility for one's learning, making an effort, and completing homework every day. At Shaker Heights (Ohio) Middle School, after-school programs (academic sessions, a homework center, a homework hotline, and a university tutorial program) help students complete…

For the past five years, Andover, Kansas middle-schoolers in an amateur radio club and class have sent and received Morse code messages, assembled and soldered circuit boards, designed and built antenna systems, and used computer programs to analyze radio communications problems. A successful bond issue financed a ham shack enabling students to…

More than 200 videos, produced primarily by students, have circulated to families since a Virginia middle school's Home Visions Program began during the 1997-98 school year. Videos show students and teachers in action and contain valuable information on how parents can help their child succeed academically. Science projects figure prominently.…

The I-Search, an interdisciplinary, student-centered inquiry process, is an integral part of an upstate New York middle school's curriculum. Students are immersed in a motivating theme, develop their own search plans, follow and revise these plans as they gather information, and prepare papers as foundations for oral reports, skits, posters, or…

KIDLINK is a grassroots organization aiming to improve worldwide relations by involving students ages 10 to 15 in electronic dialog. Using KIDLINK connections, a teacher of Internet telecommunications courses successfully involved three mainstreamed, neurologically impaired seventh graders in writing a book and teaching others the value of…

Dissatisfied with their present parent-teacher conference format, an Iowa middle school perused the literature on student-led conferences and established three program implementation phases: initial preparations, conferences, and evaluations. Students selected portfolio items, decided what to discuss with parents, and rehearsed the conference…

After a violent incident just outside an Austin (Texas) middle school, the principal and her staff decided that the problem of gangs could not be resolved by merely banning gang colors and signing. Special clubs, community volunteers, and a no-failure policy helped make students less vulnerable to gang membership. (MLH)

After taking an environmental inventory of their community, seventh-graders in a Denver-area middle school decided to tackle the drinking water problem and fix it. The school is one of seven participating in Earth Force, an environmental and community-service-learning program based in Alexandria, Virginia. The program's progress and six-step…

The Lewisburg (Pennsylvania) Area Middle School has successfully implemented an alternating-day block schedule that has yielded improved academic performance. The positive effect may derive from administrative support, teacher empowerment, and community agreement. The culture of the traditional schedule and school year remains essentially intact,…

Thanks to a joint effort between the Orange County (Florida) Schools and Peabody College of Vanderbilt University, nonreading middle schoolers are moving beyond shame to conquer literacy problems. Students participate daily in a learning lab employing multimedia software designed to improve word recognition, reading comprehension, and spelling…

Thanks to a small grant, Chinese bilingual students at a San Francisco Mission District middle school became the first students to communicate electronically in Chinese and to publish the world's first online student newspaper in Chinese. By year's end, students participated fully in all academic activities in Chinese and made tremendous progress…

Designed to improve equity, MMAP (the Middle School Math Through Applications Project) draws traditionally underserved students, such as minorities and girls, into higher mathematics. The plan features an assessment strategy based on what students are learning, definitions of quality work, student accountability, and encouragement of further…

By combining hands-on research and telecommunications, the National Geographic Society's Kids Network enables K-8 students to grapple with basic science and geography concepts, hone communication and research skills, and network with kids around the world. Students focus on real-world problems, work cooperatively, and share results in class…

Since 1991, a formerly rundown Baltimore middle school's reform efforts have been propelled by visionary administrative leadership; a collegial team of empowered teachers; a responsive, teacher-designed curriculum and instructional model; nongraded, schools-within-a school, interdisciplinary team-teaching; and productive school-business…