To have a meaningful, fulfilling career in the 21st century workplace, students need technical and academic skills as well as the ability to think and work collaboratively with others. Career education must begin in middle school or earlier to allow students time to develop the aptitudes, skills and attitudes necessary to develop an awareness of…

During the 2008-2009 school year, faculty members at New Fairfield (CT) Middle School examined relevance and student engagement in relation to student achievement. Subtle clues indicated that students were not fully engaged in their learning: many students did not relate their classroom experiences to their personal reality or to their vision of…

High schools and middle grades schools are making special efforts to keep students in school and to help them look forward with confidence to the next stage of life. They are connecting students to adult mentors or counselors who assist them in setting goals and completing a program of study for college and career readiness. They are assisting…

Five high schools and three middle schools participated in a career education project conducted during 1974-75 in the Catholic Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island. The program was designed to aid students in the development of maximum awareness of self and of community. During the first project year, an awareness of the concept of career education…

The Behavioral Coaches (BC) is a comprehensive program designed to assist those students who demonstrate significant behavioral difficulties in school and are at serious risk of school failure or of dropping out of school. BC provided direct services to middle schools identified by the District as being in need of additional school support for…

This descriptive study investigated two areas: (a) perceived changes in gifted and talented (G/T) programming in Iowa from the time a state mandate was implemented to the time of the study, and (b) perceived effects of the mandate on G/T programming in Iowa. Perceptions of middle-level teachers of gifted and talented students (n = 111) were…

Information is provided in this report on existing career-related resources in Boston, and on what can be done to further the implementation of career exploration programs. Section 1 provides the historical and policy context for the information, analyses and recommendations. Section 2 describes national developments and strategies for…

Chris Barbic, a Teach For America corps member, started Project Youth Engaged in Service (YES) in 1995. He wanted to offer his former elementary-school students an alternative to the low-performing middle schools they otherwise would attend. Since then Barbic has led a high-energy team of educators in refining a comprehensive approach to helping…

The Argentine Plan for Development and Security (1971-1975) calls for the diversification of education and the general development of professional and technical training in accordance with the needs of development. To accomplish this, the plan requires the creation of comprehensive middle schools. Among the courses of study available in such…

The Dayton (Ohio) Public Schools have developed a comprehensive dropout prevention program to meet the needs of at-risk middle school students. The general needs of the middle school student were addressed through a restructuring of the middle schools that limited the schools to grades 7 and 8 and organized them into "cluster teams" to…

This second edition of the best-selling book offers school counselors an expanded, practical, professional resource that is packed with hundreds of ready-to-use ideas, strategies, and tools. This "Survival Guide" will help readers plan and implement an effective counseling program tailored to the remedial, preventative, and developmental needs of…

The recent wave of accountability reform movements has largely overlooked the needs of middle and high school counselors, yet has generated daunting pressure for guidance programs to be standards-based and data-driven. Written from the perspective of a practicing, certified counselor, this guide contains essential information needed to implement…

This volume consists of reports on the status and function of lower secondary comprehensive school systems in four countries with contrasting cultures and educational traditions: Denmark, France, the United Kingdom as represented by Scotland, and the United States as represented by Maryland and Minnesota. The volume begins with an analysis by…