To assist the North Carolina League of Middle/Junior High Schools, this paper briefly surveys the literature on developmental characteristics of early adolescents and the characteristics of effective teachers and also discusses the implications of the findings for instruction and the curriculum. The authors first define early adolescence as the ages from 10 or 11 to 14 or 15 and then describe early adolescents' physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development, including the problems of exceptional adolescents. Their discussion of effective teachers and teaching techniques covers teacher expectations and other general characteristics; teacher self-esteem and leadership; classroom management skills; teacher-directed and student-initiated learning; and students' time on task. The paper's final section explores the implications for instruction and the curriculum both of the data gathered on adolescents and teachers and of theories of cognitive and ego development and developmental task sequences. (Author/RW)