Turning Points is a national design for middle school change, coordinated by the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, Massachusetts, which serves as the National Turning Points Center. The design focuses on restructuring middle schools to improve learning, teaching, and assessment for all students. It is based on the seminal "Turning Points" report issued by the Carnegie Corporation in 1989, which concentrated on the considerable risks that young adolescents face as they reach the "turning point" between childhood and adulthood. A crucial part of this reform initiative calls for schools to reflect continuously upon their progress in implementing the Turning Points model. This guide presents the Turning Points benchmarks and tells how a school will use them to assess its implementation of the Turning Points model. The benchmarks are based upon the Turning Points principles and are organized around the practices.