Our nation's educational system has scored many extraordinary successes in raising the level of reading and writing skills in younger children. Yet the pace of literacy improvement in our schools has not kept up with the accelerating demands of the global knowledge economy. In state after state, the testing data mandated by No Child Left Behind…

Data-based studies comparing effectiveness of middle schools to traditional or other schools are almost nonexistent. The middle school movement may have gained acceptance as a reaction to the failures of junior high schools and as a response to improved understanding of the nature of the learner. The state of Pennsylvania bases the organization of…