Renewed interest in the education of young adolescents has given credence to the "elemiddle" school approach to teaching and learning, which was first documented 15 years ago when David Hough coined the term. Yet much bias, misunderstanding and misinterpretation accompanies the most recent phenomenon compelling schools nationwide to adopt the K-8 elemiddle school concept. Many school systems conducting their own research are finding students in grades 6, 7 and 8 who attend K-8 schools, sometimes known as elemiddles, are scoring higher than their counterparts in other grade-span schools as measured by standardized achievement tests and state assessment exams. Spurred on by accountability requirements and data-driven reform initiatives such as the No Child Left Behind legislation, schools are searching for ways to improve teaching and learning at all levels. Over the past few years many districts have discovered students in elemiddle schools outperforming students in schools with other grade-span configurations, most notably grades 5-8 and 6-8 that may be incorrectly calling themselves "middle schools." Just as every 6-8 school is not a bona fide middle school, not every K-8 is an elemiddle. Only those schools configured with continuous grade spans that begin with kindergarten or pre-kindergarten and end after the 8th grade in which the upper grade spans are implementing middle-level best practices should be labeled elemiddles.