Early adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development, and an array of contextual factors, such as systemic racism, exert significant influence. Universal behavioral health screening data of 4,234 middle school students were examined to explore the influence of demographic (e.g. ethnicity, race) and contextual…

Mental health challenges are on the rise among today's youth. Recent reports have noted an acute and significant need for school-based mental health education and supportive interventions for children and adolescents. Among these approaches, a growing focus has centered on improving students' mental health literacy (MHL) as a foundational…

Effective educators value young adolescents, are prepared to teach them, and are knowledgeable about this age group. Middle level educators' understanding of adolescent brain development and developmentally responsive teaching strategies can help to support all adolescents' cognitive and social-emotional development in school. This article…

The disruption of in-person delivery of a sexual health education curriculum to students in 19 urban middle schools in the Midwestern United States was one of many complications in education due the COVID-19 pandemic. Given time constraints and need for program delivery, community partners collaborated to convert the curriculum for virtual…

In a successful middle school, school counselors support young adolescents' academic progress and personal wellbeing through a variety of methods. Classroom instruction, or classroom guidance, offers one method of providing such support and features the benefit of allowing middle grades school counselors to reach all students in their schools.…

Students in the middle grades experience tremendous development in various domains. However, childhood trauma can significantly impede this development, further exacerbating the functioning of our most vulnerable student populations. This article aims to describe the use of trauma-informed teaching as a form of middle-level, social justice…

This article posits that the restorative practice of community circles offers middle school students a safe, empowering space where moments of social and emotional strife can be addressed and possibly prevented. It also recognizes that by creating a safe and empowering classroom community, students who have or are experiencing trauma can find…

Educators' efforts at fostering social and emotional learning are grounded in, and closely related to caring: a belief that developing social and emotional skills will help students to flourish both personally and academically. Yet, research has shown that many middle grades students do not feel cared for in school and find educators' efforts at…

AMLE advocates for educators to respect and value young adolescents. Yet, the narrative surrounding early adolescence in the United States centers chaos, hormones, and emotional drama. Middle school educators repeat or hear some version of this narrative daily, yet it remains unchecked and unaddressed in professional development. Deficit…

In using wordless picture books, teachers enhance the reading experience while fostering, nurturing, and broadening students' reading and writing skills. Wordless picture books are accessible to "all" students. They encourage and require readers to slow down as they inhabit and comprehend the story told through art, symbolism, and…

The purpose of this study was to understand how schools address two specific criteria of the Schools to Watch® (STW) program: Social equity and developmental responsiveness. Descriptions of replicable practices, program/school characteristics, and initiatives created by each of the STW sites in Pennsylvania were analyzed. The data also includes…

In this article, we describe a collaboratively developed information literacy curriculum that was embedded into three core 8th grade subjects: Algebra, American History, and English Language Arts. The curriculum was rooted in the concept of generalist literacy and supported students as they developed their curiosity, skepticism, commitment to…

The United States, in less than 50 years, has gone from legal segregation and exclusion of students with disabilities in schools to an emphasis on inclusion in the least restrictive environments based on individual student needs. The United States has made great strides in the physical inclusion of students with disabilities, but work is still…

This article explores how a laboratory middle school (LMS) serving students from low-performing elementary schools and students with academic or social-emotional challenges is developing as a trauma-responsive school. The authors explore the literature, school/community context, student cases, and the ways in which classroom and school-wide…

The PairWork mini-unit discussed in this article combines the importance of middle school students learning how to work successfully with another student to accomplish a common goal while incorporating essential principles of social studies curriculum. The mini-unit utilizes six picture books featuring history's Dynamic Duos, or pairs of…