The disengagement that leads to school dropout may start as early as middle school, but may be interrupted by motivational interventions. One approach is to promote the relevance of content through explanations and demonstrations of the value of this content to students' futures. CareerStart is an intervention that provides teachers prepackaged…

It appears--and this is apparent from school documentation--that every school considers its duty to support career orientation. At the same time, it is obvious that guiding the process of making career choices exists only on the level of references. As we did not question teachers, we have only tiny fragments what is done for the sake of career…

This article describes a novel approach for introducing 4-H to non-traditional/diverse audiences using 4-H Food Challenge. Set in a low SES and minority-serving rural school, Food Challenge was presented during the school day to all 7th grade students, with almost half voluntarily participating in an after-school club component. Program design…

Why do girls perform so well academically yet lose ground as professional women? This diminishing number of women up the leadership hierarchy is often referred to as the "leaky pipeline," and attributed to many factors: external ones such as work environments not conducive to work/life balance, and internal ones such as women's own…

In this comparative, longitudinal case study, the author investigates the two different pathways that have been most strongly advocated for certifying middle school social studies teachers: the specialized middle school and subject-specific secondary pathways. Drawing on classroom observations, interviews, documents, teacher and student work…

College and career aspirations are important to the development of students' short and long term educational and personal goals. Although students rely on information they receive and are influenced by experiences in which they engage in a variety of settings, for many, school is an important source of college and career information. How students…

The purpose of this literature review is to illustrate the importance of initiating nursing recruitment during the middle school years. Data sources included citations from the years 1989 to 2006. The study focused on middle school students 9 to 13 years of age in Grades 6 to 8. One survey compared middle school students' perceptions of an ideal…