The Star of the Republic Museum (Washington, Texas), the Historical Museum of the Texas Republic, has created lesson plans to enhance student understanding of Texas state history. Regardless of the opportunity to visit the museum, the lessons can enrich the classroom experience by making objects from the museum accessible to students. The…

Summarizes a study to determine the importance that 77 east Texas middle school principals accorded middle school concepts and to discover degree of concepts' implementation. Survey respondents considered the majority of 30 middle school characteristics important. There were considerable gaps between perceived importance and actual implementation…

As middle school educators refine interdisciplinary teaming, numerous challenges have emerged, notably the development of interdisciplinary units and personality-compatible teams, design of instruction to challenge honor students while motivating low achievers, and integration of subject areas into thematic topics. As the New Kids pilot project…

This sourcebook of over 100 Texas middle-school programs was developed to help educators implement intermediate-grade education concepts and practices in their schools. The volume is a companion publication to "Spotlight on the Middle: Report of the Texas Task Force on Middle School Education." The introduction mentions two offices in…

Describes an art activity used with sixth-grade students that was inspired by the work of Wassily Kandinsky and also teaches students about rock art by American Indians living in Texas. Explains that the students learn to use both contemporary and primitive art when creating their "Petroglyph People." (CMK)

The purpose of this study was to find out what middle school principals and teachers were doing to increase parental participation. The interview survey method was used and the instrument included questions eliciting demographic data about the schools and open-ended questions to identify methods used by the schools to increase parental support and…

This study examined the effect of an innovative smoking prevention program, the "Giant Texas SmokeScream," on 512 middle school students' knowledge, perceptions, and behavioral intent about smoking. The data indicated that the program had no effect on students and provided a basis for discussion of "proinnovation bias." The…

This qualitative study explores philosophies, life experiences, educational preparation, classroom techniques, and perceived limitations that enhance or prevent a feeling of successful teaching practice for six middle school science teachers who have at least one but no more than four years of science teaching experience. The study was conducted…

Explains Cultural Connections, a model for implementing constructivist, intercultural distance learning partnerships. Highlights include a theoretical framework; social constructivist pedagogy; intercultural communication; telecommunications; Web pages; and examples of a middle school partnership in Texas, a fourth-grade connection between Texas…

Profiles teachers' everyday experiences at a southeastern Texas middle school that mainstreams most of its special needs students. Classroom observations, accompanied by teacher and student survey data, showed that mainstreaming had deleterious effects. Since teachers spent a disproportionate amount of time serving special education students,…

This summary highlights implementation strategies from the full report for restructuring middle grade education in Texas. The task force was guided by a central theme--a vision of Texas schools using each other as resources and the campus planning process as a vehicle for implementing research-based concepts and practices in the middle grades.…

The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a program evaluation conducted to examine the effectiveness of the Schools Attuned program in a north Texas school district. Schools Attuned was developed by a professor of pediatrics, Dr. Mel Levine (2002), as a professional development model to train teachers to identify cognitive and…

This paper describes a cooperative effort, part of a school/university partnership between the Graduate School of Education and the School of Information and Library Studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo, in which a core curriculum was developed and coordinated in library research skills and information technology for two…

This curriculum guide for Fort Worth schools covers grade 6 social studies, Texas history/geography, United States history/citizenship, pointers on how to study, and cultural studies. The guide includes the following materials: a statement of philosophy and broad goals for each content area; objectives organized around broad content goals or…

Service-learning is a teaching strategy used by Texas middle schools that combines classroom learning with community activities and where both students and teachers plan activities and projects that meet a well defined school or community need. These activities strengthen academic learning by addressing learning objectives, allowing students to…