The author contends the most prominent challenges and conditions facing middle level education now and in the near future point to three imperatives for the field: middle level education must be relevant, resilient, and robust. After conceptualizing the field of middle level education as an interdisciplinary, applied field of study concerned with…

School psychology professionals rely on professional literature to access information on scientifically supported practices. Counseling is certainly one of those practices. The purpose of this review was to determine how many articles published in prominent peer-reviewed school psychology journals have addressed providing effective counseling…

The ability to solve mathematical problems has been an interesting research topic for several decades. Intuition is considered a part of higher-level thinking that can help improve mathematical problem-solving abilities. Although many studies have been conducted on mathematical problem-solving, research on intuition as a bridge in mathematical…

This literature review evaluates trauma-informed programs designed to reduce the symptoms of trauma in middle school students and boost academic achievement. The author identifies practices that can be implemented by individual teachers or schoolwide and explores possible barriers to implementation.

Art and artistic activities that play a significant role in the lives of both children and adults are an important requirement for all individuals. Cultures develop, expand, and enrich through artistic activities, which are important for the development of visual literacy, especially in social studies. The present study aims to determine the…

Scholars from various disciplines have theorized a relationship between reading fiction and empathy. Research in cognitive studies suggests that understanding fiction requires Theory of Mind, or the cognitive ability to understand the feelings and motivations of others. Some studies build on this research to suggest reading fiction helps to…

In this systematic review, we evaluated the quality and rigor of the current evidence base for the Second Step social-emotional learning program in middle schools. Eleven studies were coded using the "Council for Exceptional Children Standards for Evidence-Based Practices in Special Education" with an 80% weighted criterion. We…

In this synthesis, we analyzed 10 prealgebraic reasoning interventions for students with mathematics difficulty (MD) in Grades 6 through 8. All interventions focused on one or more prealgebraic concepts including integer operations, algebraic expressions and equations, and functions. Of the 10 intervention studies, six employed single-case design…

Literacy skills are essential if students are to access knowledge and achieve academic success in middle school science. A key difficulty with interpreting literacy practices in any discipline is the problem of conceptualising what constitutes literacy. Our study contributes new understandings to the discipline of science where there are ongoing…

Recess is a mainstay in schools. It is assumed recess has positive impacts on the academic, behavioral, and social experiences of youth. In this systematic literature review, we explored empirical studies that examined these areas. We provide a synthesis of the literature to assist researchers and clinicians in designing effective interventions.…

Lockers in middle schools and high schools in the United States are currently disappearing. Due to safety concerns and digitalized textbooks and other school supplies, lockers are becoming obsolete. As larger societal and technological changes drive this trend, the loss of lockers as a shared social space demands careful attention and…

Stability and change in students' achievement goals (AGs) are of great relevance for educational research and practice. In two separate meta-analyses, we investigated the rank-order stability (93 studies, 569 effect sizes, 54,736 students), as well as the mean-level change (157 studies, 1,170 effect sizes, 81,464 students) in AGs throughout…

In this article, we revisit the co-creation of a 45-min film, "Gender is Like an Ocean," produced with middle school students in response to Kirstin Cronn-Mills's young adult novel "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children." The making of this film brought together collaborative inquiry and arts creation. Drawing on the work of…

In this systematic review, we explored mathematics interventions for middle school (Grades 6, 7, and 8) implemented with students who experienced difficulty in the area of mathematics, including students with an identified learning disability in mathematics. A total of 72 single-subject and group comparison studies met inclusion criteria, with 59…

This paper details a literature review of mathematics vocabulary intervention studies for students with mathematics difficulty. The primary aim was to identify instructional practices that support mathematics vocabulary development. We conducted a database search to identify mathematics intervention studies either focused exclusively on vocabulary…