This rejoinder provides a reply to comments on a middle school college readiness index, which was devised to generate earlier and more nuanced readiness diagnoses to K-12 students. Issues of reliability and validity (including construct underrepresentation and construct-irrelevant variance) are discussed in detail. In addition, comments from…

In an article published in "Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice," Gaertner and McClarty (2015) discuss a college readiness index based, in part, on nonacademic or noncognitive factors measured in middle school. Such an index is laudable as it incorporates important constructs beyond academic achievement measures that may be…

This article describes how the teachers in a sixth grade mathematics inclusion class used differentiated instruction to better meet the needs of all learners in the classroom. In an inclusion class with students of mixed abilities, differentiated instruction allows the teacher to meet the needs of every learner by providing students with multiple…

School program evaluation researchers face a set of overlapping questions concerning our roles in the field: For the sake of "the data" and in quest of "the truth," am I a shrewd researcher before all else? For the sake of community-building and establishing respectful, reciprocal relationships with my school partners, am I first a gracious school…

The GO-GIRL Program is a unique project, characterized by its ability to bring together pivotal elements within a youth-intervention program and foster collaboration between university and local communities in large and moderate-size urban areas through service learning. Designed to bolster the social-skill development, educational outcomes, and…

This article presents the authors' response to Sharon Vaughn and colleagues' article "Response to Intervention for Middle School Students With Reading Difficulties: Effects of a Primary and Secondary Intervention." In Vaughn et al. article, a study in which they provided professional development to content area teachers, with the goal of…

This special issue, Developing Social- Emotional and Behavioral Interventions with School Communities: Systematic and Collaborative Processes, reflects the current state of the science for improving schools to better educate children and adolescents and promote their behavioral health. The innovations described in this volume describe advancements…

It is difficult to deny that many U.S. middle and high school students are in need of special literacy supports. Several indicators of declining literacy achievement have shifted national attention toward struggling and striving adolescent readers. More than ever, secondary schools are under enormous pressure to find ways of improving performance…

Alvermann introduces us to a new metaphor for thinking about the ways in which teachers might intervene in their students' reading lives: re/mediation. Ultimately, it involves fixing the conditions in which students learn rather than attempting to fix the students per se (remediation).

This document presents a personal statement concerning the recommendations in "Turning Points," a 1989 publication of the Carnegie Corporation's Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents. This document suggests how the reformulation of middle grade schools along the lines recommended in "Turning Points" can improve the life chances of young…

Comments on the nature of the reading enterprise for middle school students with reading-related learning disabilities as perceived by a cohort of sixth-grade students with reading disabilities. Reflects upon intervention programs in place for struggling middles school readers. Considers how to teach young adolescents with reading disabilities.…

Stories can have powerful effects on others. An autobiographical account of a behavior specialist's supposed descent into a severe emotional disturbance (SED) is presented here. Written as a narrative, the story opens with a description of what it is like to think differently from everyone else. It is conjectured that either the years spent by the…

Discusses need for precollegiate intervention programs to attract minority female students to fields of science and mathematics. Considers benefits for colleges that sponsor such programs. Describes types and components of intervention programs for minority females at middle school level. (NB)

Conducted to evaluate the efficacy of teen counselors in school drug prevention programs, this study utilizes the following as evaluation criterion: (1) interviews with school faculty and teen counselors; (2) observations of teen counselor meetings and sessions with middle school students; and (3) documentation such as teen counselor training and…

This monograph explores current trends in the literature on school reform, dropouts, effective schools, and successful practices in the middle grades in order to create a framework for thinking about dropout prevention at the intermediate level. Literature reviewed in Chapter 1 suggests that the dynamics of dropping out involve the relation…