Ask a room full of sixth and seventh graders at Fossil Ridge Intermediate School in St. George, UT, to name their favorite part of the day and the answer is, in unison, always the same: REAL (respect, explore, achieve, lead) Time. This 35-minute block embedded into the school's schedule three days each week provides immediate, specific…

Analyzes data from recent studies on effective middle school principals. Formal education and professional associations are not related to principal effectiveness. Tenure, positive outlook, and ability to work with people are related to principals' effectiveness. These findings are similar to findings on effective elementary and senior high…

Describes a Prescriptive Discipline Plan developed by teachers at a Florida middle school. The plan featured three offense categories: minor infractions handled by teachers, intermediate offenses (cheating, disrespect, and insubordination) handled by administrators, and serious offenses (fighting, assault, sexual misconduct) invoking automatic…

Responding to the needs of estranged youth, a group of Benjamin Tasker Middle School teachers created the Thoughtful Pedagogy Model. The program allows adolescents to reconstruct images of the adult world through self-exploration; participate in field trips, assembly programs, and adult/adolescent bonding activities; and experience the love and…

Just as director sets stage and oversees theater production, middle-level administrator plays behind scenes, ensuring that school's message is clearly developed and focused on adolescents' needs. Actors must understand and integrate message into their roles and transmit it properly to audience/students. Article honors four outstanding…

HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) is a creative program (combining the use of computers, drama, Socratic dialog, and a detailed curriculum) to build thinking skills of educationally disadvantaged students in grades four through seven. HOTS learning activities help students realize what thinking and persevering can accomplish. Principals can help…

Describes a principal-initiated advisory program at a Toronto middle school. Summarizes successful program elements, including a 6-month planning period; a staff-supported inservice program offering training in team-building and adolescent development; daily advisory group meetings, with maximum group size of 15 students, who retain the same…

With a $30,000 Carnegie Foundation grant, a Baltimore middle school launched a school-improvement team comprised of teacher representatives and "house" principals from "schools-within-schools," parents, community members, and the principal. After 4 years of tackling test scores, attendance, curriculum, scheduling, and parental…

A high school principal explains her strategy for turning around a disorderly, gang-ridden middle school. Her discipline plan's success hinged on developing schoolwide expectations for behavior, developing positive consequences, compiling a list of unacceptable behaviors, and empowering teachers to administer consequences, including contacting…

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…

At Frederick Douglass Academy, middle school of choice in central Harlem, principal Lorraine Monroe is creating public school that exudes private school values--hard work, discipline, college preparation. Drawing 75% of its student body from central Harlem, school will evolve into a secondary school and graduate its first class in 1997. The…

Appalled at a half-dozen fifth-graders' exclusionary and unsportsmanlike behavior on a new basketball court, a resourceful principal intervened next recess to pick teams and set rules. Everyone was allowed to play. Arguing, teasing, and intimidation resulted in benching. Eventually, about 40 children of both sexes and all sizes were playing in two…

To learn the extent to which a revised elementary science program for grades 3 to 6 had been implemented in the 81 elementary schools of the Jefferson County (Colorado) School District, program developers adopted an assessment system based on the innovation configurations concept. The evolution of this system into an ongoing program for…

Principals can help at-risk students in the middle school by identifying them early; scheduling them with counselors and teachers who can meet their needs; keeping in close contact with teachers about student grades; and offering opportunities for academic success. Finally, the entire staff must support the philosophy that failure is not an…

Discusses African American othermothering in the role of providing the psychoeducational needs of the urban child. Presents two biographical portraits that examine othermothering by a elementary-school principal and community othermothering by a fifth-grade elementary-school teacher with 25 years of experience in the urban classroom. (GR)