Adolescents share the basic needs for food, shelter, physical safety, access to health care, and transportation to essential services. Although mindful of survival issues, educators and community agencies must cooperate to design and implement programs to meet early adolescents' developmental needs for positive social interaction, structure and…

In 1986, Lilly Endowment launched Middle Grades Improvement Program as a major initiative to meet young adolescents' needs. This article describes development of the MGIP's "building public support" component. A survey of Indiana schools involved with this component showed that most districts developed new programs involving schools,…

The thinking-out-loud procedure provides teachers with an excellent mechanism for collecting information about students' thought processes and affective states during problem solving. Mathematics teachers can implement this process by modeling it during whole-class problem-solving sessions, proceeding slowly and encouragingly, working with small…

Examines recent research on cultural and gender differences among early adolescents, focusing on friendship patterns, identity development, social expectations, self-esteem, learning styles, health concerns, achievement aspirations, and sex role attitudes and behaviors. Young adolescents benefit when middle-level educators provide opportunities…

An effective middle level adviser/advisee program requires that students and teachers work together outside their normal content-specific relationship. Teaching study skills allows teachers to blend their traditional role with the novel adviser role. Tips are provided concerning study skill components, including text reading, note taking, mapping,…

Through a layered analysis that reinterprets previous research experience with middle-schoolers, considers how being positioned researchers changes the interpretations or texts inscribed on their research interactions. Researchers create texts that unintentionally conceal the direction and nature of their "invasiveness." Conundrums abound in…

From a group of 107 Australian sixth graders, a treatment group completed 10 weeks of career education activities. They had better understanding of occupational information sources, more interest in career information, and better perception of the relationship of school to potential jobs than did the control group. Many had gender stereotypical…

Good inservices result from effective communication among administrators, educators, and presenters. Common problems (beyond speakers' control) include ill-defined topics, unexpected audience members, audience size and deportment, unavailable equipment, overly ambitious goals, and lack of continuity. Effective inservices often use conference-style…

A transition plan offers students and parents an opportunity to become familiar with middle school's expectations, routines, curricula, classmates, and buildings before the new school year. The journey can be facilitated by surveying students about areas of concern, providing student mentors, and staging information day and transition day…

Exploration of collaboration preferences of six mathematically gifted children (ages 11-12) in solving complex, novel problems found collaboration was preferred only when the task was sufficiently challenging. When collaboration was encouraged there was the development of mutual scaffolding, shared cognition, critical thinking, and discernment and…

Discusses research the author undertook with a class of fifth graders, in which they read and discussed popular series books. Shares examples of their talk about the topic and what that talk reveals about the potential of the classroom as a space to reveal, complicate, and challenge gendered assumptions about what is desirable or appropriate…

In 1996 the National Science Foundation undertook a review of comprehensive curriculum projects in middle school science. The purpose of this document is to highlight the framework for the review developed to examine the middle school materials and the results of the panel's findings. Findings indicate that 13 of the 19 projects examined had panel…

The in-school suspension program (ISS) for grades 6-12 in Thomas County, Georgia, is described in this report. The program retains students in school, offers individual help, and provides the opportunity to stay on task. During the suspension period, students are placed in individualized carrels in the suspension center and must complete…

The Computer Bus Program (Compubus Program) of the Modesto City Schools (California) was evaluated to determine the effectiveness of the computer literacy program for fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students at eight elementary compensatory education schools. The program provided instruction on computer vocabulary, knowledge, and applications in a…

In 1979, the Saginaw (MI) Township Community Schools contracted with the Evaluation Research Center of the University of Virginia to evaluate its Middle School Enrichment Center for gifted and talented students in grades 5-8. This meta evaluation assesses the extent to which that evaluation was technically adequate in revealing the merit of the…