Reforms to support and expand personalized learning increasingly are being introduced in middle schools across the United States. Personalization, as enacted in response to these reforms, encourages teachers to implement many practices that long have been recommended by advocates of middle grades philosophy. To better understand the practices of…

Reforms to support and increase personalized learning approaches are increasingly being introduced in middle schools around the country. Personalization as enacted in response to these reforms encourages teachers to implement many practices that have long been advocated for among middle grades reformers. However, middle grades teachers working…

Although the idea of responding to learners' individual needs is far from new in the middle grades movement, there have been renewed efforts in recent years for schools to tailor programs and practices to students' unique interests and needs through "personalized learning" (Bingham, Pane, Steiner, & Hamilton, 2016). To date, little…

Findings from research studies suggest that school leadership accounts for fully one quarter of total school effects on pupils, making it second only to classroom instruction among school-based factors affecting student achievement (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson & Wahlstrom, 2004). While a considerable body of research has analyzed effective…