With eighth-grader in White House, America is in for four years of voyeuristically observed adolescence. As Chelsea Clinton and millions of other 12 year olds know, junior high is where real psychological action is. Middle school is cruel, self-conscious culture, replete with rumors, complicated dress codes, and popularity-driven status hierarchy.…

Humor is a critical ingredient for personal and organizational success, as it stimulates creativity, encourages relaxation, enhances attention levels, builds positive attitudes and team spirit, and establishes interpersonal rapport. A Virginia middle school devised a number of fun-filled activities to enliven faculty meetings, awards…

A 1991 Florida survey of teachers and students identified five crucial characteristics of effective teacher advisors, including ability to care about students and relate to advisees' individuality, availability, and possession of a positive attitude and a unique advising style. The main qualification is enjoyment of children. (MLH)

Volunteer staff members at a Missouri junior high school met one on one with 25 students selected because of poor academic performance and poor attendance records. Meetings were held at least once per week to discuss personal and school-related happenings. By the end of a year grades improved and absences decreased. (MLF)

Development of positive self-concept is critical at the middle level, a time when students are gaining basic skills and knowledge, establishing patterns of interacting with people and ideas, and setting personal life goals. A survey of students at a North Dakota middle school found that girls' self-concept was much lower than boys'.…

Using Total Quality Education principles, a Colorado middle school formed an action team to research discipline situation and develop a new system. Consequences for infractions now range from Saturday school to visiting local prisons and performing community service (to replace suspension). Program success is based on consistency, learning…

Connecting students to reading and writing means connecting them to real-world readers and writers. Writers' Day at one Pennsylvania middle school was established to bring regular working professionals (not authors or poets) from the community to school to share how writing is used in their professional and personal lives. All participants…

School administrators must determine that change objectives are met and positively influence students, teachers, staff, and community. Principals who include entire staff in all change phases will increase teacher confidence and trust. Encouraging parents to be involved in committee work will give them the same feelings of ownership that teachers…

Administrators who focus on school-community relations for an uninterrupted time daily or several times each week will strongly affect community relations, parental involvement, and, ultimately, student achievement. (MLF)

A collaboration between Queens College (New York) and an urban middle school places graduate students at the school site for three full days each week. Prospective teachers spend time with a variety of teachers and a variety of situations and gradually move toward total responsibility. (MLF)

A recent action research experiment comparing individualistic and cooperative learning results in two seventh grade classrooms found that retention scores slightly favored the cooperative learning method. Questions arose concerning grade-sharing, relative difficulty of subject matter and multiple-choice questions, and student attitudes about the…

The Spokane (Washington) Public School District behavior-impaired program is dedicated to providing a safe, nurturing learning environment where defined boundaries, clear expectations, and consistency foster mutual respect, social appropriateness, and trust. The program's success requires faculty and administrator support of mainstreaming…

Because of changes in the family and other institutions, schools must fill the void created by students' lack of affective development before genuine learning can occur. This article provides guidelines for developing and implementing an advisory program for middle school students that successfully combines the elementary school's child-centered…

In a recent survey, 70 effective middle-level administrators describe what qualities make them and their schools successful. Many mentioned superior teaching staff, liking for students, supportive parents, high expectations and commitment, delegation of leadership responsibility, focus on change, personal characteristics, professional activities,…

To tap the resources, knowledge, and expertise of parents, a West Virginia middle school initiated a parent-involvement program in fall 1992. The parents created their own program, the Red Apple Corps, which planned and promoted a back-to-school day, a birthday bulletin board, a tutoring program, a school pride award, and the school newspaper.…