There are racial/ethnic disparities associated with school punishment practices and academic progress. In addition, research suggests that urban schools have stricter school punishment practices and higher grade retention rates. What remains unknown, however, is the relationship between race/ethnicity, school punishment practices, and retention…

Background: This study examined students' perceptions of autonomy-supportive teaching (AST) and its relations to internalization of pro-social values and bullying in class. Aims: We hypothesized that: (1) teachers' AST, which involves provision of rationale and taking the student's perspective, would relate positively to students' identified…

The following is an abridged version of the author's original Master's thesis written in 2008 for LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York. This qualitative, structural, comparison determined if twelve Character Education studies of Brigham Young University, specifically the Positive Behavioral Support Initiative, assessed the same literacy program…

A classroom teacher reflects on the benefits of professional development leading to improved and energized student writing. Although traditional professional development sparked interest and encouraged modifications, the support of a teacher inquiry group as ongoing professional development provided the impact needed to effect significant change…

There are those in the school community who believe that the anxious feelings and heightened sense of anxiety experienced by sixth graders as they transition from elementary to junior high school constitute a rite of passage. Teachers and school administrators in the Indiana Area Junior High School in Pennsylvania believed differently. During the…

Describes how the author discovered practical, accessible ways of talking with her seventh and eighth graders about the considerations and decisions of fiction writers. Appends a fiction writing handbook. (SR)

Discusses the Math Options Career Day that educates seventh-grade girls about careers in mathematics, science, engineering, and technology. (31 references). (MKR)

Describes methods of teaching summarizing skills to seventh graders. Notes that the English teachers at the middle school were quite surprised that their students did not know how to summarize effectively. (RS)

A 1988 Johns Hopkins University survey of 1,753 principals from public schools serving seventh graders describes middle grade education in the United States. The 5 articles in this special section are intended to encourage discussion about ways to improve middle level educational practices and disclose new research directions. (MLH)

Follows the progress of seventh-grade students as they plan, compose, revise, and edit a group novel. States that, using computers, students worked in peer groups developing chapters independently; then they shared work and applied revision practices developing from their views of emerging text. Shows how the project gave the group a sense of…

Examined test anxiety in 222 seventh and 188 eighth graders before taking the Metropolitan Achievement Test. Results showed race and test anxiety were significantly related to test performance in all five academic subjects, but there were no significant interactions between race and test anxiety, or sex and test anxiety. (Author/ABL)

Investigated relationship between anxiety and self-esteem of a group of middle school children, many of whom were Black. Findings from 53 sixth and seventh graders support hypothesis that there would be significant inverse relationship between measures of anxiety (state and trait) and measures of self-esteem of preadolescent students. (NB)

Surveyed seventh grade students and teachers from 23 schools to determine association between teacher attitudes, behavioral intentions, and smoking behavior and prevalence of student smoking. Teacher attitudes toward smoking policies were strongly related to current smoking behavior of teacher but not consistently related to student smoking.…

A seventh grade student in Nebraska asked for information about becoming a teacher in middle schools. The letter was forwarded to present and former members of the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Council on Middle Level Education. Ten responses provide a broad look at the complex question, "What makes a successful teacher at…

Presents examples of students' work to illustrate the typical approaches used at sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade levels and four common threads that are consistent with student development as observed in a Connected Mathematics Project class. (ASK)