A half-century or more of experience with the traditional junior high school has led many educators to conclude that it is failing to answer the needs of preadolescent and early adolescent children (transescents). The middle school approach can provide the best kind of educational program for children undergoing rapid physical, mental, emotional,…

Experience of the Liverpool Middle School, Liverpool, New York, provides a rationale for organizing school systems to include ungraded middle schools. If, as evidence indicates, today's youth are maturing earlier, are more sophisticated, and are capable of greater accomplishment, then the traditional grade 7-8-9 arrangement does not meet the needs…