Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to enable community members to discuss their perceptions of eating habits and physical activity in relation to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders, and reveal facilitators and barriers to healthy eating behavior and physical activity engagement. Design/methodology/approach: Nine focus groups, which included six…

This study examined the ability of Transformative Professional Development (TPD) to transform science teacher quality and associated impact on science achievement, including particular focus on English Language Learners (ELL). TPD was implemented in a large, low-performing, urban district in the southwest with predominantly Latino ELL populations.…

In this paper, the authors discuss a portion of the design research process of developing an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) for classroom use. The goal of this ITS is to simultaneously provide automated support for student learning and generate diagnostic information for teachers that can lead directly to actionable recommendations for pedagogy…

Entering middle school can cause apprehension for young adolescents who face many cognitive, physical, social, and emotional changes. A quantitative, descriptive study was designed to identify and explain the concerns of rising sixth graders (n = 225) regarding their transition to the middle grades. Survey data were analyzed with regard to gender,…

After serving as a high school math teacher in Maryland for three years, the author moved to teaching sixth-grade math. His high school background led him to differentiate differently than his colleagues. The article discusses his observations and his conclusions and offers a plan to implement changes in the way mathematics is taught through…

This study examined the effects of a research-based intervention, schema-based instruction (SBI), implemented by experienced- (taught SBI in previous study; Jitendra et al., 2015) and novice-teacher implementers (taught SBI for the first time with professional development) on the mathematics outcomes of seventh-grade students. SBI is a…

Efforts to integrate mathematics and science have been widely recognized by mathematics and science educators. However, successful integration of these two important school disciplines remains a challenge. In this article, a mathematics and science activity extends the use of Venn diagrams to a life science context and then circles back to a…

Teachers promote student learning and well-being in school by establishing a supportive classroom structure. The term "classroom structure" refers to how teachers design tasks, maintain authority, and evaluate student achievement. Although empirical studies have shown the relation of classroom structure to student motivation, achievement, and…

Writing allows students to clarify their thinking. Through the process of writing, students recognize what they know and what they still need to learn. This article describes how a middle school mathematics teacher and language arts teacher worked with a secondary content area literacy professor during a specific writing assignment. The "How-to"…

Middle-school students are expected to understand key components of graphs, such as slope and y-intercept. However, constructing graphs is a skill that has received relatively little research attention. This study examined students' construction of graphs of linear functions, focusing specifically on the relative difficulties of graphing slope and…

Self-report data from 2,088 sixth-grade students in 11 middle schools in North Carolina were combined with administrative data on their eighth-grade end-of-the-year achievement scores in math and reading to examine the influence of students' perceived parental school behavior expectations on their academic performance. Through use of multilevel…

This article describes the process, tools, and benefits of engaging highly gifted middle-school age students in producing historical documentaries. Dallas Price, a sixth-grade teacher in a self-contained public school program for highly gifted students, highlights the project components that help students develop twenty-first-century skills within…

Using peer nominations of physical aggression and perceived popularity in the spring semester of fifth grade, we identified 54 popular aggressive and 42 nonpopular aggressive preadolescents in a diverse sample of 318 participants recruited from an urban school district. Physical aggression in the spring semester of sixth grade was included to…

"A Framework for K-12 Science Education" (NRC 2012) recommends that science teachers provide experiences for students to see "how science and engineering pertain to real-world problems and to explore opportunities to apply their scientific knowledge to engineering design problems once this linkage is made" (NRC 2012, p. 32). To…

In 2008, the California State Board of Education voted to require all students to enroll in algebra by 8th grade. This policy initiative, yet to be actually implemented, represents the culmination of a decades-long movement toward offering algebra instruction before the traditional high school years. Nationally, the proportion of 8th grade…