Finds sustained benefits to teachers two years after a summer hands-on science workshop for middle grades teachers. Discusses key elements responsible for the workshop's sustained success. (SR)

Investigates the intentions for and judgments about student artwork from the different perspectives of middle school students and their teachers through teacher-student conversations. Reveals acts of resistance and negotiation as students' ideas, preferences, judgments, and meanings interface with the instructional goals and aesthetic views of the…

Considers how to "unfix" certainties about students' potential and their performances in class; uses three middle school students dealing with language arts as case studies. Describes how learning occurred over the school year. Includes responses that offer a record of success and comments on fighting "fixity" in teacher education. (PA)

Parents, relatives, and teachers assessed cognitive and social competence among rural African American youth (N=91) to determine the extent to which adults' ratings of cognitive and social competence converge. Data supported predictions that ratings of cognitive competence would be more similar across raters than ratings of social competence.…

Discusses online student-teacher interactions and notes how these encounters forced educators to think about the use of computer-mediated technologies. Reflects on both overly optimistic stances toward technology and stances that position the students as aliens and cyborgs. Examines the dynamic relationship that emerges as technologies, students,…

Describes the author's first year of teaching (1972). Discusses six lessons she learned, including how: (1) collaboration and choice build ownership and enthusiasm; (2) excitement and passion are vital supports for learning; (3) reading and writing for audiences beyond the classroom are powerful motivators; and (4) openness to new ways of viewing…

Respondents to a questionnaire about the elementary-middle and middle-high school transition experience respectively were 173 sixth grade students, 83 parents, and 12 teachers, and 320 ninth grade students, 61 parents and 17 teachers. Results revealed that school transitions posed both challenges and opportunities for students. Parents and…

We examined writing instruction in the middle school context from the perspectives of special and general education teachers via focus groups and rating scales. We found that special and general educators alike valued a balanced approach to teaching writing, that both groups held a positive view of their teaching efficacy, and that both groups…

This article reports on a survey of administrators, counselors, and teachers from middle schools involved in the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program. This survey was part of a multisite evaluation that also elicited the responses of students, parents, and officers teaching the G.R.E.A.T. program.…

Much has been written over the last two decades on the difficulties that many Latino students continue to face in U.S. public schools. In this article, the authors look at some of the most pressing of these problems in a particular middle-school in a Rocky Mountain state (which the authors called "Madison Middle School"). The authors examine these…

The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), created by the Texas Legislature in 2003, called for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish a pilot project to "immerse" schools in technology by providing a wireless mobile computing device for each teacher and student, technology-based learning resources, training for teachers to integrate…

Austin Independent School District served more than 13,000 students in summer programs during 2009, providing opportunities for accelerated learning, maintenance of academic skills between school years, course credit recovery, state achievement tests, or school-level transition activities. This report summarizes this information.

The purpose of this study was to explore science teacher decision-making with students of diverse populations. The research site was a suburban middle school located in the southeast. The student body consisted of African Americans, Caucasians, and international students from 62 different countries. Extensive social contextual research was…

This study investigated the influence of a mentor-supported model of technology training on mathematics teachers' attitudes and use of technology in the classroom. The treatment included six training sessions, informal focus groups, and mentor-provided support. The results indicated that mathematics teachers participating in mentor-supported…