Although complex organizations pursue more than one goal, one goal can be considered paramount. Adopted as a result of administrative disenchantment with the cultural rigidities of the 6-year high school organization, the middle school was established as a special unit for the education of early adolescents in a protective psychological environment which neither the elementary school nor the high school could provide. This differentiated function of the middle school was quickly endorsed by the education profession. The paramount goal of the middle school today is the psychosocial and cognitive development of the adolescent. The primacy of the psychosocial component is the most difficult challenge for middle school administration, requiring the principal to have a sharp conceptual perspective of the middle school's unique function and to make sure that a functional balance of instrumental and expressive values is attained in the school environment. (HW)