Few things strike fear in the hearts of parents like sending their child off to middle school. Parents of gifted learners fear for their child's safety--both emotional and physical--and their academic well-being. Having survived this transition, it occurred to the author that this experience would make an interesting research project and, ultimately, help other parents. The author's goal was to identify commonalities among middle schools that exhibited strong student growth. By comparing four years of middle school "student growth data," available through public state records, the author was able to locate schools demonstrating the highest student growth and then interview administrators and teachers from selected schools with the hopes of identifying common characteristics. The study included a broad mix of school types and populations: charter and traditional public schools; poverty, underrepresented, and middle-to-upper middle-income populations; and urban and suburban schools, from various geographic regions within the state. The author found the following four common characteristics, which are presented in this article, that produce student high-growth results: (1) Programming; (2) Leadership; (3) School culture; and (4) School size.