Exemplary Middle Grades Research: Evidence-Based Studies Linking Theory to Practice features research published throughout 2009 in MGRJ that has been identified by the Information Age Publishing's review board as the most useful in terms of assisting educators with making practical applications from evidence-based studies to classroom and school settings. The editorial team is pleased to present these studies under one cover, trusting each will contribute to the existing body of knowledge on middle grades education in ways that will enable readers to develop theories more fully and apply findings and implications to a variety of settings. Studies are presented in chronological order as they appeared in each of the four issues published during the fourth volume year (2009). The first three issues 4(1), 4(2), and 4(3) were special themes wherein guest editors provided the oversight for selection and substantive editorial revisions. Any guest editors' introductory comments regarding previously published manuscripts appear in italics, followed by the editor-in-chief's comments. Contents of this book are: (1) Preface (David L. Hough); (2) Acknowledgment; (3) Using "ESOL Rounds" to Prepare Middle-Level Candidates for Work With English Language Learners (David C. Virtue); (4) Marginalization or Collaboration: First Year ESL Teachers and the Middle School Context (Courtney George); (5) The Impact of a Professional Development Program to Improve Urban Middle-Level English Language Learner Achievement (Jennifer Friend, Ryan Most, and Kenneth McCrary); (6) Quantitative Reporting Practices in Middle-Grades Research Journals: Lessons to Learn (Robert M. Capraro and Mary Margaret Capraro); (7) t-Test: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, and the Remedy (Guili Zhang); (8) Effective Alternative Urban Middle Schools: Findings From Research on Nativity Miguel Schools (L. Mickey Fenzel); (9) Reaching the Hard to Reach: A Comparison of Two Reading Interventions with Incarcerated Youth (Cynthia Calderone, Susan Bennett, Susan Homan, Robert F. Dedrick, and Anne Chatfield); (10) Findings From the First and Only National Database on Elemiddle & Middle Schools (Executive Summary) (David L. Hough); (11) Impact of Environment-Based Teaching on Student Achievement: A Study of Washington State Middle Schools (Oksana Bartosh, Margaret Tudor, Lynne Ferguson, and Catherine Taylor); (12) Hope and Achievement Goals as Predictors of Student Behavior and Achievement in a Rural Middle School (Christopher O. Walker, Tina D. Winn, Blakely N. Adams, Misty R. Shepard, Kayce Godwin, and Chelsea Huddleston). Also includes a section about the editor and contributors.