One middle school's implementation of corrective reading was evaluated for student reading outcomes and treatment fidelity. Findings indicated that sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students made progress in decoding and oral reading fluency over the school year; however, students did not demonstrate greater gains during the semester enrolled in…

In this qualitative study, the authors examine the advisory program of a Horizon Schools to Watch middle grades school. Horizon Schools to Watch is the Illinois affiliate of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle School Reform national Schools to Watch (STW) program, meaning schools with the STW designation have made significant inroads in…

This article examines what can happen when teachers and students work to create a critical dialogic space, taking up issues of race, culture, and privilege in classroom discussions. The study focuses on middle school students of culturally and economically diverse backgrounds as well as their 2 White teachers. In English and social studies…

This qualitative case study analyzed how one interdisciplinary team within a large middle school fostered a responsive adolescent-centered community for eighth-grade team students. Data were collected during the spring semester of the 2009 school year via observations, individual interviews, and focus group interviews with nine participants,…

The development and implementation of a comprehensive and systemic career development program, The Career Institute, provided the mechanism through which one school community addressed students' career development and college readiness needs while also attending to their academic and personal-social development. The Career Institute consisted of a…

Given the dearth of research on elementary education majors' experiences in middle level endorsement programs (Anderson, 2009), and the shortage of teachers aspiring to work with young adolescents, this case study examined the topic to provide insight into the experiences of preservice elementary education teachers. Specifically, this study…

Adolescent learning is a complex process, distinctive from learning prior to and after this stage because of the connection between learning and the physical, intellectual, emotional, and social development of students in this age group. Indeed, questions about middle school learning examine both "what" and "how" they learn (Gross, 2002). This…

Although curriculum integration has a long history of myriad models, rarely have those stakeholders most connected to the practice--the students--been consulted about the efficacy of the approach. This study applied a longitudinal, intrinsic case study approach (Stake, 2000) to examine middle school students' perceptions of learning and engagement…

The author reports on the formation of a performing arts-focused curriculum integration project, in which key components of curriculum integration were employed within a project-focus involving the performing arts of music, theater, and dance. The project occurred within a curricular community partnership between a public school and nearby…

This article reports the results of interview research examining writing instruction and assessment practices in 216 Grades 4-8 classrooms across the 10 Canadian provinces and 2 (of 3) territories. Researchers found that participating teachers scheduled daily time for writing, either in language arts classes or through integrating writing…

This research explored the experiences of students in a school district that limited early access to the study of algebra and to inform education policymakers of the impact of such tracking policies on the lives and futures of the students. Quantitative analysis had already yielded a snapshot of inequities deriving from the policies surrounding…

Commonality analysis is a method of partitioning variance to determine the predictive ability unique to each predictor (or predictor set) and common to two or more of the predictors (or predictor sets). The purposes of the present paper are to (a) explain commonality analysis in a multiple regression context as an alternative for middle grades…

This mixed-methodological study examined changes in perceptions of teachers (n = 70) engaged in a two-year professional development program designed to meet the unique needs of English Language Learners (ELL), and changes in ELL students' (n = 235) math and reading achievement scores. The study was conducted in two urban middle schools in Kansas…

This paper reports on a project which investigates the impact of systemic environmental education (EE) programs on student achievement on EE-based integrated tests and standardized tests in math, language arts, and listening. Systemic environmental education programs are defined by curriculum designed to align and integrate subjects around real…

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), path analytic procedures were performed to test a model of the effects of parent and peer encouragement to take algebra on the mathematics achievement of eighth grade students. The effects of socio-economic status (SES) on middle school algebra course-taking and…