This article reports on a recent study by the Rand Corporation that concluded that there is cause for middle schools to worry. Commissioned by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, one of four major philanthropies supporting the middle school movement, the Rand investigation is clear in its assessment: The American middle school leaves adolescents feeling unsafe, socially isolated, and academically unchallenged. The investigation's results are so preponderantly negative that the Rand Report recommends that parents consider alternatives to the middle school, which it brands an educational "Bermuda Triangle." (Contains 4 endnotes.)