Young adolescents undergo rapid physical, cognitive, social, emotional, and sexual development, including puberty, sexual awareness, gender identity, physiological brain and cognitive growth, complex emotions, and impulse control. Tragically, thousands of adolescents die daily from mostly preventable causes such as violence, sexual health problems…

Early adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development, and an array of contextual factors, such as systemic racism, exert significant influence. Universal behavioral health screening data of 4,234 middle school students were examined to explore the influence of demographic (e.g. ethnicity, race) and contextual…

The Rhythmic Arts Project (TRAP) curriculum integrates visual, tactile, auditory and speech experiences through rhythmic drumming actions to address life skills. We evaluated life skills before and after participation in TRAP in a school-based setting in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Participants were 23 children in grades 6-12 in…

What is active learning and what does it look like in the classroom? If students are participating in active learning, they are playing a more engaged role in the learning process and are not overly reliant on the teacher (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2003; Petress, 2008). The purpose of this article is to propose a framework to describe and…

Lawrence Kohlberg, a psychologist, coined the term "Just Community" to describe a community built on trust and resolution, in which each member participates democratically in the development of the rules and regulations that govern their community life (Kohlberg, 1985). In a school, this means that students and teachers alike actively participate…