As the first principal of a new Title 1 school in Texas, Deborah Brennan faced the challenge of where to begin improving instruction when a school's population bears no resemblance to the traditional Response to Intervention pyramid (in which 75-85 percent of students flourish with Tier 1 instruction). In contrast, nearly 300 of the 850 students…

Early adolescence is a time of great turmoil as well as tremendous social, emotional, and cognitive growth. Young people at this age are becoming more aware of social status and of their position in the social hierarchy; at the same time, they are usually moving into larger school environments where they are exposed to more variation among their…