Having developed a technology-based teaching unit on weather that appeared to work well for middle school students, Nancy Butler Songer and her colleagues at the University of Michigan decided in the late 1990s to take the next logical step in their research program: They scaled up. This article discusses lessons learned by several faculty…

Developed as a guide for school leaders faced with the task of restructuring a school, this guide is a comprehensive look at the notions of restructuring and reform. It provides a comprehensive definition of restructuring, three outstanding representative examples, and a systematic process for implementing and managing change. Written to provide…

Although there is controversy as to whether middle-level education should be more comparable to high school or to elementary school, this paper argues that the school within a school (SWAS) concept effectively makes large schools seem small so that they have more in common with a typical K-5 school than with a grade-10-through-12 high school. The…

Since 1991, a formerly rundown Baltimore middle school's reform efforts have been propelled by visionary administrative leadership; a collegial team of empowered teachers; a responsive, teacher-designed curriculum and instructional model; nongraded, schools-within-a school, interdisciplinary team-teaching; and productive school-business…