International comparisons suggest that middle school American students compare poorly to their international peers in tasks that require spatial skills. This deficiency in spatial skills is more prominent in females and has been linked to a lack of developmental activities influenced by gender norms. These deficiencies are especially concerning as…

The authors aim to present a case study of a three-year professional development program for school leaders with a specific focus on cultivating curriculum leadership. This program is funded by the Ministry of Education Taiwan and its goal is to empower school leaders' curriculum leadership under the second wave of curriculum reform in Taiwan.…

This study highlights how principal leadership of goal-directed practices impacts outcomes. Over 2 years, three academics partnered with three principals and a small "project team" comprising one or more teachers, and one or more middle or senior leaders. In this report, the authors reflect on some of the key changes that occurred from…

Incorporating bike skills into the elementary- and middle-school physical education curriculum encourages students to be physically active in a fun way while also learning bike safety skills. Winston-Salem's (NC) Safe Routes to School program demonstrates how collaboration with the public schools' health and physical education program can…

This paper proposes that project-based active learning is a key part of engineering education at the middle school level. One project from a comprehensive middle school engineering curriculum developed by the authors is described to show how active learning and state frameworks can coexist. The theoretical basis for learning and assessment in a…

Tennessee began its movement toward Middle Level Licensure during the 2002-2003 school year. Only 14 years later, in 2016, Middle Level Licensure in Tennessee will change. In this article, the background and experiences of seven middle level education teacher candidates at the University of Memphis who were the first candidates to complete the…

Teaching institutions with middle grades-specific teacher preparation programs remain a cornerstone for improving the condition of the nation's middle schools. Yet such programs scarcely exist as the heartbeat of excellence for middle grades schools or for preservice teachers seeking middle grades licensure (Jackson & Davis, 2000). Moreover,…

Communicative self-efficacy serves as an important link between discussing controversial issues and civic engagement because confidence in one's discourse skills is important to managing conflicting perspectives and developing solutions to community-based problems. Freely available to schools, "Word Generation" is a cross-content…

The Algebra Project DR K-12, funded by the National Science Foundation as a Research and Development Project, addressed the challenge of offering significant STEM content for students to ensure public literacy and workforce readiness. The project's primary purpose was to test the feasibility and effectiveness of a model for establishing four-year…

This manuscript reports a study that was made of procedures in curriculum building. The author discovered that there were three general types of curriculum revision aside from revision in a very few independent schools. These types were a city-wide type, a county-wide type, and a state-wide type. The first was found in a great many of our cities…

More than three million children in the United States participate in some type of after school program (National Study, 1993) offering wide-ranging benefits to children, their families and the community (Pederson, et al, 1998). After school programs of many descriptions provide responsible adult supervision for youth, constructive activities and…