Taking Center Stage – Act II (TCSII)

A Portal for Middle Grades Educators

Developmentally Responsive Middle Grades Practices

Quality middle grades programs respond to the needs of adolescents. A synthesis of research from This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents and Turning Points 2000 indicates that a middle school will respond to adolescent developmental needs in the following ways:

• Allow students to move around the classroom as long as they do not disrupt learning.
• Provide access to food and water during the day.
• Recognize physical changes as normal.
• Provide a wide variety of learning experiences.
• Teach students how to accept self and others.
• Encourage abstract thought.
• Provide interesting, challenging curriculum.
• Give students practice in planning.
• Support and encourage new social awareness and physical changes.
• Build positive relationships between adults and students.1

As noted in the section on adolescent needs, fairness is important to middle grades students. For example, students notice if a school gives fair access to co-curricular activities such as field trips, team memberships, and awards. Conversely, students also notice when schools apply policies inconsistently. In those cases, students may perceive, if they do not have all of the facts about the case, that some individuals or groups have been unfairly targeted for negative consequences such as suspensions, detentions, or expulsions.

The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform developed criteria for high performance. The criteria are used as the basis for self-study by middle schools seeking to improve their practice and by all potential applicants and schools designated as Schools to Watch™. The National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform lists ten criteria for distinguishing a developmentally appropriate middle school. The School Self-Study and Rating Rubric is a tool designed by the Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage program to help schools analyze their progress toward excellence based on the National Forum’s criteria.

1. The staff creates a personalized environment that supports each student's intellectual, ethical, social, and physical development.
   • Adults and students are grouped into smaller communities (e.g., teams, houses, academies) for enhanced teaching and learning.
   • These small learning communities are characterized by stable, close, and mutually respectful relationships.
   • Every student has a mentor, adviser, advocate, or other trustworthy adult and stays in relationship with that adult throughout the middle school experience.
     
     
2. The school provides access to comprehensive services to foster healthy physical, social, emotional, and intellectual development.
   • Teachers are trained to recognize and handle student problems.
   • Students with difficulties, and their families, can get help.
   • The school houses a wide range of support—nurses, counselors, resource teachers—to help students and families who need special assistance.
   • The school staff members offer parent education activities involving families.
     
     
3. Teachers foster curiosity, creativity, and the development of social skills in a structured and supportive environment. All teachers:
   • Enhance standards-based learning by using a wide variety of instructional strategies and technology.
   • Incorporate well-developed procedures and routines for effective classroom management.
   • Facilitate learning by deliberately teaching study and organizational skills.
   • Integrate creative activities in the lessons (e.g., current technologies, visual and performing arts, etc.).
     
     
4. The curriculum is both socially significant and relevant to the personal and career interests of young adolescents.
   • Students talk about daily issues in their own lives, their community, and their world.
   • Students take action, make informed choices, work collaboratively, and learn to resolve conflicts.
     
     
5. Teachers use an interdisciplinary approach to reinforce important concepts and skills and address real-world problems. For example:
   • Students may read a historical novel for language arts and history and then study music from the same time period in music class.
   • Students can work on the same project in several different classes.
     
     
6. Students are provided multiple opportunities to explore a rich variety of topics and interests in order to develop their identity, learn about their strengths, discover and demonstrate their own competence, and plan for their future.
   • Teachers and counselors push students to challenge themselves and set high academic and career goals for their future.
     
     
7. All students have opportunities for expressing a voice—posing questions, reflecting on experiences, and participating in decisions and leadership activities. 
   • All students have a real say, or have legitimate representation, in what happens at school.
   • School staff members have an “open-door” policy to encourage student involvement and connection.
   • Students take an active role in school-family conferences.
   
   
8. The school staff members develop alliances with families to enhance and support the well-being of the children.
   • Parents are more than just volunteers or fund-raisers; they are meaningfully involved in all aspects of the school.
   • Parents are informed, included, and involved as partners and decision makers in their children’s education.
     
     
9. Staff members provide all students with opportunities to develop citizenship skills, to use the community as a classroom, and to engage the community in providing resources and support.
   • Students take on projects to improve their school, community, state, nation, and world.
     
     
10. The school provides age-appropriate, co-curricular activities to foster social skills and character and to develop interests beyond the classroom environment. 
    • Student co-curricular activities cover a wide range of interests—team sports, clubs, exploratory opportunities, service opportunities, and the visual and performing arts.
    • Activities include both boys and girls and students of all skill levels.

Related Links

• Adolescent needs, Recommendation 4— Relevance, TCSII.
• Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades (Outside Source) National Middle School Association.
• Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage, California Department of Education.
• Student perceptions about their competence, Recommendation 4— Relevance, TCSII.
  
  

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Personalized environment and opportunities for student voice

Footnote
1Fundamentals for Student Success in the Middle Grades (Outside Source). Alexandria, Va.: National Middle School Association, n.d.

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