Middle Grades Education Emerging from the Shadows: Spotlight on Curriculum and Instruction

P. Gayle Andrews

Although the middle school movement represents “an educational success story unparalleled in our history” (Lounsbury, 1997, p. xi), advocates for the middle school concept or philosophy have faced many challenges in sharing that story. Historically, education for young adolescents (ages 10–15) has occupied a shadow-land dominated by misunderstanding and persistently negative imagery of both youth and middle grades educators. Schooling for students in grades 5–9 is too often underserved and under-resourced while resources flow to the “bookends” of education P–16: high school/college on one end and early learning on the other (Andrews, 2010).

Designed to help pull the field out of the shadows and described as the most comprehensive, research-based treatment of middle grades education and young adolescents ever published,Research to Guide Practice in Middle Grades Education (Andrews, 2013) serves as a substantial, straightforward, and user-friendly resource for multiple audiences. Those audiences range from teachers and administrators to counselors, parents and families, community leaders, policymakers, and researchers from the many and various disciplines that intersect with the lives of young adolescents and middle grades schools.

At 831 pages,Research to Guide Practice contains 31 engaging and informative chapters on a wide-ranging set of topics. More than 40 contributing authors combined in-depth examination of the research literature with clear-eyed perspectives on the reality of classrooms, schools, and communities, perspectives that firmly ground their recommendations for practice. In an effort to make the vital and valuable materials inResearch to Guide Practice available for as many educators and other readers as possible, the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) is publishing four volumes, each of which will include selected chapters fromResearch to Guide Practice.

This first volume in the series,Curriculum and Instruction: Selections from Research to Guide Practice in Middle Grades Education is comprised of the following chapters largely drawn from the original book’s section on academic excellence:

• “Charting the Course of Curriculum Integration” by Mark Springer
• “Differentiating Instruction as a Response to Academic Diversity” by Carol Ann Tomlinson
• “Service-Learning: Connecting Curriculum to Community” by Katherine F. Thompson
• “Technology in the Middle Grades Classroom” by Penny A. Bishop and John M. Downes
• “Adolescent Literacies” by Donna Alvermann and David Moore
• “Advancing Middle Grades Reform: Lessons Learned” by Gayle Andrews

The chapters fromResearch to Guide Practice build on a tradition in middle grades education of synthesizing the best from the research literature in accessible and practical language. In keeping with that tradition, Volume 1 on curriculum and instruction will be a ready source of ideas to support improving young adolescents’ experiences in and out of school.

Chapter authors were asked to consider the following guidelines:

• Synthesize and critically examine the existing literature related to