The current state of middle schooling : a review of the literature

![CDATA[Evidence from the literature suggests the presence of significant numbers of unhappy and underachieving students in the middle levels of education. Much of this unhappiness and underachievement appears to be directly related to the unresponsive nature of traditional educational structures in junior-high school. The Middle School movement, in contrast, began as a specific response to the developmental needs of early adolescents. Over the past 15 years, a number of studies have been conducted in an effort to specify key problems associated with traditional middle-schooling, and to propose solutions to these problems. Key findings and recommendations from these studies provide a framework for the reform of middle-school education. This study identifies critical convergences in the literature which parameterise a systematic and coordinated approach to the reform of the middle years. Eight key elements associated with middle schools that are responsive to the developmental needs of early adolescents are identified. These key elements are: relevance, responsibility, belonging, awareness, engaging, competence, ethical, and methodology. The study examines each of these elements in some details and describes their implications for the development of responsive middle schools both now and into the future.]]