Cover -- Preface -- The RAND Corporation Quality Assurance Process -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Summary -- Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- CHAPTER ONE - Goals, Terms, Methods, and Organization -- Purpose -- Defining Our Terms -- Methodology -- The Literature Review -- The Data Analyses -- Scope -- Organization -- A Final Note -- CHAPTER TWO - A Brief History of the U.S. Middle School -- From an "Eight-Four" to a "Six-Six" Grade Configuration -- The First Junior High Schools -- The Junior High Becomes the Middle School -- A Middle School Concept Emerges in the 1980s -- The Transition as Culprit -- Carnegie Report Elaborates on Mismatch Concept -- Developmental Responsiveness in the 1990s -- Role of Professional Organizations -- Recent Debates and Research Findings -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER THREE - Core Practices of the Middle School Concept -- Interdisciplinary Team Teaching -- Flexible Scheduling -- Advisory Programs -- A More Recent Practice: Looping -- Obstacles for Implementation -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER FOUR - Academic Achievement -- Sources of Data and Limitations -- Comparing U.S. Students with Their Peers in Other Countries -- Performance of Middle Grade Students Over Time -- Nationwide Trends -- Trends Among Subgroups -- Summary of Nationwide and Subgroup Trends -- Achievement and the Accountability Movement -- The No Child Left Behind Act -- Percentages of Middle-Grade Students Reaching Proficiency -- Understanding and Addressing Achievement Gaps -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER FIVE - Conditions for Student Learning -- Social-Emotional Problems and School Functioning -- Disengagement, Social Alienation, and Dropping Out -- Classroom Context and School Climate -- School Safety.

Safety Concerns and School Functioning -- School Responses to Promote Safety -- International Comparisons of Conditions for Learning -- Emotional and Physical Problems -- School Climate -- Social Isolation -- Peer Culture -- Teacher Support -- Parental Involvement -- Perceived School Pressure -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER SIX - Principals -- Effective Leadership -- Principals' Perceptions of School Problems, Tasks, and Goals -- Perceptions of Problems Schools Face -- Time Allocation Across Tasks -- Principals' Goals -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER SEVEN - Promoting Teacher Competence Through Training -- Preservice Training for Middle School Teachers -- Lack of Subject-Matter Expertise -- Lack of Training in Development of Young Teens -- Professional Development for Middle School Teachers -- Latest Models of Professional Development -- SASS Analyses on Professional Development -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER EIGHT - Parental Involvement -- The Many Forms of Parental Involvement -- Parent Involvement and Student Achievement -- Declining Parental Involvement -- SASS Analysis of Parental Involvement in Elementary, Middle, and High Schools -- Factors That Influence Parental Involvement -- Schools' Efforts to Get Parents Involved -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER NINE - Whole-School Reform Models -- Different Ways of Knowing -- Turning Points Transforming Middle Schools Model -- Making Middle Grades Work -- Middle Start Initiative -- Talent Development Middle School Model -- AIM at Middle Grades Results -- Implementation and Sustainability Issues -- Challenges, Recommendations, and Exploratory Ideas -- CHAPTER TEN - Conclusions and Recommendations -- Summary of Findings -- Separating the Middle Grades Is Scientifically Unsound.

Progress on Academic Outcomes Is Positive but Uneven -- Conditions for Learning in Middle Schools Are Suboptimal -- The Vision of the Middle School Has Not Been Fully Implemented -- Evaluation of Success Focuses Too Narrowly on Achievement -- Middle School Teachers and Principals Lack Appropriate Training and Support -- Parental Support Wanes in the Middle Years -- New Reform Models Show Promise -- Recommendations -- Looking to the Future -- APPENDIX A - Characteristics of U.S. Public Schools Serving Middle Grades -- APPENDIX B - International and National Data Sets -- APPENDIX C - Factor Analysis of Health Behavior in School-Aged Children -- APPENDIX D - Research RecommendationsThis -- References.