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AMLE 3a: Context for Middle Level Curriculum 

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AMLE 3a: Context for Middle Level Curriculum 

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Middle Level teacher candidates use their knowledge of the distinct nature and identities of young adolescents when planning and implementing middle level curriculum and when selecting and using instructional strategies

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AMLE 3a: Context for the Middle Level Curriculum 

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AMLE 3a: Context for the Middle Level Curriculum 

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Middle Level teacher candidates use their knowledge of the distinct nature and identities of young adolescents when planning and implementing middle level curriculum and when selecting and using instructional strategies

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This article shows how middle-level development is a critical stage marked by rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive growth. It explains that middle schools must be designed to meet these unique developmental needs through supportive relationships, relevant learning, and responsive environments that help young adolescents thrive both academically and personally.

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Understand the unique developmental needs of young adolescents. Explore cognitive, social, emotional, and physical changes that shape middle school students’ experiences.

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This article shows how teacher preparation for the middle grades must include an intentional focus on equity and social justice. It argues that educators of young adolescents need pedagogies, curricula, and dispositions that honor students’ multiple identities, challenge systemic bias, and create inclusive, affirming environments.

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Middle Grades Teacher Education for Equity and Social Justice - AMLE

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Effective teacher preparation for middle grades educators has complexity and shape-shifting characteristics. With a backdrop of the 21st century, there are a variety of qualities that characterize the setting and realities of teacher practices (Darling-Hammond, 2006), and thus the needs and values of teacher education.

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This article shows how the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have the potential to support interdisciplinary instruction in middle-level education, helping students make meaningful connections across subjects. Still, in practice, many schools face structural and logistical barriers (such as lack of planning time, textbook-driven curricula, and professional development) that hinder them from actually doing it.

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Where do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) fit into interdisciplinary instruction? Some educators contend that the CCSS encourage interdisciplinary teaching; others argue that the standards are getting in the way.

Interdisciplinary instruction helps young adolescents make connections with what they are learning. In the early 1900s, John Dewey argued that subject matter was too fixed and that it needed to be differentiated in order to meet the needs of the child. He believed that if the skills were not connected, the students would be unable to apply them to real life.

Despite a stated purpose of CCSS that they help students make real-world connections in the classroom, do they truly promote interdisciplinary instruction?

We interviewed six teachers and one administrator at a middle school in the Midwest to find out what they have experienced firsthand with the implementation of CCSS.

All the middle school teachers we interviewed said the CCSS were a positive addition to the curriculum and that the standards supported interdisciplinary connections within the classroom. However, we noted a lack of actual interdisciplinary instruction at this school.

As we delved deeper, teachers said they didn't have the time to plan interdisciplinary units; the school did not provide adequate professional development in interdisciplinary instruction strategies; and there was a stronger focus on implementing CCSS than on developing interdisciplinary thematic units.

Structural Challenges

At this middle school, professional learning communities (PLCs) meet weekly. Because the PLCs are based on content areas rather than grade-level teams, teachers have fewer opportunities to discuss interdisciplinary connections they could make within the curriculum. In addition, each teacher who was interviewed commented that the time in the PLC was typically used to discuss CCSS. With all the time and focus on Common Core, teachers said, there was no time to discuss interdisciplinary teaching.

Every teacher we interviewed commented on the importance of interdisciplinary teaching, but it simply wasn't evident. One teacher shared, "Love it! Personally I would do that a lot if there was a way because ... everything ties together ..." The administrator saw value in interdisciplinary teaching but also cited roadblocks: "Unfortunately with the level of academic requirements that we have, we don't get as many opportunities to do [interdisciplinary teaching] anymore."

When we asked the teachers what could be done to incorporate interdisciplinary instruction, one teacher said, "...you have to have everybody on the same page. Everybody has to agree on everything ... I don't know how you do that."

To integrate interdisciplinary teaching with the CCSS, not only do teachers need to participate in professional development activities to learn how to incorporate other disciplines, they may also need to stray from the textbook a little. The district's insistence that teachers adhere to a very structured textbook-driven curriculum focused on CCSS discourages them from incorporating interdisciplinary teaching strategies. The teachers seemed to follow the textbooks rigidly throughout the school year as they struggled to become acquainted with the content.

Another way that CCSS has affected classroom curriculum is by taking away teachers' planning time. The majority of the PLC time that teachers had is now focused on CCSS, leaving little time for any other curricular planning, including interdisciplinary units. One teacher, when asked if she felt interdisciplinary teaching could be easily integrated within the CCSS, said, "I do feel like it could [be integrated] if we were a smaller school."

Looking Ahead

It will be interesting to see whether interdisciplinary teaching becomes more commonplace when the standards are more familiar. Right now, the CCSS are challenging to teachers who are trying to figure out the best way to integrate them-often relying on textbooks as their guides.

The Common Core standards are meant to be guidelines for what to teach, not how to teach. Interdisciplinary teaching can be integrated in middle level schools, but teachers need to ensure that it is done effectively. When the newness of CCSS has worn off, maybe educators can focus more on interdisciplinary instruction.

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Common Core Standards & Interdisciplinary Instruction - AMLE

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Where do the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) fit into interdisciplinary instruction? Some educators contend that the CCSS encourage interdisciplinary teaching; others argue that the standards are getting in the way. Interdisciplinary instruction helps young adolescents make connections with what they are learning.

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This article talks about how incorporating weekly student reflections in middle school classrooms can enhance students' content knowledge, metacognition, and self-awareness, while also fostering a stronger sense of community and improving teacher-student communication.

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Weekly reflections guide teaching and learning.

Reflect is what educators do. College professors give value to reflecting on pedagogical practice. Administrators expect us to reflect on our practice in instructional evaluations. Inservice instructors ask us to reflect on what we learned from each training session.

As teachers reflecting on ways to enhance our daily instruction, we ask: How did the students respond to the day's lesson? Were the objectives met? How could we better manage our time? What methods might engage our students?

As a middle school teacher, I found myself asking similar questions until I realized: who better to ask than the students themselves? After all, I might believe a lesson was absolutely wonderful-it seemed as though every student was attentive and focused on the classroom activity-but what if I was wrong? What if my students weren't getting all that I hoped they would from our time together?

So, I implemented student reflection as a weekly component of my classroom instruction. Every Friday, students spent 10-15 minutes reflecting on our week together. They responded to four key questions that prompted personal reflection:

1. What did you learn this week?

2. What activities helped you to learn?

3. What activities did you find engaging?

4. What questions or comments do you have for me?

Student reflections guided my classroom teaching and lesson planning as I had hoped, but I was surprised by the unexpected benefits it brought to the students. An activity intended to suit my own instructional needs became an activity that inspired connection, openness, diversity, metacognition, and sense of community for my students.

Here are some of the ways reflection benefits students.

Recognition of Mastery

To start their weekly reflection, students took stock of what they learned in our class that week. They could look through their class notebooks and calendars for a quick reminder of the daily objectives and activities. Then, they focused on what they, personally, took from the week's classroom activities.

For the most part, students shared an aspect of class content that really resonated with them. For example, after a week dedicated to plot structure and character development, Mary shared how she learned about the steps of characterization along with key ways to develop a relatable character. Meanwhile, Thomas discussed how he learned more about climax and the way in which a text can hold the reader's attention.

By reflecting on what they learned, students were able to identify their newfound knowledge and see their own growth and awareness of the content.

Self-Awareness and Character Development

In educating the whole child, we hope to reach beyond content and grasp the heart of the student. In addition to sharing content knowledge, students often shared what they learned in terms of their own self-awareness and inner character.

For instance, during the discussion of a short story in which the main character was bullied by his older brother, a student volunteered to share his own experience at the hands of a bully. Students engaged in a deep, impromptu conversation regarding bullying. As a result, many of them reflected on this discussion in their weekly reflection log. They discussed in detail what the classroom conversation taught them about the lives and experiences of their classmates.

In addition, they expressed what they believed the conversation revealed about their role in such a situation, or their personal experience with bullying. It opened their eyes to the realities of bullying and inspired them to reflect on ways in which they could reach out and help someone in need.

Diversity and Relationships

In the same vein, students sometimes reflected on what they learned about the cultures and life experiences of their classmates. As students engaged in group discussions, they shared personal connections and insights into their own lives and experiences.

In reflecting on the week, students shared what they learned about how the life and culture of a classmate was different from their own. They considered the implication of knowledge for them both inside and outside class.

Thinking About Learning

We want our middle level students to think about their own learning, to identify their own learning needs and the manner in which their individual needs are addressed in the classroom. In this way, they can grow in their sense of autonomy and self-efficacy. Which strategies seem to work best in helping them master content? Are they visual, auditory, or perhaps kinesthetic learners? How do they learn best?

After identifying what they learned, students reflected on how they learned. What activities seemed to help them the most? Which component of the day's lesson was the most effective in drawing and holding their attention? For instance, was it the daily bell work that seemed to help them understand and master course material? Did the foldable actively engage them? Did they prefer to work independently or in a small group setting?

Students shared the strategies and activities they believed helped them master the course content as well as the class activities they found to be the most engaging. In this way, they reflected on their own learning, strengths, and needs.

Dialogue

Finally, student reflection is an effective way to inspire and enhance dialogue between the teacher and student. So often, students are hesitant to ask essential questions or engage in important conversation with the teacher. Through weekly reflections, they have the opportunity to ask questions and share information through written dialogue. Through written reflections, students often shared things that confused them about the week's content or lessons. They asked extended questions about the week's objectives, or sought clarification on information shared during class lessons.

In addition, students occasionally reached out for support or encouragement. For example, I noticed a student was not quite himself in class but I couldn't identify the problem. In his reflection, he shared that there was trouble at home, and family turmoil was causing him to fall behind in his coursework. Consequently, we were able to provide him assistance and support in class and through our guidance department.

Tools for Growing

Weekly student reflections provide students the opportunity to grow in their content knowledge, metacognition, and self-awareness, and to strengthen a sense of class community. In addition to providing insight into my own classroom instruction, it gave me a chance to really know and appreciate the diversity within each of my middle level learners.

Their reflections demonstrate the many aspects of learning and development taking place in the middle school classroom every day. Student reflection on learning is a powerful tool in any middle level classroom.

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Student Reflection: A Tool for Growth and Development - AMLE

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Weekly reflections guide teaching and learning. Reflect is what educators do. College professors give value to reflecting on pedagogical practice. Administrators expect us to reflect on our practice in instructional evaluations. Inservice instructors ask us to reflect on what we learned from each training session.

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This article talks about how building a resilient school community involves reframing challenges as opportunities for growth, emphasizing the importance of adult modeling, and fostering a sense of competence and connection among students and staff.

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How to Build a Resilient School Community - AMLE

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This is not the year educators, middle schoolers, or their parents and caregivers imagined. But it’s the experience we’ve got, and we can either use this time to grieve what we’ve lost, or to learn to sit with discomfort and adapt. Here are three ways we can work together to create a more resilientschool community.

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This article talks about how integrating real-world experiences into the classroom, such as using Skype or zoom for virtual field trips and hosting guest speakers like U.S. Representatives, can significantly enhance student engagement and bring subjects like social studies to life.

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Bringing Real World Experiences to the Classroom - AMLE

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Making social studies come alive is a top priority when trying to engage my middle schoolers. I began this process through distance learning. Using Skype in the classroom has enabled my students to travel to places that, as a school, we could not afford to travel to.

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AMLE 3b: Context for the Middle Level Curriculum 

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AMLE 3b: Context for the Middle Level Curriculum 

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Middle level teacher candidates demonstrate a depth and breadth of content knowledge in the subjects they teach. Candidates demonstrate competence with the broad scope of content standards corresponding to the subjects they teach. Candidates also have a sufficiently deep understanding of the major concepts of content standards such that they are equipped to teach in an engaging manner and to guide students in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems and transferring knowledge and skills across disciplines.

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AMLE 3b: Context for The Middle Level Curriculum 

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AMLE 3b: Context for The Middle Level Curriculum 

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Middle level teacher candidates demonstrate a depth and breadth of content knowledge in the subjects they teach. Candidates demonstrate competence with the broad scope of content standards corresponding to the subjects they teach. Candidates also have a sufficiently deep understanding of the major concepts of content standards such that they are equipped to teach in an engaging manner and to guide students in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems and transferring knowledge and skills across disciplines.

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This article describes the findings from a large AMLE survey that examined how middle schools use interdisciplinary teaming-teacher teams who share the same group of students, planning time, and instructional responsibilities. It outlines how widespread the use of teaming currently is and also why it remains such an important organizational structure for supporting young adolescents.

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This article makes the case that advisory programs are crucial for middle school because, if done well, these programs address the young adolescent's social, emotional, and identity-development needs and give a student one caring adult and a small peer group.

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Advisory Matters. Here Are Eight Strategies To Keep It Going Strong. - AMLE

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Advisory is one special opportunity to help us show young people how to be caring members of a community: to listen well to others, to understand others with empathy, to learn to be kind, and to learn about the value of a civil community. So, let’s say you are on board with all the possible benefits, but last year’s advisory wasn’t without its challenges. With the fog of last year’s challenges starting to fade, how can we give advisory a fresh look? Here are eight strategies that can help us recommit to advisory and keep it relevant and manageable.

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This article describes how some middle schools ditch the traditional fixed-period schedule and instead let teacher teams redesign how time is used, giving teachers control over allocating flexible blocks for instruction, projects, and collaborative planning based on students' needs.

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Collaborative Scheduling: Teams Redefining Time - AMLE

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Read More... from Collaborative Scheduling: Teams Redefining Time

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The article explains that schools improve learning results when they replace lone leaders with shared leadership teams composed of teachers, administrators, parents, and students. These teams guide school initiatives collaboratively, ensuring decisions are more effective, inclusive, and sustainable.

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If many hands make light work, many minds make smart work. Bette Manchester headed the nation's first statewide 1-to-1 learning with technology initiative, an important middle grades learning initiative. In 2001 and 2002, Bette established a leadership team to design how to launch MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative), especially how we would help middle schools prepare for every seventh and eighth grade student and teacher in the state having laptops.

Bette taught me at the beginning of MLTI not only that leadership was everything, but that shared leadership teams performed better for an initiative than single leaders did. They are not simply an advisory group, but function as the decision making body. And by assembling a team that represents multiple perspectives, you can garner buy-in from diverse stakeholders and improve the quality and effectiveness of the plan.

The Power of Diverse Perspectives

Years later, I worked for a small, private, educational development organization. We created non-traditional schools for underachieving students in good sized cities. There were four of us. Two came from the business world and understood the business side of education and how to work with executive-level decision-makers, such as superintendents and chief academic officers, in large districts. One was a former high school principal who had also worked in the corporate world as a vice president for education for a large, national cable TV and telecommunications company. He understood school leadership and administration, and how to build community and business partnerships. And there was me. I understood pedagogy, student motivation, and professional development.

We were strong personalities, passionate about the work, critiquing an idea or plan from our own perspectives and areas of expertise. To hear our conversations might make you think we were arguing, but actually we listened to each other and revised our ideas and plans with that input. We always ended up with a much stronger plan because it stood up to scrutiny from multiple perspectives.

Since then, whenever I've had an initiative or project to work on, I have started by putting together a shared leadership team. These teams are made up of a spectrum of shareholders: students, teachers, administrators, school committee members, parents, and community members. It's best to look for a diversity of positions, but also a diversity of perspectives. You do not want all "yes-men" on the team. While you might not want too many active blockers, you certainly want some of the folks who are looking critically at the work and coming to the table with their "yes, but" questions to be addressed.

The key learning about shared leadership teams: No one of us is as smart as all of us together. The secret is the power of diverse perspectives.

Shared Leadership Teams: What They Are and Aren't

Schools already have lots of groups that they call leadership teams. But many of them are what I would refer to as "management teams," teams that are leveraged to help share information between building administration and teams or departments, or to decide how and when to transition between terms or trimesters, or how to handle lunch on days with special events, or how to schedule fundraisers from various groups, etc. While management teams handle tasks related to the day to day running of the school, shared leadership teams focus on the strategic work of the school.

So shared leadership teams are not advisory groups, management teams, nor information dissemination groups (even if these are important tasks that need to be addressed). What shared leadership teams are is a driving force to assess where your educators are in the implementation process, identify timely next steps, assist in providing formative feedback to those educators, help troubleshoot and problem-solve the challenges of implementation, and facilitate the sharing of ideas. It's roll-up-your-sleeves strategic work.

Decisions are made by working toward consensus. Not everyone has to agree, but, as much as possible, everyone should be able to live with a decision. And lots can be learned by asking someone to clarify their dissenting point of view. I find that often they have some concern many of the rest of us haven't thought about, but that we should consider and plan for.

Keep in mind that lots of perspectives and shared decision-making does not mean letting folks do whatever they want. If you are the administrator, you still help set the non-negotiables and parameters of a decision. As a member of the team, your perspective is one of those shared in the discussions.

While working out the details and being nimbly responsive to the needs of your initiative are the vitally important functions of a design team, it is not their primary purpose. The most important role of a design team is building buy-in. It's important to recognize that most learning initiatives in schools don't fail because of lack of information (resources or training). It is because of lack of buy-in. Educators will be willing to try new strategies and put the time in getting good at them as their buy-in to the initiative improves. Your design team is a prime buy-in building strategy.

This is accomplished when you make sure the design team has broad membership representing lots of different stakeholder groups and perspectives about the initiative, helping to ensure that the design team's decisions thoughtfully reflect those multiple perspectives Educators who are reluctant are likely to be a little less reluctant if they see people on the design team that they think are sort of like them: "We have to do what?! Well, if Judy is on the design team, then I guess it's ok."

Avoiding Unintentionally Sabotaging Your Shared Leadership Teams

If you are forming shared leadership teams for your initiative, you clearly want to reap the benefits that come from them: increased buy-in, soliciting stakeholder voice and choice, designing and planning strengthened by the power of multiple perspectives.

But some school leaders unintentionally sabotage their work by speaking about their ideas early. It happens naturally. As a leader, team members will defer to you, and when they don't jump in to share, you start to share your ideas. And suddenly you have one leader with 14 people around a table, not a shared leadership team with 15 stakeholders expressing their diverse perspectives.

You can tell if a school leader is unintentionally sabotaging the shared leadership team by paying attention to the percentage of the talk in the shared leadership team from the school leader (not counting the facilitation, just the real talk-sharing and examining ideas, designing components, developing plans). If the school leader is talking most of the time, you're in trouble and might not reap the benefits of shared leadership. In truth, school leaders have good ideas, and not sharing them is counterintuitive! But, in this case, it is also counterproductive.

So, what can you do to avoid the unintentional sabotage if you're the leader? You will have to shift your leadership hat from directing and sharing, to facilitating and soliciting wisdom from others with these strategies:

Wait time: Like teachers do, sometimes you need to pose your question or prompt and wait. And wait. And wait. Just look around the room expectantly, someone else will eventually break the silence. The more the group gets used to actually expressing their ideas, the shorter the wait will be.

Actively solicit others' ideas: The team might need nudging. You can turn to team members and say, "Stephanie, what do you think?" Maybe start with someone who has been quiet, but you know is likely to have a good idea. Maybe do a "round robin," where each person shares an idea in turn. Spend more time getting others to share their ideas than you spend sharing yours.

Save your list for later: It is likely that everyone is waiting for you to speak. Don't. Wait for others to share their ideas. Cross off any of your ideas as others say them. After lots of other members' ideas are on the table, then you can share ideas from your list, one at a time, with ideas coming from others in between.

Frame your ideas as questions, not suggestions: The way to get more team input is not to state your ideas, but to frame them as questions, "What do you think if we were to...?" This way, you are still soliciting members' ideas and opinions, but ideas and opinions about the ideas you share. It says you are actively seeking and value their input and voice.

And remember, your job as leader is to help set a framework for the work, or parameters for decisions. These are often valuable to share early. It's just during conversations about decisions and how to implement that framework where you should allow other voices to become comfortable speaking up. The good news is that once teachers, students, and other stakeholders start sharing their ideas, and see that those ideas are wanted, valued, and used, they will be much more willing to speak up.

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Leveraging Shared Leadership Teams for Better Learning Initiatives - AMLE

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If many hands make light work, many minds make smart work. Bette Manchester headed the nation's first statewide 1-to-1 learning with technology initiative, an important middle grades learning initiative. In 2001 and 2002, Bette established a leadership team to design how to launch MLTI (Maine Learning Technology Initiative), especially how we would help middle schools prepare for every seventh and eighth grade student and teacher in the state having laptops.

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The article explains that forming effective teacher teams in middle level schools requires a deliberate process: teams don't become strong overnight but move through stages-forming → storming → norming → performing they build trust, establish norms, and clarify roles. Once developed, these teams make decisions collaboratively, maintain shared goals, and support both teachers and students by coordinating instruction and student‑support efforts.

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The life of a middle level teacher is one of continuous challenges. Teachers are charged with curriculum development, lesson planning, data analysis, problem solving, response-to-intervention, and other student concerns. A well-functioning interdisciplinary team provides needed support for teachers struggling to meet the demands of the middle level classroom.

In his book As I See It, John Lounsbury asserts, "No single educational idea has come to characterize the middle school concept as certainly as interdisciplinary teaming." While a successful team works together to provide a quality educational environment that meets the needs of the middle level student, effective teamwork does not happen without hard work. We offer here some practical advice for teacher teams struggling to work together effectively.

Stages of Team Development

A group of four or five teachers does not immediately function as a team; rather, they develop as a team in stages. Administrators must support this process by providing guidance, offering opportunities for team building, sponsoring professional development activities, and allowing time for team meetings. Along these lines, educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed a widely accepted four-stage process through which teams develop: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Forming. In this first stage, members must get to know each other and sort out their respective roles as team members. It can be an exciting yet uncertain time in the life of a team. It is important that the team work together to establish a purpose, agree on norms or ground rules, and set future goals. Some tasks during this stage include:

Establishing the team's identity, and getting to know each other.

Enabling what is arguably the most important team norm: communicating and establishing how communication will take place.

Decide how often, where, and when the team will meet.

Determine means of collaboration via online tools.

Storming. As the team members get to know each other, they will become more comfortable sharing ideas and frustrations. As a result, disagreements may arise-and the storming stage begins. However, if handled properly, the storming stage can lead to positive outcomes for the team. To manage conflict in the storming stage, teams should:

Continually revisit their vision, mission, and goals.

Promote relationships within the team and with administration, counselors, and parents. These relationships should always be considered works in progress. Strong relationships are the foundation for real progress and later successes.

Determine what kinds of professional development goals are needed to continually grow and develop.

Norming. When team members learn to work together and begin to accomplish goals and solve problems effectively, loyalty develops among the members. Teams in this stage make progress toward improving instruction, solving problems, and supporting students. In this stage, teachers may want to consider:

Planning and implementing integrated units of instruction.

Evaluating and enhancing community connections through service learning projects.

Reevaluating and updating the team mission, vision, and goals as teachers become more confident in their decision-making and communication skills.

Performing. A team in the performing stage is able to accomplish whatever tasks or challenges may arise and has a high level of trust and commitment among its members. Often at this stage, it seems all team members pull their weight, and a leader is not needed. However, it is important to have a designated leader who pushes the team and maintains focus on team goals. A performing interdisciplinary team is likely to:

Expand the use of integrated instruction by integrating critical curriculum components into all content areas.

Make more community connections and ensure that parents are partners in the learning process.

Ensure that student support is consistent across the board. Students know when a team is functioning well and will respond in positive ways.

It is important to keep in mind that over time, some members may leave a team and new members will be added. As a result, the team may need to go back to a previous stage of team formation. For example, a team may go back to norming as members become acquainted and learn to work with new members.

Team Decision Making

One of the biggest challenges facing a teaching team is reaching consensus on important team decisions. Teams should consider these three important things when making decisions:

1. All members must feel that they have been heard and understood. This can be a challenge if the team includes members who are overly extroverted or overly introverted. For this reason, team discussions should be carefully managed to deal with those who might monopolize the conversation and to draw out those who are reticent to contribute.

2. All members must be able to "live with" the team's decision over the course of a specified period of time. By making this clear, members who might be uncomfortable with the decision, will be more likely to offer their support.

3. All members must be willing to commit to carrying out the plan. Agreeing to a course of action is not the same as actually participating to help carry it out.

With these considerations in mind, one important detail remains: how to develop a strategy for reaching consensus. After a thorough discussion of a proposal, each member signals with a thumbs up (completely agree), thumbs down (cannot live with it), or a thumb to side (I can live with it). If all members do not signal to the side or up, the discussion continues until consensus is reached. This process may take more time than voting, but the result is an energized team with a common goal.

Achieving More

Effective teams do not just happen; they develop over time as team members work through the stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Successful teams collaborate, reach consensus to make decisions, and work together to achieve common goals. Working together as a team is hard work, but the rewards are great as the team successfully supports students and teachers.

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The Basics of Developing Effective Teams - AMLE

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The life of a middle level teacher is one of continuous challenges. Teachers are charged with curriculum development, lesson planning, data analysis, problem solving, response-to-intervention, and other student concerns. A well-functioning interdisciplinary team provides needed support for teachers struggling to meet the demands of the middle level classroom.

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The article outlines that teaming in middle schools offers three main approaches-core interdisciplinary teams, single‑subject teams, or exploratory/multi‑disciplinary teams-which schools use to respond to young adolescents' physical, intellectual, social‑emotional, and moral development needs. It shows how teams, through their coordination of planning, integration of curriculum, sharing of teaching strategies, and flexible scheduling, build smaller, supportive learning communities that better address the complex needs of early adolescents.

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Three team approaches that respond to students' unique needs

From the inception of the middle school movement, team approaches to instruction were considered the preferred way to organize a school housing grades 4-8, 5-8, or 6-8. Today, educators see teaching teams as a key to achieving the full potential of a dynamic middle school, one that truly responds to the unique physical, intellectual, social-emotional, and moral developmental needs of young adolescents. Teams may be established on a core interdisciplinary, single subject, or exploratory multi-disciplinary basis. In the most dynamic settings, dialogue and fluidity connect these three systems.

Three Approaches to Teaming

Core Interdisciplinary Teams
Typically, core interdisciplinary teams include teachers of English/language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science. Special education and English language learning (ELL) teachers are frequently included. Ideally, the same teachers have the same cohort of students during the same periods of the day. Common planning time is essential. See core team schedule in figure 1.

Figure 1
Core Team Schedule

When there are several interdisciplinary teams at a grade level and when sufficient seats exist in the exploratory classes for students from both teams at the same time (see example of exploratory team schedule in figure 3), TM (team meeting) could become TM/DM (team meeting/department meeting). On some days each interdisciplinary team meets separately; on other days teachers could meet by subject area. Whenever appropriate, teachers from both teams could meet.

Single Subject Teams
Some middle school schedules feature departmental or single subject teams to enable mathematics or physical education teachers to meet instead of, or in addition to, an interdisciplinary structure. Team meetings are dedicated to curriculum study, pedagogy, and grouping or re-grouping students based on need for remediation or readiness for enrichment. See schedule example in figure 2.

Figure 2
Single Subject Team Schedule
Exploratory Teams
Teachers of art, music, world language, physical education, technology/STEM, and family and consumer science form the exploratory team. These teachers meet by subject areas or as a complete exploratory group for issues common to the program. Teachers can have the opportunity to integrate curriculum and skills, focus on student needs and plan special interdisciplinary units or activities. See figure 3 for an exploratory team schedule.

Figure 3
Exploratory Team Schedule

Role and Function of Teams/Planning Cohorts

Teams or planning cohorts become dynamic when they understand, implement, and integrate all four domains of their role and function. The following strategies organized by domains are typical of teams/cohorts seeking excellence.

1. Respond to needs and data

Master the research and literature regarding physical, intellectual, social-emotional, and moral developmental needs of young adolescents.

Identify strategies to respond to these needs as a team and as individual teachers.

Remain current on available data regarding reading, mathematics, and other tested areas.

Plan advisory experiences that are developmentally appropriate.

2. Integrate curriculum and skills

Recognize that students learn best when they connect new knowledge and skills to previously learned information; students should recognize patterns and relationships.

Develop a curriculum matrix at the outset of the school year. Alter as needed.

Become familiar with local, state, and national standards; identify standards that cut across content areas.

Implement a skill-of-the-week program.

Establish a communication system to maximize opportunities for curriculum integration throughout all content areas.

3. Share appropriate teaching/learning strategies

Explore research-based strategies as well as best practices appropriate to students' developmental stages.

Utilize results of interest and learning style inventories in planning units and lessons.

Encourage hands-on activities and project-based learning.

Recognize value of group engagements that enhance social-emotional maturation.

4. Maximize available time creatively

Analyze master schedule to identify opportunities for flexibility

Create a menu of flexible options available to the team: alter the sequence of classes; large group instruction; adjusting the length of instructional modules; grouping and re-grouping of students; project or independent study time and use of the flex/advisory/intervention period (FAI).

Establish procedures for decision-making and informing students of schedule modifications.

Each of these domains may be seen as an independent variable. The true potential will be achieved when all team members effectively integrate the four domains: responding to student needs, integrating curriculum and skills, sharing successful teaching/learning strategies, and maximizing time creatively.

Self-Assessment

With the ongoing challenges of teacher evaluation, assessment, and review, districts and schools should consider allowing teaching teams the opportunity to create or utilize a self-assessment instrument. Based on intrinsic professional motivation, this opportunity could be a significant step to implementating the team approach to instruction and ultimately the potential of the middle school concept. Ideally, each district,school, or team could develop its own instrument following this list of sample questions and the format to facilitate communication among colleagues (see figure 4).

Figure 4
Self-Assessment Example

Summary

Teaching teams that master the integration of the four domains-responding to student needs, integrating curriculum and skills, sharing successful teaching and learning strategies, and maximizing available time creatively-are key to achieving the ultimate vision of the middle school concept. Steps toward this goal occur when school schedules are created that set the stage for core interdisciplinary, single subject, and/or exploratory teams.

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From the inception of the middle school movement, team approaches to instruction were considered the preferred way to organize a school housing grades 4-8, 5-8, or 6-8. Today, educators see teaching teams as a key to achieving the full potential of a dynamic middle school, one that truly responds to the unique physical, intellectual, social-emotional, and moral developmental needs of young adolescents.

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AMLE 5a Profeessional Roles of Middle Level Teachers

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AMLE 5a Profeessional Roles of Middle Level Teachers

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Middle-level teacher candidates develop a deep understanding of their professional responsibilities and critically reflect on the many roles they play within the middle school environment. Well-prepared candidates recognize the complexity of teaching young adolescents and demonstrate success in the unique demands of middle-level education. They advocate for students, support developmentally responsive curriculum, and use instructional strategies that honor the needs of early adolescents while maintaining an asset-based view of the communities they serve. These candidates also engage in continuous professional growth and apply new learning to strengthen their practice, promoting equity, culturally responsive, and anti-racist approaches in their classrooms. They work effectively with colleagues, families, school staff, and community partners to improve student learning while modeling high ethical standards, demonstrating fairness, and treating every learner and colleague with respect. In addition, they know how to leverage the diversity present within families and communities as strengths to enhance the education experience in ways commensurate with their preparation and experience.

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AMLE 5a: Professional Roles of Middle Level Techers

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AMLE 5a: Professional Roles of Middle Level Techers

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Middle-level teacher candidates develop a deep understanding of their professional responsibilities and critically reflect on the many roles they play within the middle school environment. Well-prepared candidates recognize the complexity of teaching young adolescents and demonstrate success in the unique demands of middle-level education. They advocate for students, support developmentally responsive curriculum, and use instructional strategies that honor the needs of early adolescents while maintaining an asset-based view of the communities they serve. These candidates also engage in continuous professional growth and apply new learning to strengthen their practice, promoting equity, culturally responsive, and anti-racist approaches in their classrooms. They work effectively with colleagues, families, school staff, and community partners to improve student learning while modeling high ethical standards, demonstrating fairness, and treating every learner and colleague with respect. In addition, they know how to leverage the diversity present within families and communities as strengths to enhance the education experience in ways commensurate with their preparation and experience.

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The article argues that the specialized preparation and credentialing of middle-level teachers are important because young adolescents need educators who are prepared for their particular developmental needs. Some key components of effective preparation programs are identified, including strong content knowledge, adolescent development expertise, culturally responsive teaching, and meaningful field experiences.

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Overview Summary Paragraph
The middle years are the second largest time of cognitive, physical and behavioral development outside of infancy for the human body. Middle level students are developing their outlooks, experimenting with forming opinions, fostering academic stamina, developing their emotional well being, and determining their place in the civic, social and economic world. If we do not have educators specifically prepared to guide students through this transitional period of growth we will be missing important details that must be provided in every student's educational journey to ensure their success in later school years and life.

The specialized professional preparation of teachers of young adolescents must be a high priority of teacher preparation programs, colleges and state certification agencies. AMLE is committed to promoting actions that will assure that all young adolescents are taught by highly qualified teachers. AMLE continues to be the leader in promoting responsive policies, practices, and programs for young adolescents and their teachers. One such example of these responsive policies is the release of the 2022 Revised AMLE Middle Level Teacher Preparation (MLTP) Standards MLTP Standards, which are centered around initial teacher licensure at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels. The essential components listed below are the foundation of middle level teacher preparation and should be fully implemented in addition to other programmatic elements that may be common to education preparation providers.
Essential Program Components

A command of the characteristics essential to middle level philosophy and school organization

Comprehensive knowledge of young adolescent development for creating responsive and affirming learning environments for all young adolescent learners

Comprehensive knowledge of the distinct nature and identities of young adolescents for planning and implementing curriculum

A depth and breadth of content knowledge in the subjects taught

A thorough grasp of the content standards and major concepts in order to assist all young adolescent learners in understanding the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge and skills

Guidance in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems across diverse settings

Emphases on communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, cultural competence, problem solving, resiliency, digital literacy, informational literacy, and citizenship

A wide variety of effective, responsive, equitable, and anti-racist teaching, learning, and fair and unbiased assessment strategies

Authentic field experiences and student teaching in schools that exemplify middle level characteristics

Opportunities to critically reflect on and demonstrate professional roles, positive dispositions, and ethical behaviors.

The Association of Middle Level Education maintains that inclusion of these key components are essential to the development and continuation of a strong teaching force at the middle level.
The Changing Landscape of American Education and Classrooms
Almost unquestioningly, the landscape of American public education in today's classrooms has vastly changed. In the last few years alone, all public schools in the United States entered into remote learning with online instruction and hybrid delivery of content and assessments due to a global pandemic. Notwithstanding, there have been other significant educational reforms and movements within public education, specifically middle level education, that have once again called attention to the backgrounds, languages, and cultures of our learners. In addition, there have been much needed professional development s , and calls to action, and social justice awareness, especially for communities and programs who prepare educators. And With these vast changes has come a shift in focus. Educators and other constituents have realized just how important it is that teacher preparation has at its center, the learner and the learning. This required shift in focus has also led to the need for a critical stance and an awakened attention to the reform efforts that did not evolve from past generations. At the core, those efforts and the shift in focus must include culturally and developmentally responsive and sustaining instruction, anti-racist pedagogies, and a commitment to equity, diversity, access, and inclusion.

The specialized professional preparation of teachers of young adolescents must be a high priority of teacher preparation programs, colleges and state certification agencies. AMLE is committed to promoting actions that will assure that all young adolescents are taught by highly qualified teachers. The AMLE continues to be the leader in promoting responsive policies, practices, and programs for young adolescents and their teachers. One such example of these responsive policies is the release of the 2022 Revised AMLE Middle Level Teacher Preparation (MLTP) Standards, which are centered around initial teacher licensure at both the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate levels.

The 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards provide guidance for teacher candidates graduating from middle level education preparation programs concerning the knowledge base and professional practice required of those who rise to the rich and rewarding challenges of educating today's young adolescent learner. Furthermore, the Revised AMLE Standards call upon all educators to examine schooling practices, to advance and advocate for middle grades education for all young adolescents, and to continue the work and achievement of being reflective and intentional in our world. The standards were expressly written for the specialized professional preparation and credentialing (i.e., licensure, certification, endorsement) of middle grades teachers at both the preservice and graduate levels for institutions of higher education. This includes initial teaching degree credentialing. The types of education professionals for whom they were written include academic faculty, staff, preservice, and in-service teachers.

The 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards interpret "all young adolescents" to be inclusive, comprising students of diverse ethnicity, race, language, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, family composition, regional or geographic origin, and those with exceptional learning needs. Furthermore, the grade levels included in "middle level" are determined by middle level teacher licensure regulations in each state but are commonly known or seen as grades 4-9, 5-8, and/or 6-9. In some circumstances, middle level education also takes place in PreK-8, 7-12, or PreK-12 buildings where young adolescents are taught within community schools, parochial or private schools, rural and/or consolidated schools.
The 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards
The 2022 Revised AMLE Middle Level Teacher Preparation (MLTP) Standards have been developed and revised to address the current changes within and affecting middle grades education and young adolescents in the United States of America. These revised standards reflect the new research agenda for middle grades education (Mertens & Caskey, 2020), recently developed by the Middle Level Educational Research Special Interest Group (MLER SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). In addition, these revised standards speak to the current scholarship, professional conversations, and other efforts and reforms concerning the best equitable, just, and pedagogical approaches for the preparation of middle grades teachers and young adolescents.

The authors of the 2022 Revised AMLE SPA Standards for Middle Level Teacher Preparation (MLTP) have leaned heavily upon the AMLE's updated landmark position paper, The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (Bishop & Harrison, 2021). These standards also build upon the work of other agencies and organizations (e.g., CAEP, NCTE, NCTM) who also believe in the development and availability of middle level teacher credentials that are distinct from elementary and secondary ones.

AMLE and the 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards continue their unique stance on young adolescent developmentalism but place an even greater and much needed emphasis on cultural awareness and responsiveness and social justice. At the forefront of this effort, we invite programs designing and providing evidence for the preparation of teacher candidates at the middle level to emphasize the knowledge base and development of their teacher candidates in the areas of equity, diversity, access, and inclusion. Moreover, the Revised AMLE Standards assist programs and public middle schools with how to develop and apply these to classroom instruction, assessments, and environments. Thus, in revising the AMLE standards, the main focus was to better emphasize the need for candidates and educators to not only understand the areas of diversity, but to understand their own positionality and beliefs with diversity in preparing diverse spaces and learning for young adolescent learners.

In summary, 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards use contemporary and asset-based language and research, developmentally responsive pedagogies, equitable, culturally relevant, and sustaining pedagogies, and anti-racist and social justice frameworks. The changes are structured around a holistic approach to understanding the standards versus just an ordinal one. This holistic organization of the Revised AMLE Standards also provides a way for teacher preparation programs and public middle schools to understand and use the standards and their components for teacher candidates progressing through programs for middle level teacher preparation.
The Specialized Preparation of Middle Level Educators
AMLE advocates for specialized middle level teacher preparation with attention to essential program elements centered in equity, diversity, and inclusion that ensure success at the middle level. These components, listed here and described below, are essential to the development and continuation of a strong teaching force at the middle level. Such programs must feature:

A command of the characteristics essential to middle level philosophy and school organization;

Comprehensive knowledge of young adolescent development for creating responsive and affirming learning environments for all young adolescent learners;

Comprehensive knowledge of the distinct nature and identities of young adolescents for planning and implementing curriculum;

A depth and breadth of content knowledge in the subjects taught;

A thorough grasp of the content standards and major concepts in order to assist all young adolescent learners in understanding the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge and skills;

Guidance in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems across diverse settings;

Emphases on communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, cultural competence, problem solving, resiliency, digital literacy, informational literacy, and citizenship;

A wide variety of effective, responsive, equitable, and anti-racist teaching, learning, and fair and unbiased assessment strategies;

Authentic field experiences and student teaching in schools that exemplify middle level characteristics;

Opportunities to critically reflect on and demonstrate professional roles, positive dispositions, and ethical behaviors.

The essential components listed above are the foundation of middle level teacher preparation and should be fully implemented in addition to other programmatic elements that may be common to education preparation providers.
Essential Program Components

A command of the characteristics essential to middle level philosophy and school organization

Fundamental to middle level education is the notion that middle schools are uniquely different from elementary schools and high schools (Jackson & Davis, 2000). Middle level teacher candidates should hold a deep understanding of the history of middle level education and the development of junior high and middle schools; the major concepts, principles, theories, and research underlying the philosophical foundations of developmentally responsive middle level programs and schools; middle school organization and equitable educational practices; issues surrounding the implementation of developmentally responsive middle level programs and schools; and current trends and issues that influence middle level education (Jackson & Davis, 2000; McEwin et al., 2003, 2004; McEwin & Smith 2013). Middle level candidates must demonstrate their ability to successfully apply their understanding of the middle level organizational structures and practices to enhance learning for all students (Jackson & Davis, 2000; Jagla et al., 2018). Middle level teacher candidates acknowledge the importance and make use of middle level organization. They commit to adapting key middle level organizational structures across these varied learning spaces, including virtual spaces, in order to foster the academic and personal development of young adolescent learners (Bishop & Harrison, 2021).

Comprehensive knowledge of young adolescent development for creating responsive and affirming learning environments for all young adolescent learners

Middle level teacher candidates graduate from programs grounded in the theoretical, conceptual, and evidence-based foundations of young adolescent development. Foundational knowledge of young adolescent development and its diversities provides middle level teacher candidates with a substantial basis upon which to build an understanding of the implications of young adolescent development for teaching and learning (Association for Middle Level Education, 2012; Brown & Knowles, 2014; Caskey & Anfara, 2014; McEwin & Dickinson, 2012). Effective teacher preparation programs provide meaningful opportunities for middle level teacher candidates to learn about the unique characteristics and needs of young adolescents and to document candidates' ability to use the knowledge gained in their practice. Additionally, middle level teacher candidates recognize the role that technology plays in young adolescents' lives, whether it be through social media (Schmeichel et al., 2018), STEM or STEAM (Pugalenthi et al., 2019), or career exploration (AMLE, 2021).

Middle level teacher candidates working with young adolescents must have a strong understanding of ways to foster a developmentally responsive school and classroom learning community that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice (Harrison et al., 2019; Milner, et al., 2019). Middle level teacher candidates understand that the implementation of middle level organization and practices supports "purposeful learning" for students and promotes "meaningful relationships" between and among faculty, staff, families, and all students (Bishop & Harrison, 2021, p. 50). They should demonstrate a strong foundation in building meaningful relationships and leading classroom communities to meet the needs of their students by fostering an adolescent-centered community of care within their classrooms that attends to the needs of all students (Kiefer & Ellerbrock, 2019; Ellerbrock & Kiefer, 2014). It is critical that middle level teacher candidates consider how to make learning and the classroom community responsive to the whole child, including their physical, cognitive, social-emotional, and identity needs through a cultural lens (Harrison et al., 2019).

Middle level candidates must understand the importance and benefits of how developmentally responsive middle level schools support equitable educational best practices (e.g., personalized learning, project-based learning, service learning) for young adolescents (Coffey & Fulton, 2018; DeMink-Carthew & Olofson, 2020; Farber, 2017; Reid-Griffin et al., 2020). Well-prepared middle level teacher candidates create developmentally responsive learning environments that allow all young adolescents to achieve high standards.

Comprehensive knowledge of the distinct nature and identities of young adolescents for planning and implementing curriculum

Schools with a solid organizational foundation includes equitable educational best practices help to support responsive curriculum, instruction, assessment, and relationships that support young adolescent learners' needs (Nesin & Brazee, 2013). Candidates demonstrate their ability to apply successfully their understanding of these practices to enhance learning for all students. Developmentally responsive middle level teacher candidates use this knowledge in planning and teaching curriculum (Faulkner, Cook, & Howell, 2013; Horowitz et al, 2005; McEwin & Smith, 2013). They demonstrate their understanding of how young adolescents grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, moral and physical areas. Middle level teacher candidates recognize the importance of implementing purposeful, student centered, technologically rich opportunities for students (Warner et al., 2018). Middle level teacher candidates document their ability to fashion developmentally and culturally appropriate instructional materials and teach in ways that are academically challenging and meaningful to young adolescents.

Developmentally and culturally responsive teacher candidates demonstrate how to address young adolescents' diverse needs and identities to empower them (Harrison, Hurd, & Brinegar, 2019). Middle level teacher candidates recognize the vital role they play in promoting digital equity and access (National Digital Inclusion Alliance, n.d.). They create inclusive learning environments that engage all students by designing learning activities that are based on culturally relevant (Ladson-Billings, 1995), responsive (Sleeter, 2012) and sustaining (Paris, 2012) pedagogy. This teaching is grounded in social justice and equity. Well-prepared middle level teacher candidates demonstrate greater understanding of young adolescents' diverse identities and differences (Lewis & Sembiante, 2019) and model practices that affirm the diversity of all young adolescents, recognizing the complexities associated with school location, funding, resources.

A depth and breadth of content knowledge in the subjects taught

Effective middle level teacher candidates "possess a depth of understanding in the content areas they teach" (Bishop & Harrison, 2021, p. 25), and they are able to use their subject matter expertise to make content understandable for their students (Hattie, 2011). Students benefit from teachers who have rigorous content preparation (Boyd et al., 2009; Darling-Hammond & Bransford, 2005), and many credentialing authorities establish subject matter proficiency as both a measure of new teacher qualification and an output measure of educator preparation program quality (Feuer, 2013). The context for middle level curriculum is critical for teacher candidates to understand in order to plan and teach developmentally responsive curriculum. Effective middle level teacher candidates spend time learning about schools, communities, and states where they teach. This involves understanding local and state guidelines and standards. This also involves understanding the unique characteristics of diverse urban, suburban, and rural communities (Ranschaert & Murphy, 2020).

A thorough grasp of the content standards and major concepts in order to assist all young adolescent learners in understanding the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge and skills

The interdisciplinary nature of knowledge and skills undergirds middle level philosophy and structures. Curriculum should be meaningful and relevant to students and allow them to explore topics that interest them (Beane, 2005; Springer, 2006, 2013; Stevenson & Bishop, 2012). McEwin and Smith (2013) recommend that candidates "acquire in-depth knowledge of at least two subject areas" so they "have a solid academic foundation" (p. 685) for designing curricula that are challenging, exploratory, integrative, and diverse (Bishop & Harrison, 2021). According to AMLE (2019b), an integrative curriculum "focuses on coherent ideas and concepts irrespective of arbitrary subject boundaries and enables students to see connections and real-world applications" (para. 5). Middle level teacher candidates demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge through their approach to curriculum, which can foster student engagement and motivation as students develop skills for success in diverse settings. Middle level teacher candidates should demonstrate their expanding capacity for designing interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum through course experiences (Dack, 2020; Moser et al., 2020) and clinical experiences (Leckie & Wall, 2016).

Guidance in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems across diverse settings

Middle level teacher candidates should demonstrate subject matter knowledge reflected in local, state, and national standards for academic disciplines as well as standards and frameworks for related areas including technology (International Society for Technology in Education, 2017), career exploration (Advance CTE & Association for Career and Technical Education, 2020), and social-emotional learning (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2020). With that broad scope of content knowledge and sufficiently deep understanding of major concepts, middle level teacher candidates then engage their students in applying knowledge and skills to real-world problems and transferring knowledge and skills across disciplines (AMLE, 2019b). This demonstrates that candidates possess a deep and interdisciplinary knowledge of subject matter content and skills.

Emphases on communication, collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, cultural competence, problem solving, resiliency, digital literacy, informational literacy, and citizenship

Middle level teacher candidates should demonstrate their abilities to create learning experiences that allow students to connect knowledge in ways that enhance critical thinking, digital literacy, creativity, and problem solving in culturally responsive ways. Through an integrative approach to curriculum (AMLE, 2019b), teacher candidates design curriculum that enhances general academic knowledge and skills while engaging students in increasingly complex disciplinary understandings. Interdisciplinary and integrated curriculum should strengthen students' skills with areas such as information literacy and technology (Mertens et al., 2021). Curriculum can also extend to project-based learning, place-based learning, hands-on learning, and other modalities to enhance students' knowledge of content and to provide students with voice and choice in their learning (AMLE, 2019b; Bishop et al., 2007; Vaughn, 2018).

A wide variety of effective, responsive, equitable, and anti-racist teaching, learning, and fair and unbiased assessment strategies

Middle level instructional practices meet the needs and characteristics of young adolescents and provide the foundation for selecting learning and teaching strategies, just as they do for designing curriculum. Middle level teacher candidates should develop learning experiences and provide instruction that are intentionally responsive to students' needs (Bishop & Harrison, 2021). This requires teacher candidates to know their students, be prepared to discern learning needs, and be capable of providing targeted instruction and support to address those needs. Instruction must be culturally responsive (Thomas & Howell, 2019; Williams, 2019; Brinegar et al., 2019). Ladson-Billings (1995) defines culturally responsive teaching as ways of teaching that include references to students' culture across learning. Middle level students need educators who are prepared to intentionally progress their levels of understanding of difference beyond "faulty and simplistic" notions of cultural responsiveness (Sleeter, 2012, p. 562). This intentional movement requires middle level teacher candidates to plan instruction with the cultural and historical experiences of their middle level students in mind while also navigating the differences between student and teacher as an opportunity for growth (Jones & Woglom, 2015; Andrews et al., 2018).

Critical reflection work begins with pedagogies of personal reflection on privilege, culture, racism, and bias (Gorski, 2013; hooks, 1994; Kendi, 2019; Simmons, 2019). Reflecting on personal experiences helps future teachers recognize and acknowledge how and where privilege, culture, white supremacy, bias, and inequity are built into school structures and policies (Gorski, 2013; Simmons, 2019). White supremacy, or the belief that white people and systems designed by and for their personal needs and experiences are inherently superior, is present in schools and should be taken into consideration as demographics continue to shift towards a non-white student population majority (Chen et al., 2021; Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995). Educators must also redress the inequities and injustices promoted in classrooms and schools by teaching representative histories and talking about race with students (Simmons, 2019). These practices task middle level teacher candidates with implementing instruction that values the dignity and diversity of all individuals. The practices allow students to learn and express themselves in a variety of ways and use the full range of communication skills and technologies in purposeful contexts (Bishop et al., 2019; Brinegar et al., 2019).

Instruction should also be challenging and creative. Middle level teacher candidates encourage cognitive exploration and creativity through engagement in problem solving through relevant experiential and service-learning opportunities (Bishop et al., 2019; Jagla, 2016). They pursue deeper learning and stress competencies such as collaboration, effective communication, critical thinking, and problem solving (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2012).

Middle level teacher candidates are prepared to institute a continuous, authentic, and appropriate assessment program that provides evidence of students' progress in meeting their curricular goals or objectives. Assessment strategies should honor the learning characteristics of young adolescents and increasingly de-emphasize competitive comparisons with other students (Strahan & Rogers, 2012; Capraro et al., 2011). Such programs monitor students' progress and document students' mastery of both essential knowledge and skills through intentional use of numerous formative assessments (Black & Wiliam, 2009, 2018). Impactful middle level teacher candidates assess critical thinking, independence, responsibility, and related behavioral traits while consistently providing students with feedback and support that is meaningful and intentional (Hattie & Timperly, 2007; Pate, 2013).

Authentic field experiences and student teaching in schools that exemplify middle level characteristics

Middle level teacher candidates are experts in their craft. They occupy a space with simultaneous expertise in their content pedagogy and middle level responsiveness. Middle level teacher candidates must have a deep and ever-expanding knowledge of their content area (CCSSO, 2013; Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation [CAEP], 2013; Darling-Hammond et al., 2005; Grossman et al., 2005). Research calls for middle level teacher candidates to be prepared to teach in two academic areas (e.g., mathematics, science, social studies, English language arts), creating a solid academic foundation for effective middle level teaching and promoting curriculum integration across subject areas (Jackson & Davis, 2000; Jagla et al., 2016; McEwin et al., 2003, 2004; Howell et al., 2016). Content pedagogy for middle level teachers should be broad and integrative. Similarly, instruction and assessment practices should be broad and integrative (Strahan & Rogers, 2012; Capraro et al., 2011). Young adolescents are experiencing a critical time in their development when they need relationships, connections with others, autonomy, and affirmations that they are worthwhile. Well-designed MLTP programs require middle level teacher candidates to demonstrate their ability to skillfully apply developmental principles in ways that motivate young adolescents and enhance their learning. Middle level teacher candidates understand that teaching subject matter in isolation is ineffective and often leads to student disengagement in the learning process, and they use that knowledge in their teaching (NCATE, 2010; Nesin, 2012).

Opportunities to critically reflect on and demonstrate professional roles, positive dispositions, and ethical behaviors.

Well-prepared middle level teacher candidates understand their multifaceted positions as teachers and demonstrate their ability to perform successfully in the unique roles of middle school educators (e.g., members of interdisciplinary teams, teachers of integrative curriculum). They serve as advocates of young adolescents, responsive middle level curriculum, and instructional strategies. They approach teaching in middle schools with an asset-based view of the communities and students they work with and for. Middle level teacher candidates engage in ongoing professional development and use the knowledge gained to improve their effectiveness. They simultaneously advocate for the young adolescents they teach and for equitable, culturally responsive, and anti-racist practices. They collaborate with other learners, family members, school professionals, and community agencies and partners to enhance student learning. They model high standards of professional ethics, demonstrate ethical practices, and treat all learners and colleagues equitably. Middle level teacher candidates collaborate successfully with colleagues, family members, and the larger community and demonstrate their understanding of how to capitalize on the diversity found in families and community members and do so successfully as appropriate based upon their levels of experience and expertise.

Middle level teacher preparation programs provide middle level candidates with the knowledge and experience base needed to develop appropriate dispositions (e.g., advocate, role model, collaborator, technology-user, and life-long learner). Teacher candidates act upon those dispositions in ways that benefit all young adolescents (Arth, Lounsbury, McEwin, & Swaim, 1995; Knowles & Brown, 2000; Wenzel & Roberts, 2014; Williams, 2012). They also document ethical behaviors while engaged in middle level field experiences and activities in other venues. For example, as they demonstrate their capability to position themselves as advocates for young adolescents, while maintaining professional relationships with community and family members, candidates remain collaborative in formal and informal learning environments and spaces (e.g., online platforms, social media outlets, in-person encounters); they are equitable in approaches and nondiscriminatory against individuals based on any differences or identity factors.
Conclusion
AMLE strongly supports the specialized professional preparation and credentialing of middle grades teachers at both the preservice and graduate levels. There is no other international or national organization dedicated to the specific preparation and advancement of the specialized professional preparation of middle level teachers. The standards surround this dedication and provide the means by which programs can be built and maintain specialized middle level teacher preparation programs that focus on the special knowledge base, skills, and dispositions needed to teach young adolescents effectively. This support is also based on the understanding that one of the most effective ways to improve the learning of young adolescents is to improve the professional preparation of their teachers.

The call for the specialized preparation and credentialing of middle grades teachers finds its origin in the position paper and belief statement of the AMLE, commonly now known as The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (formerly This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents). This 2021 edition of the AMLE's position paper provides educators a set of 18 attributes and characteristics that define successful middle schools which are rooted in research. Central to this is mandatory middle level teacher credentialing that does not overlap with elementary and secondary requirements. Quality middle level teacher preparation programs are unlikely to be established or maintained in states where no middle level license is required, or even available, for those who successfully complete professional preparation programs. Only when middle level credentials become universally required will young adolescents be assured of having teachers who have received the specialized preparation needed to be highly effective.

In addition, professional preparation programs for prospective and practicing middle level teachers should include opportunities for the formal study and research of the essential program elements described above, as well as provide prospective teachers with opportunities to work in middle school settings that implement middle level philosophy and support it with distinct developmentally and culturally responsive organizational structures. A template for such schools might be AMLE's position paper, and the The Successful Middle School: This We Believe, 2022 Revised AMLE MLTP Standards.
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Professional Preparation and Credentialing of Middle Level Teachers - AMLE

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Executive Summary Overview Summary Paragraph The middle years are the second largest time of cognitive, physical and behavioral development outside of infancy for the human body. Middle level students are developing their outlooks, experimenting with forming opinions, fostering academic stamina, developing their emotional well being, and determining their place in the civic, social and economicRead More...

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The article says true collaboration is based on three elements in schools: a mindset that values teamwork, a heartset grounded in trust and relationships, and a skillset that includes communication and problem-solving. True collaboration goes beyond scheduled meeting times and requires real openness, empathy, and shared responsibility among educators.

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Collaboration is a Mindset, Heartset, and Skillset - AMLE

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Many schools and educators value and promote collaboration through various structures and processes. And yet, so much of that precious time that we are supposed to be collaborating, we aren’t. Not really. We follow structures, discuss issues, use protocols, talk about students, and on and on and on. But do we really allow ourselves to be as courageous and vulnerable as we need to be in order to collaborate authentically?

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The article underscores the importance of strong communication between teachers and families to help support student success when learning formats or expectations change. It highlights the importance of regular updates, clear messaging, and inclusive outreach so that all families feel informed, connected, and involved in their child's education.

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Communicating with families has always been a valuable part of my practice. In previous years, this communication was primarily designed to build relationships and provide insight into student's progress and our classroom. This year, I'm teaching a hybrid model where I synchronously teach half of my eighth grade students remotely and the other half in person. I also have a few students who are remote every day, as this is an option for all families. In this model, consistent and clear communication to families is essential in providing the information needed to support students on remote days and give families a window into how the hybrid model of school functions this year.

When I communicate with families, I make sure to include all parents, stepparents, and guardians on emails unless I have been directed otherwise. This allows everyone who has a stake in the child's education an opportunity to be informed.

Starting Off Strong

Starting the year off with frequent, detailed communication helps parents and students get to know me and eases their mind about the many unknowns of a new school year. This is especially important this year with the changes in school protocols and the inability to meet with parents in person.

Before the first day of school I sent a group email to students and copied their parents welcoming them to my class, introducing myself and letting them know what to expect on their first day whether it would be remote or in person. I also sent an email to parents to provide logistical information, introduce myself, and begin with a positive and welcoming interaction. In this email I invite them to email me with info about their child. This information helped me speed up the process of getting to know students as I'm only seeing them in person every other day. I included a few questions such as the ones below to prompt their response.
What motivates your child?
Does your child enjoy reading? What is his/her favorite book or topic to read about?
My child's strengths are...
In 8th grade, I hope my child will ...
In a million words or less, please tell me ANYTHING you believe is important for me to know about your child.
Periodic Updates to All Families

In previous years, I sent periodic updates to families about curriculum every 7-14 school days as needed. I intentionally do not set up expectations of a specific frequency to ensure that I do not have to stretch to find something to send and I can ensure that all updates include valuable information. In this remote model, I have found that I need to send these emails every week to keep families informed. In these updates, I include what we have done in class since the last update, what is upcoming, reminders of long-term assignments, and suggestions for discussions that parents can have with their children about the content. If there is an upcoming test, I include study strategies and review questions. I also try to periodically include photos of the students in action. These updates provide the necessary information for supporting students academically and create opportunities to have thoughtful conversations about what they are learning in English. They also save me time because I receive far fewer individual emails from parents with questions because they have the information they need.

Personal Communication to Families and Students

Sending personal emails to families builds relationships, keeps them up to date on their child's progress, and helps them to be involved.

After the first major assessment in my course, I sent a personal email to each family that let them know their child's grade, one specific concept the child mastered, how they were successful, and a goal for the future. Due to time constraints, after subsequent assessments, I send emails to families of students who scored lower than a C, whose performance was outside of their character, and then choose an alternating small group of families to send to so all parents receive them periodically throughout the year.

I send positive emails to a few families each week. These emails may include social or academic success, funny stories, and other interactions that show the parent I know their child. Sometimes I include a quote from a written assignment and a quick explanation as to why it stood out to me. I make a list of all students and keep track of who I send emails to make sure all students receive around the same amount of positive emails.

When students are missing an assignment on a remote day, I send them an email and copy their parents. Most often, students have done the assignment and simply forgot to turn it in, and this reminder helps them remember to turn in the assignment and keeps their parents in the loop.

There are times when I need to deliver a difficult message to families about their child academically, behaviorally, or socially. The positive emails and consistent detailed updates help make delivering this message easier. When giving these types of messages I avoid general statements that can lead to assumptions and provide specific examples to illustrate what is going on with the child. I then propose solutions including what I plan to do, what I need from the student, and how families can help. I also reaffirm that I support their child and that I am working to help them progress.

The Magic of a Phone Call or Video Conference

When I want to convey emotion or deliver a particularly complex message, it is easier to do so over the phone or through a video conference. In a year that we are unable to have face-to-face conversations, it can be so helpful to simply hear each other's voice and the emotion behind it. If a student has done something exceptional or made significant improvements, a five-minute phone call can convey my excitement for the child much more clearly than an email. Sharing good news with parents is energizing. If a student is struggling or made a particularly poor choice it is also easier to convey my compassion, understanding, and desire to help their child through a conversation instead of an email.

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Building relationships with families in a hybrid learning modelRead More... from Communication is Key

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The article describes how to establish and maintain positive teams at schools through shared goals, clearly expressed expectations, and trust between members. It defines practices like establishing common visions, defining roles, promoting open communications, and fostering mutual respect as a way of bringing about productive collaboration in support of team success.

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The life of a middle level teacher is one of continuous challenges. Teachers are charged with curriculum development, lesson planning, data analysis, problem solving, response-to-intervention, and other student concerns. A well-functioning interdisciplinary team provides needed support for teachers struggling to meet the demands of the middle level classroom.

In his book As I See It, John Lounsbury asserts, "No single educational idea has come to characterize the middle school concept as certainly as interdisciplinary teaming." While a successful team works together to provide a quality educational environment that meets the needs of the middle level student, effective teamwork does not happen without hard work. We offer here some practical advice for teacher teams struggling to work together effectively.

Stages of Team Development

A group of four or five teachers does not immediately function as a team; rather, they develop as a team in stages. Administrators must support this process by providing guidance, offering opportunities for team building, sponsoring professional development activities, and allowing time for team meetings. Along these lines, educational psychologist Bruce Tuckman proposed a widely accepted four-stage process through which teams develop: forming, storming, norming, and performing.

Forming. In this first stage, members must get to know each other and sort out their respective roles as team members. It can be an exciting yet uncertain time in the life of a team. It is important that the team work together to establish a purpose, agree on norms or ground rules, and set future goals. Some tasks during this stage include:

Establishing the team's identity, and getting to know each other.

Enabling what is arguably the most important team norm: communicating and establishing how communication will take place.

Decide how often, where, and when the team will meet.

Determine means of collaboration via online tools.

Storming. As the team members get to know each other, they will become more comfortable sharing ideas and frustrations. As a result, disagreements may arise-and the storming stage begins. However, if handled properly, the storming stage can lead to positive outcomes for the team. To manage conflict in the storming stage, teams should:

Continually revisit their vision, mission, and goals.

Promote relationships within the team and with administration, counselors, and parents. These relationships should always be considered works in progress. Strong relationships are the foundation for real progress and later successes.

Determine what kinds of professional development goals are needed to continually grow and develop.

Norming. When team members learn to work together and begin to accomplish goals and solve problems effectively, loyalty develops among the members. Teams in this stage make progress toward improving instruction, solving problems, and supporting students. In this stage, teachers may want to consider:

Planning and implementing integrated units of instruction.

Evaluating and enhancing community connections through service learning projects.

Reevaluating and updating the team mission, vision, and goals as teachers become more confident in their decision-making and communication skills.

Performing. A team in the performing stage is able to accomplish whatever tasks or challenges may arise and has a high level of trust and commitment among its members. Often at this stage, it seems all team members pull their weight, and a leader is not needed. However, it is important to have a designated leader who pushes the team and maintains focus on team goals. A performing interdisciplinary team is likely to:

Expand the use of integrated instruction by integrating critical curriculum components into all content areas.

Make more community connections and ensure that parents are partners in the learning process.

Ensure that student support is consistent across the board. Students know when a team is functioning well and will respond in positive ways.

It is important to keep in mind that over time, some members may leave a team and new members will be added. As a result, the team may need to go back to a previous stage of team formation. For example, a team may go back to norming as members become acquainted and learn to work with new members.

Team Decision Making

One of the biggest challenges facing a teaching team is reaching consensus on important team decisions. Teams should consider these three important things when making decisions:

1. All members must feel that they have been heard and understood. This can be a challenge if the team includes members who are overly extroverted or overly introverted. For this reason, team discussions should be carefully managed to deal with those who might monopolize the conversation and to draw out those who are reticent to contribute.

2. All members must be able to "live with" the team's decision over the course of a specified period of time. By making this clear, members who might be uncomfortable with the decision, will be more likely to offer their support.

3. All members must be willing to commit to carrying out the plan. Agreeing to a course of action is not the same as actually participating to help carry it out.

With these considerations in mind, one important detail remains: how to develop a strategy for reaching consensus. After a thorough discussion of a proposal, each member signals with a thumbs up (completely agree), thumbs down (cannot live with it), or a thumb to side (I can live with it). If all members do not signal to the side or up, the discussion continues until consensus is reached. This process may take more time than voting, but the result is an energized team with a common goal.

Achieving More

Effective teams do not just happen; they develop over time as team members work through the stages of forming, storming, norming, and performing. Successful teams collaborate, reach consensus to make decisions, and work together to achieve common goals. Working together as a team is hard work, but the rewards are great as the team successfully supports students and teachers.

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The Basics of Developing Effective Teams - AMLE

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The life of a middle level teacher is one of continuous challenges. Teachers are charged with curriculum development, lesson planning, data analysis, problem solving, response-to-intervention, and other student concerns. A well-functioning interdisciplinary team provides needed support for teachers struggling to meet the demands of the middle level classroom.

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The following article explains how schools can reinforce student success by fully engaging counselors in a school-wide support approach. It describes the way counselors collaborate with administrators, teachers, families, and community agencies to provide coordinated academic, social, and emotional support in schools that make counseling an integral, proactive, and collaborative part of the school community.

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When you think about guidance counselors, do these words come to mind: isolated, unaccountable, uninvolved, inaccessible, or out of touch? Counselors can have the reputation of being reactive crisis workers who function within the confines of their offices, separate from the overall school community.

At Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in Montgomery County, Maryland, our staff has mastered the art of counselor involvement. In fact, the members of our counseling department see themselves as the glue that bonds all of our stakeholders. Here are some of the ways the counselors at Pyle work with administrators, teachers, and parents to maximize the academic and emotional success of all students.

Administrators as Partners

The support and collaboration of the administrators is vital to our success. Our administrators support Pyle's schoolwide guidance program in several ways.

A climate goal in the school improvement plan. A school improvement plan (SIP) provides a focus and foundation for the work to be done for that school year. By including a climate-focused goal on the SIP, our administration sends the message that the school's support of our students' emotional health is imperative.

The climate goal at Pyle is: "Pyle Middle School will help students grow academically, socially, and emotionally by developing and nurturing positive relationships and engaging and motivating all students to improve their academic achievement in a positive school environment." The development and implementation of this goal sends a clear message that everyone is working toward this goal, not just the counselors.

A voice in administrative decisions. At our school, the counseling department chair participates in administrative team meetings. This provides the counseling department a voice when key school-wide decisions are made and ensures administrators hear how these decisions might affect the counseling department and the students. These weekly meetings also provide an important opportunity for the department chair to discuss innovative counseling programs with the administration.

In addition, when implementing new programming, such as school-wide activities and lunch discussions, administrators routinely partner with counselors to introduce new ideas to staff, providing the administrative backing and support many staff need.

Protecting the role of the counselor. The administrators at Pyle honor the primary role of the counselor, which makes counseling the priority. At our school, counselors are not primarily involved in disciplinary roles such as bus duty, lunch duty, and alcohol/drug policing. Counselors are not assigned to be testing coordinators, stand-in administrators, or substitute teachers. By clearly establishing what our roles are and are not, the administrators lay the groundwork for what our department is hired to do.

Teachers as Copilots

Pyle Middle School serves more than 1,300 students and, like typical young adolescents, they all need some sort of counseling-related services. This need cannot be filled by a handful of counselors meeting students individually in their offices; more time and personnel are necessary.

We've implemented many strategies to work with teachers to implement counseling services throughout the building during the school day.

The team concept. The team is comprised of academic teachers, a counselor, and an administrator. This team meets weekly to monitor student progress. The counselor and team leader guide these meetings, with the counselor bringing pertinent information about the students from previous grades, report cards, teacher reports, or parent contacts.

Often, the team creates an action plan that outlines a detailed set of steps the team will follow to help a certain student. This action plan usually includes counselor follow up, such as meeting individually with a student or contacting a parent to communicate team feedback. The counselor then reports back to the team the following week. If the team determines a parent conference is warranted, the counselor sets up, attends, and many times facilitates the meeting.

During the conference, the counselor ensures the parents feel like they are part of a team and, most importantly, keeps the adults in check to make sure the student's perspective and best interest are in the forefront. Clearly, the counselor is a vital member of the team, not an independent entity.

Classroom lessons and activities. Counselors provide teachers with guidance-related, scripted lesson plans and activities they can implement easily in their classes. Topics may include cyber bullying, academic integrity, stress, and self-esteem. At Pyle, counselors provide four school-wide lessons, usually at the beginning of each quarter. A specific date and time are chosen for the lesson to be taught to ensure all students receive the information.

School-wide events. The counseling department at Pyle hosts activities that provide students with handson opportunities for emotional growth. One of the most popular activities is Diversity Doors. After homeroom teachers facilitate discussions about diversity and acceptance, each homeroom decorates its door. A panel of judges (teachers, administrators, and students) chooses the most creative Diversity Door.

Parents as Collaborators

Parents are vital partners in ensuring their students' success, and we involve them in a variety of ways.

Communication and connections. At the beginning of the year we reach out to all of our parents with our "Meet the Counselors' Breakfast," where we describe all of the counseling opportunities for the year.

Committees provide endless opportunities for counselors to communicate with and support parents. Some examples of the committees at our school include: Counseling Advisory Committee, Academic Advisory Committee, International and Newcomer Committee, Character Education Committee, and Cyber Connection Committee.

Our Counseling Advisory Committee provides the counseling department with a key tool to communicate with parents about upcoming counseling programming, but also gives parents a voice to let the department know what needs parents see in the community. The notes from the Counseling Advisory Committee meetings are put in the monthly newsletter to reach an even larger population of our parents.

The counseling department also frequently uses our e-mail listserve to contact parents about upcoming events. This provides parents with information about counseling programs and events and also gives them a quick and easy way to ask questions and give feedback.

Career and culture lunches. Pyle's parent advisory group collaborates with the counseling department to organize monthly career and cultural lunches. Community members volunteer their time to speak about different careers and cultures to students who sign up to attend during their lunch. Participation is approximately 175 students per month.

And the Counselors

Teamwork is at the foundation of our school and our counseling department. Student caseload is structured by team assignment; all students on a given team have the same counselor. Counselors work together on grade-wide programming such as lunch discussion groups, career development, and classroom lessons, and share responsibility for each other's students as a back-up support team.

Because we want to reach as many students as possible, one of our counselors has a reduced caseload so she can devote half of her time to special programming and schoolwide events.

Consistency. Each year, counselors and administrators move with their students to the next grade. This system promotes consistency for the students, fosters communication between the counselor and administration, provides teachers with background knowledge about the students, and helps ward off counselor burn-out.

Confidential, not mute. While confidentiality is at the heart of a counselor's role, not everything a counselor does should be kept a secret. At Pyle Middle School, students and parents often want other staff members to know about their situations as part of the problem-solving process. We routinely ask parents and students, "Is this something I can share with the teachers?" or "What part of what you just told me can I share with the teachers?" We explain the benefit of everyone being on the same page in terms of helping the student.

Bragging rights. Counselors must demystify their position to the staff and reveal how they are using their time. Marketing strategies are a great tool for this. Our counselors make a targeted effort to inform parents, students, and staff about our programs and services. We visit every classroom in the beginning of the year and conduct a needs assessment with all students that helps guide our programming. We announce upcoming groups/ programming to students, parents, and staff via e-mails, listserves, bulletin boards, and PA announcements.

All about relationships. Relationships are the why and how of what we do. Colleagues who trust and like us are more likely to accept our programs. We are friendly and approachable to teachers and other staff members so we can more effectively work with our students. We even have a sign in our office that proclaims: "Warm and Fuzzy." We strive to get to know our colleagues so we can work with them to help students achieve.

Plan, plan, plan ahead! We try to do as much advance planning as possible. Prior to the school year, we put our school-wide events on the master calendar so teachers have the information as soon as possible. We also hammer out the details such as rooms and space for programming. The more we think ahead, the less we inconvenience others.

Instead of being isolated and inaccessible, the counselors are at the center of a bustling community center with outreach to every classroom in the building. With teamwork, vision, relationships, and communication, our counseling department helps guide the academic, social, and emotional middle school experience of our students

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Maximizing Counselor Involvement in a School-wide Approach to Student Success - AMLE

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Read More... from Maximizing Counselor Involvement in a School-wide Approach to Student Success

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The article points out how real family engagement in middle schools means something more than the ability to send weekly newsletters. It calls for a meaningful partnership of families through frequent two-way communication, inclusive outreach, and activities that encourage families to participate actively in their child's education.

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While family engagement is frequently a pain point for middle schools, AMLE has heard from many school leaders that the struggle is especially real this year. As we emerge from COVID, schools are having to reestablish that culture of family engagement - with parents and caregivers who want to be engaged in new and different ways. At the same time, the current culture of political divisiveness has some educators skittish about how and when to engage parents and families.

But the research is clear - positive family engagement is a huge boon to key student indicators like attendance, academic achievement, and feelings of safety and belonging at school. So, where to start? We talked with school leaders about the most effective strategies they've used for creating real, impactful partnerships with families.
What do we even mean by "family engagement?"
A key starting point is to define family engagement as a school team and what a good partnership with families will actually look like. "It's more than the weekly newsletter," advises Katie Powell, AMLE Director for Middle Level Programs, "schools have to get creative about how to reach families on their own terms."

That means redefining traditional expectations of parent involvement during the middle grades, says Joe Mazza, principal of Seven Bridges Middle School in Chappaqua, New York. "There is a traditional approach that says, when you get to middle school: parents stop at the door. They're in middle school now, so they don't need or want you there. We're teaching the opposite of that. In fact, they should step in closer. We're not saying bring them their lunch or kiss them on the cheek at the pick-up line. Instead, we need to help them become experts on this grade level and the developmental changes that are happening with their kids." That requires a partnership, he explains, one that needs to be tended to carefully. "Building that trust with parents takes years to establish and two second to blow it."

Most importantly, we need families to be telling us they're engaged and not the other way around. "If we're trying to be student and family centered, we should be asking what they need and what works for them," says Katrina Hill, principal at Community School in Roanoke, Virginia. She points to the example of a recent talent show that they offered twice, once in the morning and again the following week in the evening, allowing more families with varying work schedules to attend.
Fostering two-way communication - "Email is so last century."
When establishing lines of communication with families, there's never going to be a "one size fits all" option that meets the needs of everyone. Instead, it's about providing a menu of ways to connect. "I like email, but most of my parents don't," Hill says. As a result, she tries to communicate in several different ways whether its social media, having students create flyers for upcoming events and printing them to go home, or using text and automated programs like Remind.

Joe agrees that in today's increasingly virtual world we can't forget about the value of some "old school" tools. "Sometimes you have to stop emailing back and forth and just pick up the phone. That email chain can be so tone deaf, especially at this time of the year when you don't know families well yet," says Mazza, "Being able to show empathy is so important." He also challenges school leaders to think outside of the four walls of the school building, "not every meeting has to happen here at school. I once met in the breakroom at Burger King where a parent was between shifts. It's a powerful thing to them when you're willing to reach out to them on their terms."

If you do still use email, you may want to look at the analytics, advises Mazza. "I'm guessing less than a third are even opening it." Instead, he's found success using Twitter where staff and families are using the same hashtag. The result is a digital newsletter curated by the entire school community.

Mazza and Hill both reflected on the importance of accessibility, that families can easily access and understa nd communication from the school and have avenues to communicate with the school themselves. For example, the phone service allows school staff and families to communicate in the family's native language . "It's something we lean on," Mazza says. In addition, Community School is being mindful of ways to engage caregivers w ho may be visually or hearing impaired, added Hill, "learning to be accessible in those ways has been important to us." Providing descriptions to images and connecting with American Sign Language interpreters has helped make school communication more accessible to families.
Always be seeking feedback
It's important to think of family engagement as a partnership, and not just the school talking at parents and caregivers. This means taking every opportunity to solicit family feedback - and being sure to take seriously and act on that feedback. This can be both formal and informal, and should happen at both the classroom and school-wide level.

"Families appreciate having a voice," says Hill, "I'm a big fan of Google Forms. It's important to offer them a way to provide feedback in a way that feels safe to them." Mazza agrees, adding that it's also important to take advantage of informal opportunities, such as at the car line. "It doesn't matter where as long as you get that feedback."
Creating a culture of engagement
Rather than a separate strategy, family engagement should be woven into the various structures within the school. For Community School, their advisory program simultaneously serves as one of their most important family engagement tools. At the 5-8 school, advisors loop with their student through all four years. During that time, you can't help but develop strong relationships with families, explains Hill. "After 4 years, you get so close to families. I have parents that come back, not even with their kids, just to visit because it felt like home to them." Advisors also then become key sources of information about families for other teachers.

School leaders need to foster this culture of engagement by telling parents the story of the school, and how they can be a part of it. For Mazza, it's about giving parents tools to be extensions of their child's learning. Every parent can relate to the age-old dinner table conversation that begins with 'how was your day?' and ends abruptly with 'fine.' Instead, he says, if parents are seeing on social media or directly from a teacher in a text or phone call something that happened or went well that day, they can start that conversation by asking something specific about their day.

This work starts from day one, and it's important that parents hear from you before it's time to discuss something negative or a behavioral issue. "I want the first interaction to be positive, so I set aside time to send ten emails to families each day," says Hill. The notes will include something she noticed about the student, or just a friendly check in.

At the end of the day, it's all about creating a place that feels like home - for the entire school community. While this may create some extra work for school staff, the benefits will be long lasting for students. Says Hill, "yes we're teaching them facts and critical thinking. But middle school is less about having them remember those facts forever and instead fostering positive feelings toward school and learning. If they don't feel good about school during middle school, it's so hard to regain that later."

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Fostering Family Engagement in the Middle Grades: Beyond the Weekly Newsletter - AMLE

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But the research is clear - positive family engagement is a huge boon to key student indicators like attendance, academic achievement, and feelings of safety and belonging at school. So, where to start? We talked with school leaders about the most effective strategies they've used for creating real, impactful partnerships with families.