Centering on Students in the Middle Grades Curriculum

Abstract

In their book, Fires in Middle School Bathroom: Advice for Teachers from Middle Schoolers, Cushman and Rogers (2008) described results of interviewing middle school from five different urban areas about their thoughts and suggestions for middle grades educators. The authors issue a direct plea to middle grades teachers, whom they hope will form primary authence for book: We hope you will recognize enormous importance you have to your students. ... As you listen to them speak of their hopes and their vulnerabilities, we have confidence that you will find ways to better support them during their journey on middle school bridge, (p. xiii) Young adolescents, ages 10 to 15, must be starting point for any discussion of what ought to be happening in middle grades education. Turning Points 2000: Educating Adolescents for 21st Century (Jackson & Davis, 2000), and This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents (National Middle School Association, 2003) place young adolescents front and center in describing what should be happening in middle grades schools that serve them. This article will first situate notion of being centered on within landscape of Turning Points 2000 vision and overarching goal. Then, article spotlights first of seven recommendations in book, examining how middle grades curriculum can and should be centered on students. Students and Turning Points 2000 vision In Turning Points 2000 (Jackson & Davis, 2000), authors articulated same vision described in original TurningPoints report (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development [CCAD], 1989), an image that hopefully captures what of us want for young adolescents. The vision describes a 15-year-old who has emerged from middle grades intellectually reflective, en route to a lifetime of meaningful work, a good citizen, caring and ethical, and healthy-physically, mentally, and emotionally. Students, then, dominate landscape in Turning Points vision, and TurningPoints 2000 draws connections, direct or implied, to young adolescents in each of seven recommendations book offers for improving middle grades schools. Jackson and Davis (2000) argued that overarching goal for schools containing middle grades should be success for student. Success would mean that student, by end of middle grades, has achieved vision outlined above, a vision that encompasses both equity and excellence. The original Turning Points report used phrase ensuring success for students (CCAD, 1989, p. 36). The use of word every signals a change in terminology from original report. The authors changed from to every because for too many people meant most, or the majority, or all but kids, with criteria for those kids ranging from race and ethnicity to language background, perceived ability level, status in special education, or socioeconomic status. The context for book's vision and recommendations has changed considerably since it was published in 2000. In a world increasingly focused on accountability, extensive federal and state legislation, policies, and mandates seem to clutter educational landscape and obscure and perhaps overshadow who should dominate it. A certain irony, then, lurks behind a critical question guiding this article: Can our curriculum be student centered and leave no child behind? Taking a look at that changing context for curriculum will be next step in addressing that question. Standards, Disciplines, Comparisons, and Globalization In first recommendation for middle grades schools, Turning Points 2000 called for schools and educators who draw upon three foundations in designing curriculum. Educators should 1. Ground curriculum in rigorous and public academic standards for what should know and be able to do. …