Changing Times Require a Changing Middle Grades Research Agenda

Abstract

Research Vincent A. Anfara, Jr. As I reflected upon theme this issue, Level Education in Changing Times, I reviewed many of topics that have been covered in What Research Says column. This column first appeared in Middle School Journal in May 1979. The list of topics includes, among others, teacher behavior; classroom management; parent involvement; advisory programs; single-sex education; courageous, collaborative leadership; core curriculum; lesson studies; grade configuration; and professional learning communities. As we focus on changing times, we likewise need to look at changing landscape of educational research as relates to middle schools and young adolescents. As part of this examination of middle grades research and its changing nature, history of National Middle School Association's efforts to promote middle grades research and to facilitate generation of knowledge needed to inform practice and policy are reviewed. This history will start in 1997 with publication of A 21st Century Research Agenda: Issues, Topics 8c Questions Guiding Inquiry into Middle Level Theory 8c Practice (National Middle School Association, 1997), travel through publications Research and Resources in Support of This We Believe (Anfara, et al., 2003) and R^sup 3^: Research, Rhetoric, and Reality: A Study of Studies (Hough, 2003), and conclude with an in-depth look at a current publication edited by Mertens, Anfara, and Roney (2009). A brief history of development of a middle grades research agenda In 1997, Blue Ribbon Research Agenda Task Force and Research Committee of National Middle School Association published A 21st Century Research Agenda: Issues, Topics & (Questions Guiding Inquiry into Middle Level Theory & Practice. The recommendations research contained in A 21st Century Research Agenda (NMSA, 1997) centered on 12 characteristics of developmentally responsive middle level schools, which were, at that point in time, delineated in 1995 edition of NMSA's This We Believe. It is essential to recognize that these same characteristics were identified by Association Supervision and Curriculum Development (1975) in its publication of The Middle School We Need, by National Association of Secondary School Principals (1985) with publication of An Agenda Excellence at Middle Level, and by Carnegie Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents' Turning Points: Preparing American Youth 21st Century (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989) as essential to creating exemplary middle schools. The authors of A 21st Century Research Agenda (NMSA, 1997) noted that research yet been fully addressed (p. 3) and that for some time there has been a need substantive discussion among interested parties regarding vigorous and continued research that is based on a thorough and thoughtful research agenda middle level (p. 3). By stating that research yet been fully addressed, authors acknowledged that research foundation middle school movement was relatively new, since history of middle schools dates back only to 1960s. In years since inception of middle schools, middle level researchers and practitioners have been busy seeking answers to questions regarding effects of programs, policies, and pedagogical changes in middle schools across nation. The authors of A 21st Century Research Agenda (NMSA, 1997) commented that the most common questions relative to middle level education are unlike most common questions now being posed of all reform initiatives: Does work, and how do you know? (p. 5). They were careful to note that it is not a single construct but a complex set of interwoven, interconnected variables (p. 5), which we commonly refer to as middle school concept. …