The material is organized into five broad chapters highlighting programs and practices relating to instructional strategies, assessment, students at risk, parent and community partnerships, and staff development. The author's goal in creating the book is to show teachers, administrators, parents, and students that there are many ways to improve what is done in middle schools so as to better address the needs of students. The preface includes a chart correlating the 60 programs and practices with a list of 29 educational issues, such as transition to middle school, reading and writing portfolios, violence prevention, and student motivation and behavior. A detailed description of each program's goals, procedures, and funding along with contact information is included. As an example of the material in this book, Changes, Invention, and Transportation is a featured program illustrating a school business partnership.
Students engage in an interdisciplinary unit based on the concept of safety.
In follow up surveys, students indicated that they gained insights into careers and jobs and saw how academic work fit into industry. Although the focus of this unit is on bus design and safety, the activities and integrated academic portions could be easily adapted to a local industrial or manufacturing business. The book closes with suggestions for teacher mentoring and a school based technology plan for implementing state standards. ENC does NOT distribute this resource. At risk students.