This study examines the impact of early Algebra I coursework on advanced Carnegie credits among 12th graders from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, using data from the NCES HSTS (1990-2019). Findings indicate that early Algebra students, particularly Black and Latinx, earn more advanced credits, revealing a widening gap in advanced course attainment. The study underscores the importance of early Algebra in college readiness and STEM preparation, highlighting the need for interventions to address educational disparities. Future research should explore additional factors influencing college readiness.

For this theme issue, we invited middle level scholars to consider how organizational structures in middle level education can foster equitable learning outcomes for young adolescents.The resulting five essays explore the structure of middle grades schooling from a range of perspectives, from the conceptual framing offered by Main, Pomykal Franz, Falbe, and Ellerbrock to the concrete suggestions by Brown.Each of these authors thoughtfully examines the potential of middle grades organizational structures to advance socially just and equitable learning for young adolescents.

Fostering a sense of belonging is fundamental to recommended organizational structures in middle grades schools including interdisciplinary teams, advisory relationships, flexible instructional schedules, and heterogeneous grouping. Middle grades educators must ensure that organizational structures support a sense of belonging and also problematize the very idea of “belonging,” actively countering and disrupting white supremacy culture and colonizing forces that can make “belonging” conditional and available only for those who accept systemic oppressive forces without question or complaint. This essay contends that key organizational structures in middle grades schools can be designed and enacted to infuse equity orientations and culturally sustaining approaches and practices into the daily lives of educators and young adolescents.

Post-Covid, upon returning to the classroom, many students, but most especially those from among our more vulnerable populations, have difficulty collaborating and communicating with each other and reconnecting with their learning. We describe how a learning exploration that positioned struggling rising sixth-graders as cricket explorers, who would become cricket experts by observing the habits and behaviors of crickets in their care, nurtured their capacities for collaboration and communication and created a community of deeper learning, for both the students and teacher. That all students have opportunities for deeper learning is a matter of social justice. The exploration took place as a co-curricular activity in a four-week summer scholars program and involved nine students, five boys and four girls.

Middle school students are in even more need of social and emotional support due to the cognitive, social, and emotional changes occurring at this stage of their development (Caskey & Anfara, 2014), and their teachers are key players in providing what is needed. Unfortunately, there are few Institutions of Higher Education that offer programs or coursework focused on young adolescents’ unique and specific needs (Howell, et al., 2016). This contrast with calls for school contexts that are intentionally designed to support young adolescents (Bishop & Harrison, 2021) and raises questions about whether and how middle school teachers are prepared to meet the wide-ranging needs of their students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand how middle school teachers feel about their skills and knowledge in terms of supporting students’ cognitive, social, and emotional needs. The teachers’ perspectives shed light on ways educator preparation programs might refine and enhance their curriculum and instruction to better meet teachers’ needs in terms of supporting middle school students most effectively. Five themes arose from data analysis, which were 1) Appreciation of young adolescents, 2) Knowledge of young adolescent development, 3) Confidence and growth, 4) Strategies for working with young adolescents behaviorally and academically, and 5) External stressors. The findings offer insights for teachers, teacher education programs, and school districts to create supportive and productive educational contexts for all learners.

This autoethnographic study represents a reflection of my experiences as a parent of middle school children, doctoral student, and mathematics high school teacher through the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Navigating all three identities simultaneously presented many challenges, including fear, isolation, and exhaustion; however, it also allowed me to reflect upon and transfer methods that I perceived as effective from one of my identities to one or more of my other identities. Therefore, this study investigated how reflecting upon my own funds of identity influenced my practices as a high school mathematics teacher during the COVID-19 pandemic.