: This research explores the perceptions of teachers/staff, parents/caregivers, and students regarding the effectiveness of middle schools in meeting the needs of adolescents, focusing on the framework outlined in the Successful Middle School: This We Believe (SMS) publication by the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE). The study, utilizing data from 10 U.S. middle schools, analyzes survey responses from 381 teachers/staff, 789 parents/caregivers, and 3496 students. Findings reveal significant differences in perceptions among the three groups across SMS characteristics. Notably, students perceive a less positive school environment concerning aspects of belonging, while parents/caregivers express concerns about holistic support and engagement. The study suggests implications for enhancing school environments, urging further qualitative research to understand adolescents’ experiences and improve communication between school community groups.

In a socio-political moment marked by attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, the preparation of middle level teacher learners to engage in social justice advocacy (SJA) within their spheres of influence is imperative. In this article, I share a Social Justice Action Project I use to support teacher learners in engaging in SJA within their field placement or job-based schools. I provide a description of project phases, student-facing materials, a discussion of common challenges and tensions, and examples of student learning.

In this article, the authors share an account of an eighth-grade personal narrative unit designed to support students in composing accounts of life during the 2020–21 pandemic school year. The article provides an overview of the four phases that comprised this nine-lesson unit and the materials and resources used. Students' voices, perspectives, and details from their compositions feature throughout the article. Implications for practice include considering the importance of life writing for both self and audiences and the meaningfulness of making space in middle level curricula for students to process their lives and respond to events in their world.

This study draws on the practice of digital storytelling (DST) to address the limited use of technology in middle school multilingual classrooms. Through critical and multiliteracy frameworks, DST can help create a more engaging and inclusive learning environment that supports the literacy development of multilingual learners (MLs). After reviewing and synthesizing empirical studies on DST as it applies to the middle school years, we provide a crosswalk focusing on four core areas: content, context, communication and language, and student identity. The crosswalk reveals how DST integrates Web 2.0 technology and promotes language and literacy development among middle school MLs.

Middle schools are increasingly diverse places where students see and interact with peers different from themselves. However, students with and without intellectual disability (ID) have few opportunities to interact—they are together infrequently within extracurricular settings and the classroom. As such, students with ID are on the margins of the social fabric of the school, and middle schools are challenged to create a positive school experience for all students. This article focuses on how Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools (UCS) can advance developmental responsiveness and social equity in the middle grades through schoolwide social inclusion of students with ID. Data from a multi-year national evaluation provides evidence that UCS can support middle schools to create a positive school experience for all students that aligns with Association for Middle Level Education’s essential attributes of education for young adolescents (i.e., responsive, challenging, empowering, equitable, engaging), addresses the developmental and social needs and interests of young adolescents, and meets benchmarks for high-performing schools set forth by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform’s Schools to Watch (STW) Program®. STW Program criteria establish a framework for schools to commit to an environment that prioritizes what is best for the developing adolescent, including adolescents with ID.