Dialogues in Middle Level Education Research Volume 2

David C. Virtue is the Taft B. Botner Distinguished Professor of Middle Grades Education at Western Carolina University, USA.

INTRODUCTION 1. Building and Broadening the Middle Level Education Knowledge Base PART 1: Studying the Schools to Watch Program 2. Reflection on Illinois Horizon Schools: Initial Findings from the Illinois Schools to Watch Program 3. Illinois Horizon Schools: Initial Research Findings from the Illinois Schools to Watch Program 4. Findings from the Illinois Horizon Schools: Validating the Present, Looking to the Future PART 2: Community School Reform 5. Community School Reform and Middle Level School Culture and Community: This We Now Believe 6. Exploring the Impact of a Community School Reform Initiative on the Literacy Achievement of Middle Level English Language Learners 7. Exploring the Possibility of Creating a Community School in a Rural Setting in the Deep South PART 3: Teacher Agency in Curriculum Processes 8. Better Together: Implications for District and School Leadership Instating a Collective Model that Includes Teacher Leaders as Curriculum Designers 9. Teachers as Curriculum Designers: Inviting Teachers into the Productive Struggle 10. The What Informs, the How Transforms: Middle Grades Pedagogy Theory to Practice PART 4: Social-Emotional Learning and Character Development in the Middle Grades 11. Revisiting “It’s Not All or Nothing: Exploring the Impact of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Intervention in the Middle Grades” 12. It’s Not All or Nothing: Exploring the Impact of a Social-Emotional and Character Development Intervention in the Middle Grades 13. Whatever It Takes to Help Middle Level Students PART 5: Music Education Research in the Middle Grades 14. Considering Young Adolescent Intrinsic Motivation in Music Learning: The Exploration and Choice Dialectic 15. Music Teachers’ Perceptions of General Music as a Required Middle Level Course 16. The Continuing Conundrums of Music Learning and Teaching in Middle Schools CONCLUSION 17. Sailing the Stormy Seas Together: Diverse Perspectives on Middle Level Education Research