Turning Points - Transforming Middle Schools

Principles & Practices
Services and Support
History
Turning Points Schools
Vision for Students
Beliefs About Teachers

Recognizing that each child comes with unique strengths, challenges, and needs, Turning Points teachers maintain high expectations for all their students and hold a visionthat their students will leave middle school able to:

Think creatively
Identify and solve complex and meaningful problems
Know their passions, strengths, and challenges
Communicate and work well with others
Lead healthy lives
Be ethical and caring citizens of a diverse world

Understanding the intellectual, social, physical, moral and emotional characteristics of the early adolescent can provide the foundation for a vision of learning and teaching in the middle grades. The developmental stage of young adolescence has been referred to as the "turning point" between childhood and adulthood (Carnegie, 1989). The risks young adolescents face as they navigate this phase of life can be considerable as they make decisions and choices that will affect their health, education, and who they will become.

Middle schools need to both strengthen their academic core, and establish caring, supportive environments that value the young people they serve. Above all, each and every middle school teacher needs to develop strong relationships with his or her students. Such relationships are the foundation for powerful learning.

Young adolescents are ready to be challenged to contribute in significant ways to society. With a growing awareness of the world outside the family, students at this age need to see and feel the relevance of their work and its connection to the outside world. The work they do in school should have intellectual depth and authentic purpose. Rather than seeing students’ need for social contact and their physical energy as liabilities, good middle schools harness these qualities for learning. Each student brings unique gifts and experiences, and a capacity for learning. It is the challenge of middle school faculty to create learning environments that will allow students to flourish.

Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development. (1989, June). Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21^st century. The Report of the Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents.