Middle Grades Spotlight is a best practice periodical for educators produced by the Middle and High School Improvement Office, California Department of Education. The primary intent of the periodical is to illuminate the recommendations in Taking Center Stage: A Commitment to Standards-Based Education for California's Middle Grade Students. The objective is to highlight issues, research, and resources pertinent to middle grades; focus on best practices and strategies of middle schools; and showcase schools that are working toward a center stage position as high performers.
Spring 2007
DOC (858KB; 22pp; 16-Feb-2007) | PDF (757KB; 22pp.; 16-Feb-2007)
- Civic Literacy and the Civic Mission of Schools
- Highlighted Middle Schools: Louis Pasteur, San Lorenzo Valley, Zane
- Is Your School Library Relevant to Twenty-First Century Learning?
- The Relevance of Counseling in Middle School
Spring 2006
DOC (10MB; 24pp.; 12-June-2006) | PDF (425KB; 24pp.; 12-June-2006)
- Some Big Ideas About Small Learning Communities
- Highlighted Middle Schools: Gaspar de Portola, McKinleyville, Richard Henry Dana, and Toby Johnson
- Technology as a Tool to Save Time, Promote Professional Development, and Build Community
- School Counseling: Improving the Lives of California Youths in the Twenty-First Century
Winter 2006
DOC (952KB; 23pp.; 28-Feb-2006) | PDF (584KB; 23pp.; 28-Feb-2006)
- Prevention and Intervention Strategies Support All Students
- Student Support and Intervention Strategies-What Works?
- Spotlighted Schools: J.F. Kennedy Middle School, Rancho Milpitas Middle School, and Bernice Ayer Middle School
- Getting Results: Health Risks and Academic Performance Index (API) Scores
- Math Score Increase Attributed to the Enhancing Education Through Technology Competitive (EETT-C) Grant
- Eight California Middle Schools Win Awards for Exemplary Counseling and Student Support Programs
Summer 2005
DOC (360KB; 17pp.; 24-June-2005) | PDF (284KB; 17pp.; 24-June-2005)
- Teacher Collaboration and Common Planning Time
- Spotlighted Schools: Bernice Ayer Middle School, Olive Peirce Middle School, and Woodrow Wilson Middle School
- Collaborating with School Library Media Teachers
Summer 2004
DOC (232KB; 14pp.) | PDF (210KB; 14pp.)
- Smoothing Transitions for Middle Grades Students
- Transitional Practices of California's 2004 Schools to Watch - Taking Center Stage Model Schools
Winter/Spring 2004
DOC (364KB; 13pp.) | PDF (327KB; 13pp.)
- Fourteen Characteristics of Successful Middle Schools Identified in This We Believe
- Six California Middle Schools Demonstrate Characteristics of This We Believe
Fall 2003
DOC (416KB; 9pp.) | PDF (248KB; 9pp.)
- What the Nation's Report Card says to California's middle grades teachers about writing
Summer 2003
DOC (412KB; 6pp.) | PDF (132KB; 6pp.)
- Journey to High-Performance Begins with Collaborative Self-Assessment
