Middle grade students are unique.  No other grade span encompasses such a wide range of intellectual, physical, psychological, and social development, and educators must be sensitive to the entire spectrum of these young people’s capabilities. For many students the middle grades represent the last chance to develop a sense of academic purpose and personal commitment to educational goals. Those who fail at the middle grade level often drop out of school and may never again have the opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.

Caught in the Middle, Education for young adolescents in California Public Schools, 1987, Middle School Task Force, California Department of Education  

As our first class of graduates at Springwater edge closer to their graduation, parents of many students at Springwater are wondering about the Springwater experience versus a traditional middle school. How well are our students prepared for high school? What about the bigger school environment? Aren’t they missing out on all the other things bigger schools can offer? What about changing classes and having multiple teachers?  Those are legitimate questions.  Springwater will never offer the same experience of a traditional middle school, but what makes our program a strong fit for middle school age students?

In 1989, the California Board of Education published the landmark report, Caught in the Middle, where the Middle School Task Force outlined their recommendations for a radical shift in the way education would be structured for middle grade students. The premise of the report was that students in grades 6-8 were significantly different than those in elementary schools or in high school, and so required schools that were not the typical junior highs so many of us attended.  Junior highs were essentially high schools with younger students—teachers had high school credentials and their teaching methods were in line with most high school teachers.

But these schools were failing many students. The students were not connecting with their experiences and were bored with their experiences. They were being challenged, but not in ways that interested them. To the outside world, they looked like they only cared about their friends and their teachers did not understand them. Essentially, the students were “caught in the middle” of two educational systems. Neither one was designed with them in mind. Their unique characteristics were not being addressed and so they got lost in the shuffle of big schools, complicated schedules, and a myriad of demands.

Caught in the Middle described a middle school student who needed intellectual challenge, but needed to learn by interacting with peers, not along side them. It described students who were different intellectually, socially, physically, and emotionally. They described students who were intellectually curious but also concerned with fairness and structure. They described students who were just beginning to grapple with the big ideas of “Who am I?” and “Who do I want to be?” Adolescents are developing their identity and they needed help in that journey.  Finally, they described students who needed a sense of belonging. They must feel connected to peers as well as to adults. They must feel that their teachers care about them. Schools needed to change to match their students or risk losing more of them.

The middle school reform movement prescribed radical changes.  First and foremost, they wanted schools that would care about their students, where no student could get lost in the mix of a big school. They advocated breaking big junior highs into smaller schools within a school. They envisioned interdisciplinary teams of teachers who met daily to plan hands-on experiences strong in math and science. They envisioned social time where students got opportunities to interact with each other in academic and non-academic ways. They described educational experiences where students who got more opportunities to problem solve and play with mental ideas. They described a place where adolescents could feel safe and where their social and emotional needs were developed in thoughtful ways.

With these ideas in mind, Springwater set out to create a unique experience for our middle grade students. We did not set out to create a separate middle school from the rest of the school. Instead we set out to address the unique needs of middle school students in a model consistent with Springwater’s vision. I believe that our design more closely meets the needs of middle schoolers than most traditional middle schools.  

One of the biggest structural changes advocated by Caught in the Middle was to make the school smaller with a team approach and schools or wings within a school. At Springwater, we have that going in.  Middle grade students will have only one or two teachers—thus creating a structure where teachers know their students well. In 6/7, students are grouped in many different ways so that students interact with all students in many different environments.

Caught in the Middle also called for a rigorous education focused on interdisciplinary thematic teaching and active learning experiences. They called for lots of social interaction during instruction, and they called for a stronger emphasis on math and science. They called for a greater emphasis on thinking skills and moral reasoning. They called for education that fostered the intellectual curiosity of middle school students. In other words, education must move from the lecture format found at so many high schools to one where the student is at the center and where they get the opportunity to make educational decisions.  The task force recommended projects and project-based learning. At Springwater we have teachers committed to hands-on education thematically tied to rigorous science focused project-based units. Students not only have high level science experiences, but they also read and write about their science content. Our students’ intellectual curiosity is nurtured through high-level science experiences. Students are not lectured to. Students do science and they talk about it in groups and discussions. They predict and hypothesize and test and wonder and infer. They learn in an environment where they decide the direction of inquiry.

Caught in the Middle advocated for education focused around the social development needs of adolescents. Springwater middle grade students participate in class morning meetings, Middle School Meeting, and a class called Social Awareness where students learn about historical events and see how the lessons of the past can be applied to their lives. In this way, history is seen as a starting point to connect ideas to their own lives rather than lists of facts to be memorized. This year we have examined the Civil Rights Movement and discussed social themes such as empathy, perspective, dignity, character, and standing up for what you believe. Students were trained as peer mentors and learned how to fight fair. By examining the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., students were able to develop their moral reasoning by imagining what they would have done if they were in the shoes of those fighting for equal rights.

Caught in the Middle also called for opportunities for students to have an exploratory curriculum: one where students could explore their interests beyond the core curriculum. Springwater is addressing this need with Artist in Residence, Technology instruction, after school instruction such as Spanish Language instruction, a significant outdoor education, and a variety of parent-led outside of school experiences such as dances, fund raisers, and school wide events.  Our Friday Field Study also does so much to balance our core curriculum with outside interests. So many of our students have a passion for nature and environmental issues, and just observing and being in nature, as well as studying it scientifically, brings these students richer experiences.

The task force even advocated homework, but called for homework that is an “extension of the active learning classroom environment.” When our students are writing Homework Reflections or Home Journals, they are writing about experiences they had in class.

The task force also noted the importance of fun. They believed that the middle school should not be a time to be “endured” but a time to have fun while pursing intellectual and personal curiosity. We at Springwater believe that putting students at the center creates an environment where we can laugh and have fun while remaining serious about our learning.

So, while Springwater does not offer some of the experiences of middle school like sports and band and big vibrant cafeterias, I believe our students are experiencing an intellectually rigorous, stimulating, caring learning environment that closely matches their unique needs.

Appendix A: "Characteristics of Middle Grade Students,” Caught in the Middle (1989). Sacramento: California Department of Education, pages 144-148. 

Intellectual Development:

Display a wide range of individual intellectual development as their minds experience transition from the concrete-manipulatory stage to the capacity for abstract thought. This transition ultimately makes possible:

Propositional thought

Consideration of ideas contrary to fact

Reasoning with hypotheses involving two or more variables

Appreciation for the elegance of mathematical logic expressed in symbols

Insight into the nuances of poetic metaphor and musical notation. Analysis of the power of a political ideology

Ability to project thought into the future, to anticipate, and to formulate goals

Insight into the sources of previously unquestioned attitudes, behaviors, and values

Interpretation of larger concepts and generalizations of traditional wisdom expressed through sayings, axioms, and aphorisms


Are intensely curious; 


Prefer active over passive learning experiences; favor interaction with peers during learning activities; 

Exhibit a strong willingness to learn things they consider to be useful; enjoy using skills to solve real life problems; 


Are egocentric; argue to convince others; exhibit independent, critical thought; 


Consider academic goals as a secondary level of priority; personal  social concerns dominate thoughts and activities; 


Experience the phenomenon of metacognition  the ability to know what one knows and does not know.


Are intellectually at-risk; face decisions that have the potential to affect major academic values with lifelong consequences.

Physical Development:

Experience accelerated physical development marked by increases in weight, height, heart size, lung capacity, and muscular strength;


Mature at varying rates of speed. Girls tend to be taller than boys for the first two years of early adolescence and are ordinarily more physically developed than boys;


Experience bone growth faster than muscle development; uneven muscle/bone development results in lack of coordination and awkwardness; bones may lack protection of covering muscles and supporting tendons;


Reflect a wide range of individual differences which begin to appear in prepubertal and pubertal stages of development. Boys tend to lag behind girls. There are marked individual differences in physical development for boys and girls. The greatest variability in physiological development and size occurs at about age thirteen;


Experience biological development five years sooner than adolescents of the last century;the average age of menarche has dropped from seventeen to twelve years of age;


Face responsibility for sexual behavior before full emotional and social maturity has occurred;


Show changes in body contour including temporarily large noses, protruding ears,long arms; have posture problems;


Are often disturbed by body changes:

Girls are anxious about physical changes that accompany sexual maturation;

Boys are anxious about receding chins, cowlicks, dimples, and changes in their voices;


Experience fluctuations in basal metabolism which can cause extreme restlessness at times and equally extreme listlessness at other moments;


Have ravenous appetites and peculiar tastes; may overtax digestive system with large quantities ofimproper foods;


Lack physical health; have poor levels of endurance, strength, and flexibility; as a group are fatter and unhealthier;


Are physically at-risk; major causes of death are homicide, suicide, accident, and leukemia.

Psychological Development

Are often erratic and inconsistent in their behavior; anxiety and fear are contrasted with periods of bravado; feelings shift between superiority and inferiority;


Have chemical and hormonal imbalances which often trigger emotions that are frightening and poorly understood; may regress to more childish behavior patterns at this point;


Are easily offended and are sensitive to criticism of personal shortcomings;


Tend to exaggerate simple occurrences and believe that personal problems, experiences, and feelings are unique to themselves;


Are moody, restless; often feel self-conscious and alienated; lack self esteem; are introspective;


Are searching for adult identity and acceptance even in the midst of intense peer group relationships;


Are vulnerable to naive opinions, one-sided arguments;


Are searching to form a conscious sense of individual uniqueness  "Who am I?";


Have emerging sense of humor based on increased intellectual ability to see abstract relationships; appreciate the "double entendre";


Are basically optimistic, hopeful;


Are psychologically at-risk; at no other point in human development is an individual likely to encounter so much diversity in relation to oneself and others.

Social Development

Experience often traumatic conflicts due to conflicting loyalties to peer groups and family;


Refer to peers as sources for standards and models of behavior; media heroes and heroines are also singularly important in shaping both behavior and fashion;


May be rebellious towards parents but still strongly dependent on parental values; want to make own choices, but the authority of the family is a critical factor in ultimate decisions;


Are impacted by high level of mobility in society; may become anxious and disoriented when peer group ties are broken because of family relocation to other communities;


Are often confused and frightened by new school settings which are large and impersonal;


Act out unusual or drastic behavior at times; may be aggressive, daring, boisterous, argumentative;


Are fiercely loyal to peer group values; sometimes cruel or insensitive to those outside the peer group;


Want to know and feel that significant adults, including parents and teachers, love and accept them; need frequent affirmation;


Sense negative impact of adolescent behaviors on parents and teachers; realize thin edge between tolerance and rejection; feelings of adult rejection drive the adolescent into the relatively secure social environment of the peer group;


Strive to define sex role characteristics; search to establish positive social relationships with members of the same and opposite sex;


Experience low risk-trust relationships with adults who show lack of sensitivity to adolescent characteristics and needs;


Challenge authority figures; test limits of acceptable behavior;


Are socially at-risk; adult values are largely shaped conceptually during adolescence; negative interactions with peers, parents, and teachers may compromise ideals and commitments.

Moral and Ethical Development

Are essentially idealistic; have a strong sense of fairness in human relationships;


Experience thoughts and feelings of awe and wonder related to their expanding intellectual and emotional awareness;


Ask large, unanswerable questions about the meaning of life; do not expect absolute answers but are turned off by trivial adult responses;


Are reflective, analytical, and introspective about their thoughts and feelings;


Confront hard moral and ethical questions for which they are unprepared to cope;


Are at-risk in the development of moral and ethical choices and behaviors; primarydependency on the influences of home and church for moral and ethical development seriously compromises adolescents for whom these resources are absent; adolescents want to explore the moral and ethical issues which are confronted in the curriculum, in the media, and In the daily interactions they experience in their families and peer groups.