Giving Compass' Take:

• Educators are gathering in Washington D.C. to focus on topics such as how schools and youth development programs can create environments that better fit students in the middle school years and how to improve preparation programs for teachers and administrators.

• How different are the learning and teaching strategies for middle-school aged students compared to others? How can we create positive opportunities for middle school students outside of the classroom?

• To read about the case for keeping middle school separate from elementary and high school, click here.  

Between ensuring more young children have school readiness skills and raising high school graduation rates, the middle school years are often overlooked in the push to improve education policy and practices.

Nancy L. Deutsch, who directs Youth-Nex at the University of Virginia, hopes to change that this week when researchers, school and district leaders, students, out-of-school time experts, funders and others focusing on early adolescence gather in Washington, D.C., for a two-day “Remaking Middle School” summit.

“Now, I think we are in this moment of increasing understanding of the early adolescent brain as the period of second greatest plasticity and change,” after early childhood, Deutsch said in an interview.

Read the full article about middle school by Linda Jacobson at Education Dive.