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 High School graduation requirements should be worked out at the school level by faculty and approved by parents and supervising boards, accepted by students who come to the school (who - one hopes! - have some choice in what school they attend ), and which lay out the knowledge which a young person needs to be considered an effective adult. These requirements will not consist only of long-ago earned Carnegie units and/or test scores, but will be based on a system of promotion by performance and by portfolio during the junior high school and high school years. Although most students will complete the faculty's expectations by the time they are about eighteen, others will move through the program more or less quickly. The "fixed" will be the basic proficiency standards; the " variable s" will be the time it takes to achieve them, and the ways in which these aptitudes are displayed. Breadth in the curriculum will also vary according to the student. Senior year wil...

 This question addresses the academic outcomes of students in junior high schools that are organized in a manner similar to large comprehensive high schools with departmentalization , 40-50 minute periods, subject area teachers, and competitive sports, as compared to middle schools using various degrees of the five commonly endorsed practices considered essential to the middle level model of schooling: teaming, exploratory courses, co-curricular programs, adviser-advisee arrangements, and intramural activities. These delineations, however, are not consistent, as many junior highs contain middle school components and vice versa. The issue is complex for several other reasons. The research about achievement often relates academic gains to practices and programs not type of school. These programs may exist in junior high schools or middle schools, although "true" middle schools employ the recommended practices to a greater extent. Another factor is the paucity of research in th...

 Exemplary literacy programs, which emphasize learning across the curriculum, are organized around teacher and student teams designed to meet the needs of struggling readers. Evidence that literacy is valued can be found in interesting and accessible materials, instructional methods, beliefs about literacy learning, school organization, and school culture. First, the amount of reading and writing required for successful academic progress in the middle grades increases substantially from that required of elementary school students. Second, content area courses such as social studies, science, language arts, math, music, art, and technology are likely to require that students read and understand texts in each academic area. These texts are primarily expository and often complex, detailed, and filled with difficult vocabulary. The complex processes of literacy do not occur in a vacuum; they are negotiated within and influenced by a social and cultural context. Interactions with peers,...