Chapter authors look critically at some of the essential components of the middle school philosophy: advisory programs, teaming, effective middle level teaching, curriculum, and flexible scheduling. In addition to provid-ing the reader with a comprehensive review of the literature on each topic, many of the authors in Part I of The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Edu-cation have offered the reader empirical data and insights from recent stud-ies they have conducted.
Part Two provides the framework for moving middle level reform for-ward into the 21st century. The preparation of teachers and administrators to effectively work in middle schools and to implement middle level reform has not been given serious enough attention. As in many educational reform initiatives, there were expectations that practitioners in the field would know how to implement the reform and that almost magically advi-sories, transition programs, teaming, and interdisciplinary curriculum would result. The four chapters in Part 2 deal with issues related to middle school staffing, teacher preparation, the middle school principalship, and directions for the future from Turning Points 2000 (Jackson & Davis, 2000).
