Chapter One - Turning Points: A Decade Later

Chapter One - Turning Points: A Decade Later
A.
After reading the first chapter, I’ve decided that this could be an interesting book. Chapter one is a basic overview of all the progress made in the last decade after implementing “the middle school movement.” This chapter covers everything from grants given, to results yielded, to student statistics through over time and also gives a little blurb about each of the chapters to come. One of the first questions this chapter really sets answer is: “Is this as good as it gets?” And of course, the answer is no; the “middle school philosophy” is just getting it’s legs with great improvements already being seen and so many more to come. For those of you that read Turning Points, I’m sure this will be the perfect follow up.
R.
This seemed to be a pretty standard first chapter. I was personally excited because this is the first class I’ll be taking that isn’t going to lump grades 7-12 together and just tell me that, “I’ll obviously need to make adjustments for different grades.” It’s refreshing to focus on a specific period in life and come across tangible information for each grade I’m interested in. The authors provides tons of research/evidence to back up from this design has and will be successful in school, although I don’t see much comparison to other models. Because I have very little experience in an actually middle school, it’s harder for me to just toss my hat into this model. What I’m saying is that I have a lot of questions. Perhaps I should read on?