on the shoulders of giants: learning from the legacy of middle level education
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Tracy W. Smith C. and Kenneth McEwin
Appalachian State University North Carolina Middle Level Education Conference
March 18, 8:00-9:00 a.m.
“One of the institution’s key functions is to conserve
the best of the past over time, serving as a collective
memory bank to protect us against historical amnesia,
cultural erosion, and the seductions of the merely
new.”
-Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc in The Heart of Higher
Education: A Call to Renewal
“Fundamental change in institutions has always come
from planting small communities of vision and
practice within those settings.”
-Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc in The Heart of Higher
Education: A Call to Renewal
Legacy Project
The Middle Level Legacy video series documents the
history of a major educational reform in American
Education – the Middle School Movement. The
Middle Level Education Legacy Project began in 2003
and included interviews with 18 prominent middle
level leaders who provided their perspectives on issues
such as critical incidents in the history of the
Movement, important research and policy, curriculum,
young adolescent development and identity, specialized
middle level teacher preparation, significant debates,
and challenges to the future of middle level education.
Book and Video Resources
These interviews were completed in 2009. The Legacy
of Middle School Leaders: In Their Own Words, published
in 2011, includes extensive documentation, analysis,
and synthesis on the results of these interviews. This
Middle Level Legacy video series, also based on these
interviews, was released in November 2013. This series
is meant to provide a resource for middle level
educators and leaders to learn about the rich past and
legacy of middle school education so that its future
and the future of young adolescents can be vibrant and
promising.
YouTube Video Link:
http://www.amle.org/legacy
Introduction to the Legacy Project
Founders of the American Middle School
The Middle School Movement (3)
Foundational Beliefs Supporting Middle Level
Education (3)
Keys to Achieving Full Success (4)
Community Walk
Community Walk Webpage
We need your help! If you have additional places that
you think should be added to the North Carolina
Middle Level Education map, please complete the
short form and leave it with us before you go.
Modest and Groovy
Beginnings
Practitioners have played
the lead role!
The Key to North Carolina’s Success
Examples of Model Schools Created
Early Model Program Examples
Western Alamance Middle School (1970s)
William Lenoir Middle School, Caldwell County (1970s)
Current Model Program Examples
Ashe County Middle School (STW and NASSP
Breakthrough School)
South Charlotte Middle School (STW and Blue Ribbon
School)
Chowan Middle School (STW, Edenton-Chowan)
Hendersonville Middle School (STW, Henderson County)
John Van Hoose Professor at UNC-G, 1983-2001.
Served as President of NCMSA
Received C. Kenneth McEwin Award for Distinguished
Service
Author of Promoting Harmony: Young Adolescent
Development and School Practices
Established Harmony Fund to provide enrichment
scholarships for middle school students
C. Kenneth McEwin
joined faculty at Appalachian State University in 1973
Summons from the Dean
Attended first NMSA Conference and became a charter member
The connections and friendships Ken initiated at the first NMSA Conference became critical
to the work he was to do back in North Carolina
organized and began the first middle level teacher preparation program in North Carolina.
ASU’s program was also one of the first teacher preparation programs focusing exclusively on
the middle grades in the United States
First executive director
First journal editor of the organization.
In 1988, the first award for outstanding service in middle grades education in North Carolina
was given to C. Kenneth McEwin and then named in his honor
Past Presidents of NCMSA
Herb Tatum
Pat Knight
Julia Thomason
Marie Rudisell
Rebecca Stevens
Barry Rice
Gerald Patterson
Anthony Sasseen
Barbara Smith
Jean Blackmon-Brauer
Bill Rivenbark
John Arnold
Pamela Riley
John Van Hoose
Nancy Farmer
Jeannette Beckwith
Geraldine Ritter
Janice Davis
Ann Hutchens
Steve Teague
Elaine Boysworth
Ginny Myers
Theresa Hinkle
Frances Reaves
Beth Tyson
Betty Terrell
Rose Cooper
Jackie Colbert
Cecilia Gregory
Harriet Jackson
Jack Leonard
Rick Singletary
Jodie Graham
Missy Gabriel
Ran Barnes
Tanya Turner
Jodie Weatherman
Cathy Tomon
Recipients of C. Kenneth
McEwin Award
Kenneth McEwin
Wilma Parrish
Hardy Tew
John Arnold
Nancy Farmer
John Van Hoose
Janice Davis
Bill Anderson
Geraldine Ritter
Tom Ragland
Elaine Boysworth
David Strahan
Theresa Hinkle
Frances Reaves
Mike Ward
John Harrison
Joan Lipsitz
Betty Terrell
Maureen Furr
Marvin Pittman
Bobby Ashley
Ran Barnes
Missy Gabriel
Jodie Graham
Christine Waggoner
Hannah Cabe
Joan Lipsitz
Started teaching junior high
when she moved to North
Carolina; went to work at the
Learning Institute of North
Carolina (Chapel Hill);
established the Center for Early
Adolescence in 1978
John Arnold
“Along with Ken McEwin, John Van Hoose,
Wayne Dillon and others, I helped develop
the North Carolina Middle Level Teacher
Certification and Licensure Program, which
I believe was the first or one of the first
such programs in the country. Again, the
level of agreement and pleasure that we
had doing something of this significance
was wonderful.”
Centennial Campus
John Harrison
Executive Director of NCMSA
Influential advocate of middle level
education at the state and national levels
Recipient of the Kenneth McEwin
Distinguished Service Award
Past-President of the National Forum to
Accelerate Middle Grades Reform
Co-author of six million dollar i3 Grant
Theresa Hinkle
Career-long highly successful teacher of young adolescents
First teacher president of NCMSA
Past-President of the National Middle School Association
Recipient of the Kenneth McEwin Distinguished Service Award
Representative of the thousands of capable and dedicated teachers in North Carolina who work on a daily basis to assure young adolescents learn what they need to know in a developmentally responsive environment
Wilma Parrish
Founding principal of Western Middle School in Alamance County (late 1970s) which served was one of four middle schools featured in "Successful Schools for Young Adolescents” written by Joan Lipsitz
Received the Kenneth McEwin Distinguished Service Award
Was always welcoming to those who visited her school to learn how to make their schools more effective for young adolescents
Western Middle School continues to serve young adolescents under the direction of Principal Liz Alston and her faculty
Representative of the many outstanding middle school principals in North Carolina who work to provide young adolescents with schools that are effective and responsive to their learning needs
William Alexander
•Father of the Middle School
Movement
•Proposed the middle School at a
1963 Conference at Cornell
University
•Mentored Ken McEwin, Paul
George, Tom Erb, and others
•Was a featured presenter at ASU
summer middle school institutes
•Keynote speaker at first NCMSA
Conference in 1976
John Lounsbury
Taught Social Studies in
Wilmington, NC before
being promoted to
Department Chair when
he was appointed a
supervisor. One of his
first assignments was to
convert two elementary
schools to junior high
schools.
Nancy Doda
1974 Undergraduate from Wake Forest University
Keynote at NCMSA conference in 1976
ASU Summer Institutes
Tom Dickinson
“…when I first started teaching, my doctoral degree was in
social studies. I wasn’t really working in the middle
grades, and it wasn’t until I had a job at North Carolina
Wesleyan in Rocky Mount, NC, that I started teaching
middle school courses.”
Gordon Vars
“I think North Carolina has been the model of a state where they did that
[established middle grades licensure] and as a result, all of the
colleges and universities, I believe, in North Carolina have programs
and they have support from the Education Department.”
“North Carolina Governor Hunt
was a strong advocate for
middle level education. North
Carolina is the only state I
know that has had a middle
school advocate at the
governor’s level.”
– Connie Toepfer
North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt
Chris Stevenson
An important figure in the
middle school movement and
author of Teaching Ten to
Fourteen Year Olds, Chris
retired to North Carolina to
live near John Arnold, his life-
long friend. They live in
Pinehurst near the NCMSA
Headquarters…and a
beautiful golf course.
Closing Thoughts
“Movements for institutional change have always been
fueled by significant conversations.”
-Parker Palmer and Arthur Zajonc in The Heart of Higher
Education: A Call to Renewal
Random Closing Thoughts
Pick your battles for young adolescents and middle level education
based on their importance, not their difficulty.
We know more than we have ever known about young
adolescents, how they should be taught, what kinds of programs
and practices are best for their schools, and what kind of
curriculum and instruction they need.
This knowledge must be shared and used in ways that both
enhance the welfare of this age group and assure that their
learning is maximized.
Random Closing Thoughts
Be bold and courageous advocates for young
adolescents and those who teach them and serve them
in other ways.
They are too young to be their own advocates in a
culture that often reduces them to stereotypes of crazy,
hormone-driven, trouble causing, kids.
Do not allow their beauty, humanity, promise, and
potential be overshadowed by these stereotypes.
Random Closing Thoughts
When you become discouraged, seek out like-minded advocates
and walk around your school, or some other school, and focus
intently on several young adolescents as individuals and ask
yourself if they are worth the fight.
Do not retreat into your own world and give up on influencing
other stakeholders in positive ways.
Encourage those who are barriers to successful change, seek out
their strengths and capitalize on them.
Many times they just feel inadequate and are afraid of failing at
whatever initiative is being proposed.
Random Closing Thoughts
Do not become discouraged. Look around this room,
at this conference, and in other environments and
know you are not alone in your advocacy.
Take action because simply caring about something,
like young adolescents or the middle school
philosophy, is not enough.
Never, ever, give up on doing the right thing for this
wonderful and promising age group!
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