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!