Middle School Today is clustered into major themes: adolescent development and identity, the adolescent learner, curriculum and instruction, and the contemporary middle school. The book describes the components related to adolescent development starting with simple principles from psychology regarding the physical, cognitive, and social development of adolescents. The book then explores current trends in research regarding contemporary topics such as trauma informed practices, social emotional learning, and social justice. A large section of the book is devoted to curriculum and instruction. This section will reach both broadly and deeply to the ins and outs of designing instruction, implementing instruction, and assessment across all content areas. Readers will have access to resources for teacher candidates and teacher educators to utilize in practice. Finally, the book explores the historical grounding of middle level education, relying on foundational principles from the Association of Middle Level Education (AMLE) and address how teachers can connect best practices to school settings where implementing best practice may be absent.

Holly Henderson Pinter, Ph.D. is an associate professor of middle grades education at Western Carolina University. Holly completed a PhD in 2013 at the University of Virginia. Her teaching and research center on the implementation of standards based mathematical teaching practices, pre-service teacher education policy and practice, and developmentally responsive teaching at the middle level. Holly teaches methods and pedagogy courses in the elementary and middle grades department as well as serving as the Math 1 teacher and instructional liaison at the university's laboratory school, The Catamount School, and serves as program coordinator for the middle grades education.