2 - Adapting educational systems to young adolescents and new conditions

Summary

“If someone had purposely designed the worst possible institution for educating young adolescents, they could not have done better than the American junior high school.” This sweeping conclusion was expressed by Deborah Meier, noted American secondary school principal, during deliberations of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development' Task Force on the Education of Young Adolescents.

In June 1989, the Task Force produced Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century, a wide-ranging examination of the educational experiences of 10- to 15-year-old youth. Turning Points applied current research about the characteristics, needs, and development of young adolescents to an assessment of the effectiveness of the services health and community organizations provide to schools. Using language more temperate than Meier' but voicing similar sentiments, the Task Force found that “a volatile mismatch exists between the organization and curriculum of middle grade schools [junior high, intermediate, or middle schools] and the intellectual, emotional, and interpersonal needs of young adolescents” (Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1989, p. 32).

Turning Points was an attempt to define that volatile mismatch and to offer a plan of action for transforming middle grade schools into learning environments suited to the needs of young adolescents and equal to the challenges of a rapidly changing world. The report' release was followed quickly by an initiative stimulated by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to implement the recommendations in states and schools across the United States.

Drawing upon and, where possible, updating concepts and findings presented in Turning Points, this chapter briefly reviews Carnegiesponsored efforts to adapt educational systems to young adolescents and to new conditions.