Chapter 1

The opening chapter discusses in detail what the Turning Points model is, what it looks like, and reasons why it needs to be implemented in schools. The list consists of eight points: create smaller communities, core of common knowledge, organized to ensure success, teachers and principals need to have a major responsibility and power, staff your school with expert teachers, promote good health, structural change, and how important it is to get together with other faculty and synthesize the lessons learned with most current research. This list was formed in the early 1990s and was then implemented in schools across the country. By looking at the research and data collected, the schools who made changes to the system had markedly increased scores in reading, writing, and math. The chapter also talks in great details about the problems that middle school students are going through these days. Things such as: teen pregnancy, STDs, and drugs. These are all major problems that teachers need to be prepared to deal with on a daily basis. The chapter also does a great job of pointing out how middle school students are going through a period of great change whether it is biological, psychological, or social. The chapter gives the notion that that middle schools and middle school students have been neglected and much more focus must be placed on their growth and achievements.