Middle Level Education Month in Review

By: Stephanie Simpson

As Middle Level Education Month draws to a close, I write to thank you, once again, for being fierce advocates for young adolescents. I have loved working together to draw attention to the importance of the middle grades years over this past month. Our theme of The Empowered Student emphasized what is possible when we amplify the voices of the kids in our classrooms.

This Middle Level Education Month, we:

  • Saw the reintroduction of The Success in the Middle Act by U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehous and Representative Raúl M. Grijalva. The legislation, which is endorsed by AMLE, NAESP, and NASSP, would create a grant program to support middle schools’ efforts to identify and implement best practices for improving student outcomes and increasing high school graduation rates.
  • Held the Student Voice Off to give kids the opportunity to share just what it’s like to be a middle schooler in 2023. Selected contributions will be featured on the AMLE website and displayed at AMLE50 this November.
  • Empowered thousands of people with information and talking points about the importance of middle level education – helping us draw more than 100,000 impressions through our related social media campaigns.
  • Put The Successful Middle School: This We Believe in more educators’ hands through our AMLE Store promotion. While more than 20,000 people have already discovered this foundational text, it remains our mission to empower as many educators and school communities with these middle grades best practices as possible.
  • Launched our new Middle School Research to Practice podcast to equip educators with practical insights from the latest middle level education research. You can listen now on your preferred podcasting platform.

This was all made possible by YOU! We know that middle level education is special place, and I truly believe that our AMLE is the world’s most important PLC for middle grades educators. I continue to be inspired by the amazing work you do every day for kids and for each other. March may be drawing to a close, but I know we’ll find reasons to celebrate and recognize the work you are doing all year round.