Missed Opportunities

Armor-clad knights and imposing castles of medieval Europe have become an oasis of opportunity for middle school teachers struggling to capture the attention of students easily distracted by the lives that await them outside the classroom door. Rain forests, chocolate, and even trendy cartoon characters have also become prime topics for classroom projects and activities that weave together history, the arts, literature, and other subjects.

Some four decades into the movement to make the middle grades more responsive to the developmental and social needs of 10- to 14-year-olds, many longtime supporters of middle schools lament that, with few exceptions, the curriculum is shallow, fragmented, and unchallenging.

"The curriculum has become a hodgepodge of teacher-developed units that appeal to kids, but that are disconnected from the larger purposes of the K-12 curriculum," contends Joan Lipsitz, an early promoter of middle schools and a founder of the 3-year-old National Forum To Accelerate Middle- Grades Reform. "We have the structure right, and we have the climate right, and some [schools] have even diversified their instructional techniques so that the classes are very interesting. But they still haven't looked at why they're...