Chapter 1: A Decade Later

The chapter primarily consisted of explaining the history of the original Turning Points model, the purpose of the book, and a brief summary of each of the following chapters. The original Turning Points was a list of 8 points on which middle schools throughout the country needed to improve. This list was generated in the early 1990s and its model was implemented throughout middle schools across the nation. Based on the results on standardized tests, schools that had implemented the model scored higher than the counterparts that did not. The chapter then explains that this book is an attempt to build on the gains of the first movement because improvement is not the goal it is just progress. Achievement is the goal and should be the goal for all middle school students. Each chapter then explains a different aspect of reaching that goal.

This chapter was useful to me so that I could understand the history of Turning Points. I did not attend a junior high that was a part of this model. My siblings did and I remember them talking about how they had teams of teachers and they had classes with the same general group of students. They also mentioned doing units and projects about the same topic for different classes. The chapter also made a clear point that the reforms were not complete until every student was achieving at a high level. I think this sometimes can tie into a teacher’s personal philosophy of teaching. Some teachers do believe that not all students can achieve at high levels because that is what they see day after day. I imagine a specific aim of this book is to change that perception.