Chapter 1: Health Promoting, High Performing Middle Level Schools: The Interrelationships and Integration of Health and Education for Young Adolescent Success and Well-Being

The critical role of middle level schools, typically Grades 5-8, in the transformation of children to adolescence and on to adulthood has been widely recognized in the research literature (Jackson & Davis, 2000; Takanishi & Hamburg, 1997). Middle level schools serve young adolescents as they initiate their solo and collective journeys through biological, social, emotional and ecological changes that will lead them into adolescence and adulthood within a cultural context that was unimaginable even a decade ago. The journey is far more complex than most adults know and vulnerabilities and risks are ever present. Although middle level schools are only one of the critical links in this transformation, policymakers, educators, and researchers are compelled to ask hard questions regarding how the American middle schools are doing, if we are doing what is best for the young adolescent, or if school is in any way contributing to their problems. And what does research and best practice tell us what we should be doing to help young adolescents navigate this critical period in life? Educational attainment and health-promoting behaviors are two major developmental transitions that young adolescents must successfully navigate to find their way into adulthood. Many problem behaviors such as alcohol and tobacco use, staying out late, aggression, and sexual experimentation are related to the fact that society says youth who engage in them are not old enough, and if they get caught they are considered “status offenders.” To that end, this chapter examines the relationship between health promotion and academic success relative to the role of middle level schools as they prepare students to become healthy, productive citizens.