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The Association for Middle Level Education advocates for instruction that incorporates active learning and multiple learning approaches in middle grades classrooms. The aim of this qualitative study was to examine middle level teachers who are able to implement active learning and multiple learning approaches within the standardized testing and accountability culture prevalent in today's middle schools and to understand the barriers teachers face and how they overcome those barriers to implementation. Nine middle level teachers from 4 different school systems who implement active learning and multiple learning approaches in their classrooms participated in the study. Barriers to implementation as well as ways that the teachers overcame those barriers were examined. Data collection included semistructured individual interviews, classroom observations, and lesson plans. Barriers identified by the teachers fell into 4 categories: challenges related to the system, challenges related to students, challenges related to content, and challenges within the teachers. Themes emerged from the data explaining the teachers' ability to overcome these challenges: tenacity, student focused, and experimental.
INTRODUCTION
The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) published a critical position paper in 2010, This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents. In this publication, AMLE describes a framework containing four essential attributes and 16 characteristics of effective middle level schools. The 16 characteristics are further divided into 3 categories: (1) curriculum, instruction, and assessment, (2) leadership and organization, and (3) culture and community (NMSA, 2010). Of the 5 curriculum, instruction, and assessment principles there are 2 principles directly related to instruction:
* Students and teachers are engaged in active, purposeful learning (Active Learning).
* Educators use multiple learning and teaching approaches (Multiple Learning Approaches) (NMSA, 2010, p. 14).
Studies have found that middle level schools that more authentically follow or that have high levels of implementation with the middle school concept, now articulated in the This We Believe document, have higher student achievement (McEwin & Greene, 2010; Mertens & Flowers, 2006). However, an unfortunate trend reveals that this type of instruction is not regularly happening in many middle level classrooms. Anecdotally, many teachers report that these principles cannot be implemented in the climate of standardized testing and accountability (Wood, 2004). McEwin and Greene (2010) report in their survey of randomly selected middle schools that 81%...