Implementation of an Early Middle Level Field Experience: A Teacher Education Recruitment Solution: Attempts to Educate University Students, As Well As the Public, About the Nature of Middle School Students and the Philosophy of Middle Level Education have Proven to be a Challenge‪.‬

While the middle school movement has gained legitimacy in recent years, attracting preservice teachers to the middle levels remains challenging. Essentially, attracting middle level preservice teachers is analogous to catching minnows in a bucket. As university faculty attempt to bait students into teaching young adolescents, grades 4-8, university students respond instinctively by swimming to the proverbial edges of the education bucket--to the pursuit of EC-4 or secondary certification. Albeit metaphoric, this minnow-like action of university students has invited academic inquiry and publication. Unfortunately, these attempts to educate university students, as well as the public, about the nature of middle school students and the philosophy of middle level education also have proven to be a challenge. Research studies (Jackson & Davis, 2000; National Forum, 2002; National Middle School Association [NMSA], 2003) assert that middle level instruction is a separate entity unto itself and thus needs a specialization area that concentrates on the best practices for the middle level student. New State Certifications