This We Believe: Successful Schools for Young Adolescents is a strong statement about the nature of exemplary middle level schools. It should be circulated widely as should the companion volume Research and Resources in Support of This We Believe. To ensure the implementation of the position paper's advocacies, however, requires action on the part of many individuals, groups, and agencies. Use these major documents to revitalize efforts to improve middle schools in ways known to be compatible with human growth and development and accepted principles of learning. No matter what your role, there are steps that any individual with a stake in middle level education can take. You can readily find a category, often more than one, to match your status and identify specific actions that you can and should take.

 Teachers:

• Become personally familiar with the contents of this position paper, studying it sufficiently so that its positions are understood and you can converse with others about the document.
• Familiarize yourself with the organization and content of the companion volume, Research and Resources.
• Review your teaching style and methods, noting where your practices do not seem to match the paper's advocacies. Review the research reported that deals with areas where changes in your methods should be considered.
• With your team discuss the various suggestions about teaming to determine which of your practices match or deviate from what is envisioned.
• Designate two team meetings a month to discuss the implications of the sections on curriculum and multiple learning and teaching approaches. Follow those meetings with discussions focused on assessment and organizational structures.
• Enlist a colleague to make targeted classroom observations of your teaching.
• Consider ways you could be a better advocate for students, and also consider how the advisory program could be strengthened. Reflect anew on your importance as a model and example for the young adolescents you teach. Determine what changes your team can make to fulfill its advocacy role.

Principals:

• Become personally familiar with the contents of this paper, studying it sufficiently so that its positions are understood and you can converse with others about the document.
• Familiarize yourself with the organization and content of the companion volume, Research and Resources.
• Make an initial assessment of how your school rates on each of the 14 characteristics.
• Plan with the school's leadership team ways to use the two documents in upcoming professional development programs.
• Secure copies of both documents to place in the hands of each member of the board of education, the superintendent, and other appropriate central office personnel.
• Request an opportunity to meet with the superintendent to review the documents and discuss implications for your system.
• Schedule an appearance at a board of education meeting to highlight the document and its implications for your system. Prepare written materials to leave with members.
• Secure copies of the position paper to place in the hands of appropriate parent leaders.
• Consider organizing a cluster of principals in your area to discuss these documents and exchange ideas.

Parents:

• Read the position paper carefully in order to form an opinion about its guidelines and determine how the middle school's current program seems to match what the position paper advocates.
• Volunteer to participate on any committee or in any group that is or will be reviewing the middle school program. Accept all invitations offered by the school to attend meetings or school programs.
• Read some resources that seek to explain the age of early adolescence. If your middle school does not now have a collection of resources for parents, take the lead in establishing one.
• Organize and conduct one or more parent study groups to discuss the position paper.
• Ask to do a shadow study in the school to develop an understanding of the school day from a student's perspective.
• Work with other parent leaders to schedule an upcoming meeting for the parent-teacher-student organization to deal specifically with the position paper.

Superintendents:

• Read carefully and thoughtfully the entire position paper, considering the major recommendations that seem to conflict with the current program.
• Study the companion volume, Research and Resources, becoming sufficiently familiar with its contents and organization so you can reference it when needed.
• Share with your board of education copies of both documents and your belief in their importance as guidelines for establishing board policies relating to the middle level.
• Confer with the middle school principal(s) to determine how these documents can best be used in improving our middle school program.
• Contact the executive director of the state superintendents' group and plan ways for these documents to be publicized and shared in appropriate state newsletters and conferences.
• Contact the state superintendent of schools and/or the state department official charged with responsibility for middle level education to make sure that this person has copies of these documents and that copies will be made available to members of the state board of education and to key legislators.

Local and state boards of education, departments of education:

• Read the position paper carefully and discuss its implications for your school or state.
• Discuss your reactions with appropriate professional personnel.
• Set in motion a review of existing board policies that relate to the middle school as a first step in developing policies that are consistent with the advocacies of the position paper.
• Plan for a study of this document at a board of education retreat or special work session.

Teacher educators:

• Order several copies of both documents for the institution's library or curriculum center.
• Determine the best place in the undergraduate sequence to use one or both of these documents as supplementary texts.
• Identify the best places in the various graduate programs to use both documents as supplementary texts or required readings.
• Secure copies of both documents for the dean of education and other appropriate university officials. Send with a cover letter and follow up with a visit.
• Make sure the person designated for middle level education at the state department of education has copies of both documents.
• Plan with colleagues how the position paper can best be shared with the middle school teachers and administrators who cooperate with your teacher education program.
• Write a review or article about the position paper to submit to your state affiliate newsletter or journal.
• If your state does not now have distinctive middle level licensure, use this position paper as a way to initiate action with the state board and department of education.
• Regardless of state licensure, make sure your institution develops appropriate middle level courses and programs at both graduate and undergraduate levels.
• Contact the president or executive director of your state's association of teacher educators to plan for ways these documents can be brought to the attention of members.
• Develop a formal statement, in collaboration with the dean, expressing concern over the use of a single test as a determinant of a young adolescent's future. Submit such a statement to appropriate state level policymakers.