About the Author

A former teacher and coach at the middle and high school levels, Dave Brown is coathor of What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know, Second Edition (Heinemann, 2007) and the author of Becoming a Successful Urban Teacher (Heinemann, 2002). He is a former middle school teacher with years of experience teaching and coaching sixth through eighth graders. He regularly conducts research with middle-level teachers and young adolescents as a professor at West Chester University of Pennsylvania and provides in-service sessions nationally on young-adolescent development, appropriate middle-level design, and culturally responsive teaching.

Trudy Knowles is the coauthor of What Every Middle School Teacher Should Know, Second Edition (Heinemann, 2007) and the author of The Kids Behind the Label: An Inside Look at ADHD for Classroom Teachers (Heinemann, 2006). She is a professor in the education department at Westfield State College in Westfield, Massachusetts and provides workshops throughout the country on ways to help all students become successful in school. Her research and writing focus on democratic teaching and ways to give students a voice in their own learning.