Youth will lead the way

Since it was first published in 1982, This We Believe has grown from a single document into a comprehensive program that educators, schools, and districts can adopt to help support student success. With the publication of the newest edition, The Successful Middle School: This We Believe (2021), this special issue of Middle School Journal (MSJ) highlights research that demonstrates how educators operationalize the essential attributes outlined in this edition. The 18 characteristics presented in The Successful Middle School are divided into three categories: Culture and Community; Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; and Leadership and Organization. In this special issue we feature research on innovative practices centering multiple characteristics related to these three categories. As you read this issue, our hope is that it serves as a starting, or for some, a continuing point of engagement with the essential attributes and characteristics outlined in The Successful Middle School. More so, we hope that you fully embrace one of the major goals of this latest edition, which is to center equity as an anchoring component of the middle school concept. Harrison and Bishop (2021) stated when describing the changes found in the newest edition that