The Middle School Transition Is Tough. How Educators Can Help
Education Week November 13, 2025
Filed in: Learning & Education | NSCA
A new Education Week article, quoting NSCA members Joanna Williams and Rhonda Boyd during a UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent media briefing, highlights how educators can play a pivotal role in supporting early adolescents’ social, emotional, and physical needs when given systemic support and instruction informed by developmental science.
Recent News
February 24, 2026
Advisory Board Member Karen Pittman has been awarded the National Education Association’s prestigious 2026 Outstanding Service to Public Education Award. Previous recipients include Kent McGuire, Linda Darling-Hammond, Sesame Street, Mister Rogers, and President Clinton. Frequently referred to as the godmother of positive youth development, Karen has spent her career bringing research on adolescent development into policy and practice to help leaders realize they can do more than help a few young people “beat the odds” — they can make systemic changes that actually “change the odds.”
February 13, 2026
Ron Dahl, founding director of the CDA, has received the 2026 Huttenlocher Award. The Huttenlocher Award reflects transformative contributions to the field of developmental cognitive neuroscience that inspire future generations of researchers through unique insights. As well as CDA’s founding director, Ron is a NSCA member, pediatrician, developmental scientist, and professor of Public Health at UC Berkeley. For more than 30 years, he has worked with interdisciplinary research teams to advance understanding of child and adolescent development, behavioral/emotional health in youth, adolescent brain development, and the clinical, public health, and policy implications of this research—work that has resulted in more than 300 publications.
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