About Us

Middle Grades Collaborative (MGC) is committed to improving education for young adolescents.

We are a collaboration of colleges and universities specializing in professional development for middle school educators. Designed for aspiring and practicing teachers of 10-15 year olds, our organization offers a week-long summer Middle Grades Institute and an accompanying day-long January Conference. We host the Middle Grades Review, an open access journal for scholars and practitioners; the Middle Grades Conversations  for educators who want to stay current with middle grades teaching practices; online modules for self-paced and collaborative learning; and other relevant resources for effective middle grades practice. Join us! 

Land Acknowledgment

We respectfully acknowledge the traditional homeland of the Winooski People, whose unceded territory is the place that many faculty members in the Middle Grades Collaborative reside or work in. The Winooski People are one of the twelve Wabanaki family bands that were living in this region when the boundary line between Canada and the US was agreed upon in 1783, leaving Wabanaki people living on both sides of the border and caught in the middle of someone else’s war and boundary decision. We recognize the longer history of this place, which reaches far beyond colonization, and its significance for the Indigenous peoples who lived and continue to live upon this territory. We further recognize that acknowledgement alone is insufficient and commit to elevating indigenous peoples and perspectives through our work.

Collaborating Institutions


Anti-Racism and Social Justice Commitments

We acknowledge our shared responsibility to work toward a better tomorrow, one in which there is justice toward those who are oppressed within our country and around the world. We commit to work toward dismantling unjust and oppressive educational systems via the following:

  • Examining our organization to identify and disrupt how white supremacy shows up within it.
  • Engaging in antiracist education and learning to further our own development.
  • Supporting educators and school leaders to identify and disrupt white supremacy in our school systems.
  • Advocating for educational policies that disrupt discriminatory practices that disproportionately harm black students.
  • Teaching about and through antiracist pedagogies and educational structures.
  • Prioritizing the perspectives, practices, and policies that achieve these commitments in our organization’s journal, conference, and institute.