The Blackboard Awards 2010: Anything but ‘Middle’ of the Road

This week we focus on some of the city"s best middle schools in our third of four Blackboard Awards special sections. The Center School earned honors as outstanding public middle school. The school has thrown away the cookie cutter for public middle schools, and instead has found success by opening the school to grade 5 and letting those young students learn in the same classes as 8th graders. We also take a look at the diversity efforts at Friends Seminary, which has built on its Quaker tradition to include students from all walks of life. The Mandell School was the only middle school this year to win two Blackboards. One is for their community service work's the other is in the â??new and noteworthy category, as this â??Baby Ivy has expanded to middle school. The Blackboards are selected by a panel made of people outside and inside Manhattan Media who are knowledgeable about education. The awards are meant to highlight some's but certainly not all's of the schools and principals that are doing extraordinary work in the city. In June, we will once again be honoring some of the city"s best teachers. To nominate a teacher to be considered by the Blackboard Awards committee, please send an email of 400 words or less about the outstanding teacher to jrogers@manhattanmedia.com, and include the teacher"s name, grade and subject area (if applicable), along with the school name and address. The Blackboard Award sections are taking a one-week break for Thanksgiving, and we will be back with our high school awards Dec. 2. To read about the Blackboard Awards 2010 Middle Schools winners, visit ourˆ [special section]. 's Josh Rogers Blackboard Awards Special Section Editor