Welcome to the OMLA website. The purpose of our organization to provide you, the middle school educator, with information that is relevant, useful, and motivational. We believe that educators, whether they be teachers, instructional aides, or administrators benefit from a network of colleagues helping one another through the constant process of making our middle schools, centers for early adolescent learning. This requires curriculum, instruction, organization, and a school climate that are conducive to the needs of the early adolescent.

This website was developed to help you to:

     - Understand the mission, leadership, and organizational structure of the OMLA

       - Join and/or network with OMLA members

       - Find information to help your school implement effective strategies for the early
         adolescent

Our Mission

The Oregon Middle Level Association exists to provide support for the middle school educator in Oregon. We believe that our strength as middle level educators lies in helping one another through a network of colleagues. To that end, we organize inservice opportunities, publish newsletters, support excellence through the awarding of prizes, and maintain this web site. Our goal is to facilitate communication and the flow of information so that every middle school educator has the information and support he/she needs to facilitate the high achievement of Oregon's early adolescents and a positive school climate in every middle school in Oregon.

To enable our mission, the Oregon Middle Level Association conducts business under the direction of the OMLA Board and under the guidance of our organization's By-Laws.

We trust that you can see that this support costs some money. That money comes from membership dues in our organization. While anyone can access this information, we ask that you visit our Membership page and consider joining our organization so that you can support us in supporting you.

But membership is not the only way you can help. As our mission is to provide support for middle schools and that support is best provided by others who are finding success,  we strive to provide a structure for networking. Our Help OMLA page provides quick links to several ways you can help.

Please click on any LINK to learn more.

Middle Level Toolkit

Last winter and spring a group of middle level educators from ODE, COSA, and the OMLA worked together to develop a Middle Level Toolkit designed to help middle schools prepare for the new, more rigorous, high school graduation requirements. It is now posted on the ODE website. Check it out. It has links to many research proven, widely supported school and classroom based strategies for improving the achievement of middle level students.

Nominate Colleagues for OMLA Awards

OMLA will again be recognizing middle level advocates and practitioners from around Oregon with it's Putnam and Pence Awards. If you know of a person deserving recognition for their contributions to students in grades 5 through 8, click HERE to go to our Awards Page to learn more and nominate someone. We promise that the whole process will take you no more than 15 minutes!

Get Involved in Helping OMLA

Click HERE to jump to a page that suggests several things you can do to help OMLA help the middle schools of Oregon. For example, from this page you can offer Promising Practices for our support area, propose conference sessions for our annual conference, volunteer to serve on our board, etc.