Larry Cuban's How Teachers Taught has been widely acclaimed as a pathbreaking text on the history and evolution of classroom teaching. Now Cuban brings his great experience as a classroom teacher, superintendent, and researcher to this highly anticipated follow-up to his groundbreaking work. Focusing on three diverse school districts (Arlington, Virginia; Denver, Colorado; and Oakland, California), Hugging the Middle offers an incisive portrayal of how teachers teach now.It is a revealing look at a range of current, workable pedagogical options educators are using to engage students while satisfying parents and policymakers - options that succeed by creating hybrid practices that combine both teacher-centered approaches (e.g., mostly direct instruction, textbooks, and lectures) with student-centered ones (e.g., team projects on real-world problems, independent learning, and small-groupwork). This book serves as a state-of-the-profession assessment in an era of top-down educational policy.