Collegiate Middle Level Association

The Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA) is a student association designed to promote and support the professional development of future middle level teachers, as well as the development and nurturing of middle level education programs. CMLA is an affiliate of National Middle School Association. Currently, Otterbein College is serving as the national host site for the organization's leadership. Their two-year leadership term will conclude November 2011 with CMLA's annual meeting at NMSA's headquarters in Columbus, OH.

John Swaim, CMLA Advisory Chair

The Collegiate Middle Level Association currently has 31 chapters. These 31 chapters represent a growing number of colleges and universities who are now preparing teachers to teach young adolescents in American's middle schools. This would have been an unthinkable dream for a handful of college students in the middle school teacher education program at the University of Northern Colorado who were trying to create a national organization for students preparing to become middle school teachers in 1988. At that time there were only 18 states that had middle school certification or endorsement as opposed to 46 states today. In 1988 middle school teacher education programs were the exception rather than the rule. Even more rare were middle school teacher education programs with active student organizations. As the decade of the 90s began there were only four higher education institutions that had active middle school student groups, University of Northern Colorado, University of Northern Iowa, Illinois State University, and Appalachian State University.

In 1989, under the leadership of Ned Gilardino, a UNC student, a constitution was drafted and the Student Association for Middle Education (SAME) was born. Its name was later changed to Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA). That same year CMLA made a presentation to the NMSA Board of Trustees. The Board recognized CLMA and agreed to help finance them by sharing a percentage of the membership fee of all college students who joined NMSA and had an interest in also becoming a member of CMLA. However, joining by individual membership did not provide the stability that was needed to help the association grow. In fact, when the elections were held the officers often came from several different campuses which made it difficult to conduct the business of the association.

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