The KAMLE Facts - A Brief History 
by Tom Erb, 1997

    In 1987 the Kansas Association for Middle Level Education springs forth from the dedicated efforts of about a dozen people from around the state. After an exciting experience at the national Middle School conference in Denver, a diverse group of educators, including guidance counselors, regular classroom teachers, special educators, administrators college professors and state board of education personnel, assembled in December 1977 at Abilene, Kansas, to create a new state middle level education association.

    By the spring of 1978 one hundred people, including 70 charter members, from across the state had joined KAMLE and 200 people attended the first Symposium, which was held at French Middle School in Topeka on May 5 and 6.  The teachers, administrators, and college personnel attending gave thirty-six presentations and seminars. On October 21, 1978, the first meeting of the Council of Representative was convened on the campus of Wichita State University by the association's first president, Michael James.

    KAMLE provides a network for those who are committed to the improvement of young adolescent education in this state.  KAMLE, like NMSA at the national level, is an integrative professional organization.  KAMLE is one professional association that is organized around the total school program for young adolescents. No matter what our specific jobs may be, it is through KAMLE that we are able to focus on the big picture and our overriding commitment to making a positive difference in the lives of the young adolescents who inhabit our state.  We owe much to those dozen educators whose collective vision and sweat started KAMLE on the road to success in 1977.