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What's next for middle schools? |
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Written by Paula Becker
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Nov 01, 2005 |
Middle school. These two words strike fear into the hearts of many
parents worried about sending their hormonally challenged children on
the roller-coaster ride of young adolescence in a school setting.
When children start middle school, it uproots them from a familiar
environment where teachers know them and behavioral expectations have
been established layer by layer during the formative early school
years. Are middle schools, as critics in a recent study labeled them,
"the Bermuda triangle of public education"?
In general, experts agree that young teens still suffer from a
condition defined in Stanley Hall's 1905 book, Adolesence,
as "mental ennui and dyspepsia." Over a century later, a comprehensive
2004 Rand Corporation report expands on this, stating that "the onset
of puberty is an especially poor reason for beginning a new phase of
schooling, insomuch as multiple simultaneous changes...are stressful
for young adolescents and sometimes have long-lasting negative effects."
Prompted by Rand's assessment, Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School,
educators across the country -- including those in the greater Seattle
area -- are reassessing the concept of middle school (generally grades
6-8 or 7-8) or junior high (grades 7-9) programs put in place since the
1950s.
So, how did middle schools become
such an essential part of American educational structure? According to
Focus on the Wonder Years, the first grade 7-9 junior high schools,
appearing in urban areas in 1910, were aimed at "Americanizing" young
immigrants, helping them to assimilate culturally and become good
citizens. During the next 50 years, the junior high school concept
became widely adopted throughout the U.S.
But as the Baby Boom population bulge began to work its way through the
educational system in the 1950s, elementary school populations swelled
accordingly. An increasing societal emphasis on early childhood
education programs also boosted the number of tiny bodies crowding into
elementary schools. As a result, seventh and eighth grades, and
sometimes even sixth grade, were skimmed off into their own facilities
in order to create space in elementary schools.
By 1986, there were 4,329 grade 6-8 middle schools nationwide, up from
1,662 in 1970. Grades 7-8-only middle schools, on the other hand,
decreased from 4,711 to 2,191 nationwide during the same time period.
One of Rand's findings, based on a number of studies, was that
segregating young teens into separate middle schools might be
detrimental. Those 11- through 14-year-olds may be better served, Rand
concluded, by an integrated K-8 or even K-12 experience that allows
them to remain in a familiar environment, expected to conform to the
demands of community that knows them.
Diane Carlson Jones, Ph.D., an associate professor of educational
psychology at the University of Washington, says it is difficult to
quantify the K-8 vs. middle school debate. Finding groups that can be
fairly compared is a challenge because many K-8 schools now operating
are private or parochial and the enormous middle/junior highs are often
public. What is clear, though, is that "in the larger junior high
schools the level of anonymity and unfamiliarity is staggering," she
says. "We see more struggles to find a place or status in middle
schools. What that means for the self has not been well studied."
Asked whether there are positive benefits to forcing young teens to
confront these issues and "toughen up," Jones says, "Well, many people
think that high school may be a more appropriate time to confront this
-- hardening comes soon enough later on." Still, she adds, it is the
quality of life within the school and safety systems set in place by
teachers and administrators that matter most.
"Small scale is not automatically better," she explains, although a
smaller scale might encourage the creation of structures that "impact
learning in supportive and positive ways." Jones says that school
administrators need to look at the challenges young teens present "not
as an irritant, but as a chance to create positive systems for conflict
resolution and differing perspectives."
She stresses that K-8 or other smaller schools need to pay special
attention to how some students or groups become privileged within the
school, creating unequal status. In small schools where young teens
have fewer peer choices, kids who find themselves excluded from cliques
may have a "difficult and horrendous time," she adds.
A supporter of the K-8 structure is Nancy Wilson, Ph.D., assistant
principal of St. Catherine of Siena School, a pre-K-through-8th-grade
school in north Seattle and a former public elementary school
principal. "To see the developmental changes that occur over the pre-8
span of years, how both the kids and parents blossom within their
school community, is amazing," Wilson says. "This model gives us a best
shot at helping these kids grow up the way we want them to. The
continuity of pre-8 allows young teens the opportunity to be role
models to younger kids, including at times their own younger siblings."
In a middle school setting, she adds, "sixth or seventh graders go from
being leaders into a situation where they are at the bottom of the
pecking order. It is easy for these kids -- even motivated kids -- to
get lost." The pre-K- through-grade-8 setting, Wilson says, "allows the
young teens to be kids longer" by delaying their exposure to a
less-balanced, same-age, peer-driven community.
Keeping young teens within a familiar learning community also means
that they are known in a different way than they would be in junior
high or middle school, anchoring their transitional years in "the
foundation of belonging," she says. In pre-K through 8, parental
involvement doesn't fade out as often happens during traditional junior
high, and many studies have correlated parental school involvement with
student success, Wilson adds.
With the halcyon days of elementary school behind them, many young
teenagers struggle to make their way through any school environment.
Parents, too, are caught in the middle -- trying to figure out when to
nurture their ever-changing young people and when to stand back and let
them find their own way.
"Although parental involvement is not necessarily sufficient to bring
about academic success, its absence may increase the risk of school
difficulties," the Rand report concludes. "Partnerships, defined as
shared knowledge and expectations between parents and teachers, should
be the ultimate goal for enhancing the school success and well-being of
our young teens."
For parents in the middle, the message is clear: Don't drop out of the picture.
Paula Becker is a Seattle freelance writer and mother of three.
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