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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
Home > Blogs > Get on the Bus > Archives > 2005 > November > 18 > Entry
Middle school mess
In this morning’s paper, I wrote about the charter school movement and the effort to raise charter school quality. The conference I attended included nearly everyone of any consequence in the charter school movement in Ohio and several of the movement’s most important national figures.
But one non-charter school issue caught my attention. Steven Adamowski, the former superintendent in Cincinnati superintendent, said off handedly that he is convinced middle school is an awful idea and that all elementary schools should go K-8.
Dayton schools have bought into this idea too. They are converting all their elementary schools to K-8 and phasing out middle school. One administrator told me the whole idea of walling off large groups of pre-teens, working their way though hormonal changes, by themselves was insane. Dayton’s view is that smaller groups of seventh and eighth graders will be easier to manage and hopefully will adopt a leadership roles in the schools, serving as models for younger kids.
So is there anyone out there who LIKES middle school?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Charter Schools and School Choice, Teaching and Learning
Comments
By Karen
November 19, 2005 2:37 PM | Link to this
“As far as the comment about keeping kids K-8? No way would I want a 4th or 5th grade girl any where near a 7th or 8th grade boy. Oh my.” But during the course of the school day they aren’t near each other. And those 4th and 5th graders are really little kids in the eyes of the 7th and 8th graders. Which is the way it should be. But I only know these things to be true at my son’s school. If someone has a different experience with k-8 with regard to the boy-girl thing, I suspect the problem has more to do with the culture of the school. I would agree that sometimes middle schools try to do too much that is not direct instruction and are not rigorous enough in their expectations. (But this I only know from conversation with parents who children in middle schools.)By Ann
November 18, 2005 10:55 PM | Link to this
22 years of teaching math. Ten in a junior high. One in a middle school…the rest at a high school. So, I think I am qualified to make the following statement. Frankly, I think middle school is what is wrong with education today. When I taught in a junior high, we were all certified math teachers. We had high expectations and our students met those expectations. I sent well prepared students on to the high school level. The year that I spent in a middle school, I felt like it was a vacation from teaching. The curriculum was not as rigorous as the junior high…and there were so many interuptions to the school day. Plus, everything was taught on the calculator. It was no longer required for the students to have any number sense. Just give the kid a calculator and let them push the buttons. Because of course, they can use them on the state test. What a joke. Kids from the middle school that feed into our high school are some of the most ill-prepared students I have ever encountered. As far as the comment about keeping kids K-8? No way would I want a 4th or 5th grade girl any where near a 7th or 8th grade boy. Oh my.By Karen
November 18, 2005 5:45 PM | Link to this
K to 8 seems to work at my son’s school. But the school is small enough that no one is anonymous—not just in terms of teachers knowing students, but also in terms of parents knowing students and students knowing each other across grades. As far as the role model thing goes, because it is a Catholic school, everyone has a shared value system to hold students accountable for their behavior. And the older students are sometimes role models. They also have real leadership for some projects that are part of the experience of the entire school community—field day, leadership during worship, service projects for example. I think those three things (small school, shared value system, real opportunities for leadership) together make it work. In my own experience, public middle school worked fine, but it was a small school (140 8th graders)and families knew each well enough to challenge inappropriate behavior no matter whose kid they were talking to.By MandyMo
November 18, 2005 4:18 PM | Link to this
Patty, I had to laugh when I read your entry…quite often, I’ve wondered just how much “damage” my 7th grader is doing to my preschooler. There’s something very unsettling about a 4-year-old who plays air guitar and prefers Weezer over the Wiggles. I whole-heartedly believe that there’s no WAY elementary schools should be merged into K-8 zoos. I think the biggest problem (in my daughter’s MS, anyway) is that there’s no segregation based on ability….why not offer honors/advanced level academics for the kids who can perform at that level, and classes for kids who need the extra attention/help? Gifted pretty much disappears in middle school (not that it really exists in primary), and doesn’t re-appear until HS in the form of honors/AP. There has to be SOME way to differentiate the curriculum to the benefit of all students….By Patty
November 18, 2005 3:05 PM | Link to this
My personal experience with my own kids and their middle school tells me that you do NOT want 7th and 8th graders and around K-5th or 6th graders. Role models? Maybe some of them, but has anyone seen what goes on in middle schools these days? Do we really need to expose the elementary kids to things that 7th and 8th graders do at such an early age? Maybe I’m wrong. Anybody else have thoughts?By Janet
November 18, 2005 2:20 PM | Link to this
As a junior high (a.k.a. middle school) teacher, I can safely say that I like junior high. You’re right; it is a very trying, hormonal time for students, and it takes special people who are willing to take on those issues to teach these kids. Putting them on a schedule with younger children would stifle the independence we work so hard to foster. We are bridging a gap between elementary school and high school. We put much more responsibility on students than elementary teachers do, but we sometimes help them clean out their lockers, which a high school teacher would probably not do. We are trying to prepare them for the independence of high school while still nurturing their somewhat childish needs. I feel that it is important to bridge the gap, increase expectations gradually, and expose students to teachers who are not only able to, but are happy to, help them through this changing time in their lives. Perhaps this is one of the issues: some middle schools employ staff members who are unprepared to deal with middle school students. In response to your entry, my question would be this: if junior high students are too awful to be in a building alone, how are they expected to be role models to younger students? Shouldn’t we instead surround them with an environment that prepares them to be role models later?