Although there are several reputable people speaking for and against middle schools, I'd like to draw your attention to David L. Brewer III, the former superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
This model is similar to the Harlem Children's Zone, Geoffrey Canada's brainchild featured in Whatever it Takes. I believe this type of community program provides the best of both worlds. Originally, K-8 schools wanted to be able to provide a sense of family for students in underserved areas. The idea was that teachers would get to know the students over the course of their education, and teachers would be able to provide the support longitudinally. However, the program Mr. Brewer describes is exactly that. It offers after school programming, extracurricular activities, and career options for its students and parents. I agree with this model of educating the whole child, family and all...not just the child for the time he or she is enrolled in a school that they might be outgrowing. Schools should provide programs that grow with their students, not vice versa."The challenge of educating children in high poverty and high crime areas, however, is too complex to be solved by a single school configuration model. Indeed, it takes a community, not just a school, to address these issues. The Tangelo Park Program in Orlando, Fla., is a community-based initiative that promotes civic commitment by public and private entities. It offers preschool, parenting classes, full college scholarships and vocational or technical opportunities for parents with children in school. The results are compelling..."
Although the answer to the Middle School Conundrum might not be as simple as a school change, school districts should consider what, exactly they are offering their middle school students and families as they transition into high school and beyond.
2 comments:
As a middle school teacher, I appreciate and understand the complexity of trying to solve the issue of middle schools in Baltimore city. However, I am also curious if more can be done to develop simple best practices that can be applied across the board to city middle schools. I understand the point made regarding structure of a separate elementary and middle school or a K-8, but either way, I think there are simple policies and regulations that could be applied in any middle school to make it more effective, and better prepare students for high school. Could all middle schools in the city commit to having students walk themselves to class? Or have a varying class schedule that requires students to be responsible for figuring out where they need to go to class? What about mandating that middle schools should be contained within their own separate building, so they can build community, if they are attached to an elementary school (obviously facilities would need to be taken into consideration)? I think we could do more to research simple policies that can be used across the city in all middle schools, regardless of their structure in order to provide a better middle school experience for our students.
Spending a lot of time with 10, 11, and 12 year old children this past year demonstrated to me that one minute they relate to their younger peers and the next minute they are basically in high school, if not an adult. In the conversation to separate or middle and elementary schools, a big consideration is how the students are almost teens but still not quite. Therefore, where is their place, and should they have more of a high school approach in their classes or an elementary approach? The elementary approach is not the one teacher all day model, but a model that has a student safety net built in. Can this only happen in a shared space with an elementary school? Is it not possible to have a separate middle school where the students are broken into "teams" and so groups of teachers all teach the same students and have lunch together or planning so they can track students across all content areas? Why can this model only exist when the middle school has some physical or logistical connection to an elementary school? I agree that this is a better design for students - the "elementary" whole child (and probably even for students at the high school age) but I disagree that it means that a middle school must be connected to an elementary school.
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