[Amelia]

I tend to like the junior high concept, where most students are taught by teachers certified in a specific subject, rather than in "middle grades education" but the article says there is little research to support a particular approach.

I would also be leery of putting 8th graders in a school with very small children.

[Amelia]

Michelle Rhee’s proposed changes...I’m not so sure I agree with this one, but keeping the kids a little closer to home might be a good thing.

[Mark was here]

Middle Schools are just new age baloney.

K thru 6, Junior High is 7 - 8, and Freshmen belong in High School.

[shag377]

Back in 1991 my county went to the middle school idea, all because of money. We had, at that time, PK-7, 8-9 at a Jr. High and 10-12 Sr. High.

Now, we are going to a 6-7 school, an 8-9 school and back to the 10-12.:)

Thus swings the pendulum BACK the other way.:)

[SoftballMominVA]

Public Education Ping

This list is for articles relating to public education.

Gabz, Amelia, and I have volunteered to take over the list so that Metmom can concentrate on home schooling issues.

If you want on or off this ping list, please Freepmail SoftballMominVA who is this month’s official keeper of the list

[Roccus]

“I would also be leery of putting 8th graders in a school with very small children.”
_________________________________________________________

As a product of the K-8 system, I don’t understand why you would say this.

[GoLightly]

My sons went to a K-8 (small rural district). Most of the problems of having the older kids with the younger ones happen on the school bus, where there’s no segregation by age & very little adult supervision.

[Sacajaweau]

I went through this old system. It was a neighborhood school where kids walked a short distance ON SIDEWALKS. There was no busing.

It was efficient and the big neighborhood kids watched over the little ones. The eighth graders were the traffic guards at the minor street crossings.

When 9th grade came along, we took the regular buses to the high school. The other benefit is that the streets had people walking the neighborhoods and parents watching out the windows.

This was Rochester, NY in the 50's. It was wonderful.

[RKBA Democrat]

I attended middle school in the LA Unified School District. It was unbelievable.

I understand why some kids go truant.

[ottbmare]

I think this is a very poor idea. Mixing grades was okay many years ago, when people all knew each other at the same school. Today, it’s different. Many eighth graders are grown men and women, especially in DC. They are smoking, drinking, having sex. Even some of the 11-year-old fifth graders are physically huge.

When I was in third grade (forty years ago!) in a very upscale community filled with well-behaved children, our classes were temporarily held in the same school the junior high kids attended. It was quite a small school. We eight-year-olds were actually afraid of the physically bigger and stronger 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-graders.

This is a very poor idea.

[madprof98]

The main beneficiary of the "middle school concept" has been the teachers' unions. Taking kids out of elementary school at the point of puberty and sticking them together in Hormone High just invited them to act wild and grow up before their time. But it gave plenty of teachers an opportunity to advance their careers with new certifications, titles, and cash benefits.

It was obvious from the first what was happening. But school boards, beholden to the teachers' unions, continued to invest millions in huge facilities packed with out-of-control 13- and 14-year-olds whose needs and whose very names were generally unknown to the various educational "specialists" running the place. This madness cannot end too soon.

What we need is what we used to have--small neighborhood schools where kids of varying ages know one another personally and are known personally by teachers and administrators.

[Fiji Hill]

In her book The War Against Excellence--The Rising Tide of Mediocrity in American's Middle Schools (Greenwood, 2003), Cheri Pierson Yecke presents a solid case against "egalitarian" approaches that are in vogue in many of today's middle schools.

[Tijeras_Slim]

This is the D.C. school system.

Any changes are the proverbial re-arranging of deck chairs on the Titanic.

[ladyjane]

The middle school students "show a lack of respect to adults and to younger students. . . . They run through the hallways and use vulgar language," Jenkins-Parris said.

Only if they are allowed to behave that way.

[suijuris]

I tend to like the junior high concept, where most students are taught by teachers certified in a specific subject, rather than in "middle grades education" but the article says there is little research to support a particular approach.

Research is hard to find, but the empirical data is here. I live in supposedly one of the best school districts in Ohio. I fought like hell when the school system decided to depart from the junior high concept and build a large middle school.

The dirty little secret is that more than 50% of 9th grade students earn failing grades their first year at high school. Fortunately most are able to get it together by 10th grade, but there is something very wrong with this academic nosedive in the ninth.

Three years of junior high prepared one to be more responsible because it was more structured like a like school and promoted individual responsibility.

The group hugging concept, coddling and phsychovbable by the counselors at the the middle school is a grand waste of time and money.

[Tanniker Smith]

More schools are moving that way. A public school in my area that was undercrowded switch to PK-8 (it only has 7th graders so far) and it's goal is to eventually be a PK-12 school (I don't think that will happen).

NY state has some funny issues to work out anyway. In NYC, there used to be Middle Schools, Intermediate Schools and Junior High Schools, and I couldn't tell exactly what the difference was, except that, I think, JHS schools were 7-9. Most of those transitioned to 6-8. However, you need a different teacher license to teach sixth graders than to teach 7-12. I worked in a school with kids that I wasn't allowed to teach, which made life interesting when I had coverages.

[M0sby]

Around here, most of the Catholic Schools are K-8...and those kids sure seam to go on to High School just fine.
Of course, the discipline expectations of the Catholic Schools AND the parents of those children is higher. So, perhaps that is a big reason.

We are currently in a K-6 school. It is a really GREAT school
But there is a k-8 in our area that is even better.
We are considering making that move.
We’ll see!

[leda]

our schools have a very unique configuration. we have a
total of 4 schools for our 2.2 sq mi town. our youngest
is in the prek-1st grade school. the next up is 2nd-4th
grades. after that the kids start middle school in the
newest building. that building is truly amazing too, btw.
5th-7th grades are taught there. then they move into high
school at 8th grade. now that may seem odd, but the majority
of our 8th graders are taking one or more courses for high
school credit.

the two lower buildings bother me the most, but that may
just be because of my personal history here. when i was
in school here, i attended school in the prek-1 building.
i went there from kdg until 6th grade. so part of me would
like to see both elementary buildings set up as prek-4th
buildings.

back to d.c. though...i’m truly skeptical about putting k-8th
grade d.c. public school students in the same building.
personally, i do not think that would be a good learning
environment for those children.

[Katya]

most private schools are still set up on this model. As to the concerns that the older kids can badly influence the younger ones... depending on the management of the schools this could be positive or negative. The younger ones have the ability to soften the older ones, and in return the older ones have the opportunity to lead. But private school settings are controlled environments where not every potential pupil is welcome or accepted.