Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
K-8 School; Why Not?
Topic Started: Nov 10 2006, 08:33 PM (1,593 Views)
mikefromholland
Member Avatar
Principal
Pete
Nov 11 2006, 01:52 PM
I like K-8 best but depending mostly on the number of schools there would be.

K-8, one way to look at number of schools needed:  Pre-LI we had a total of 23 schools comprising 20 Elem and 3 Middle Schools. Under K-8, we would rid 3 Middle Schools absorbed into 20 Elem leaving us with 20 K-8 schools.  Though ridding 3 Middle schools no-doubt 20 k-8 schools would be way too expensive.  Clearly there would be a lot more teachers w/ 20 K-8 schools than 20 K-6 & 3 Middle Schools.  So in order to balance payroll costs, I wonder how many k-8 schools would equal the same number of teachers as 20 K-6 schools & 3 Middle Schools.  Can someone advise?

Here are some questions that come to mind:  Are all the schools large enough?  Are some too small that would warrent having open? Wouldn't there be money saved in busing?  How much construction cost would be required reconfiguring schools to k-8?

Pete, I can advise because we just finished transitioning to a system which included a K-8 school in Holland. Your logic is basically correct. It is possible to do it without adding any new teachers or buildings. In fact, we REDUCED the number of buildings by one when we made the transition. We had to do so because during the previous 3 years when we had the focus school system, enrollment in elementary grades dropped by over 600 kids.

If anyone is interested in the specific details of how we reorganized the buildings, please advise and I will elaborate.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
I also want to make this point. I think that we did not have to implement any plan this year. But, if you wanted to implement the Legacy Initiative, you absolutely had to do it this year. You had to do it because you had enough in the fund equity to absorb a 250 student loss. 520 puts this plan in a bad place, with a ton of politics to fix it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Pete
Principal
mikefromholland
Nov 11 2006, 08:27 PM
Pete
Nov 11 2006, 01:52 PM
I like K-8 best but depending mostly on the number of schools there would be.

K-8, one way to look at number of schools needed:  Pre-LI we had a total of 23 schools comprising 20 Elem and 3 Middle Schools. Under K-8, we would rid 3 Middle Schools absorbed into 20 Elem leaving us with 20 K-8 schools.  Though ridding 3 Middle schools no-doubt 20 k-8 schools would be way too expensive.  Clearly there would be a lot more teachers w/ 20 K-8 schools than 20 K-6 & 3 Middle Schools.  So in order to balance payroll costs, I wonder how many k-8 schools would equal the same number of teachers as 20 K-6 schools & 3 Middle Schools.  Can someone advise?

Here are some questions that come to mind:  Are all the schools large enough?  Are some too small that would warrent having open? Wouldn't there be money saved in busing?  How much construction cost would be required reconfiguring schools to k-8?

Pete, I can advise because we just finished transitioning to a system which included a K-8 school in Holland. Your logic is basically correct. It is possible to do it without adding any new teachers or buildings. In fact, we REDUCED the number of buildings by one when we made the transition. We had to do so because during the previous 3 years when we had the focus school system, enrollment in elementary grades dropped by over 600 kids.

If anyone is interested in the specific details of how we reorganized the buildings, please advise and I will elaborate.

Mike, that would be great if you don't mind providing a brief explaination of how Holland reorganized the builds for K-8. Also would you please inform again as to what configurations you had previously? Whenever you get a chance. Thanks again.

What I'm also curious about is what would be the largest number of k-8 schools while mainting the same payroll costs as we have now (k-4, 5-6,7-8)?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
cmic
Member Avatar
Principal
My kids go to a k-8 school and we love it. The set up works great though. They have a whole section that is only 7th and 8th and the other kids aren't near them at all.

The other thing that works is 8th grade tutoring of younger kids. They have to do community service in 8th grade and this provides a great way to help the younger and the older at the same time. One of my kids really benefits from this.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Pete
Principal
Can you inform where they go, cmic? Having the 7th & 8th graders in a different area sounds like it would work very well.

I know this subject is pie in the sky right now but forming opinions starts early.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
fyi
Principal
The set-up in the private schools works very well. Although they are in different parts of the building, they are opportunities to interact with the younger students.
It teaches the kids to respect each other. The older kids learn valuable lessons in patience and responsibility. One of my kids was enrolled @ a k-8 school when he was in pre-school. The eighth graders would come down and help the teacher with activities/dismissal (much like our 5th and 6th graders used to).

Why did LPS think that segregating age groups was a good idea? I have heard parents say they don't want their younger children mixing with the older kids. I think not allowing any contact with other age groups creates more behavioral issues.

The 5/6 schools are not keeping our kids younger. The k-4 school is now considered the "baby" school. I noticed a big change in my middle schooler after 6th grade. It was not that she had changed in three months....it was the fact that she was no longer in elementary school. I'm afraid this will occur 2 years earlier now because of the 5/6 schools.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
mikefromholland
Member Avatar
Principal
Pete
Nov 11 2006, 09:14 PM
mikefromholland
Nov 11 2006, 08:27 PM
Pete
Nov 11 2006, 01:52 PM
I like K-8 best but depending mostly on the number of schools there would be.

K-8, one way to look at number of schools needed:  Pre-LI we had a total of 23 schools comprising 20 Elem and 3 Middle Schools. Under K-8, we would rid 3 Middle Schools absorbed into 20 Elem leaving us with 20 K-8 schools.  Though ridding 3 Middle schools no-doubt 20 k-8 schools would be way too expensive.  Clearly there would be a lot more teachers w/ 20 K-8 schools than 20 K-6 & 3 Middle Schools.  So in order to balance payroll costs, I wonder how many k-8 schools would equal the same number of teachers as 20 K-6 schools & 3 Middle Schools.  Can someone advise?

Here are some questions that come to mind:  Are all the schools large enough?  Are some too small that would warrent having open? Wouldn't there be money saved in busing?  How much construction cost would be required reconfiguring schools to k-8?

Pete, I can advise because we just finished transitioning to a system which included a K-8 school in Holland. Your logic is basically correct. It is possible to do it without adding any new teachers or buildings. In fact, we REDUCED the number of buildings by one when we made the transition. We had to do so because during the previous 3 years when we had the focus school system, enrollment in elementary grades dropped by over 600 kids.

If anyone is interested in the specific details of how we reorganized the buildings, please advise and I will elaborate.

Mike, that would be great if you don't mind providing a brief explaination of how Holland reorganized the builds for K-8. Also would you please inform again as to what configurations you had previously? Whenever you get a chance. Thanks again.

What I'm also curious about is what would be the largest number of k-8 schools while mainting the same payroll costs as we have now (k-4, 5-6,7-8)?

Through the 2002-03 school year, Holland had 8 elementary schools (K-5), 2 middle schools (6-8), and one H.S. The total number of students was about 5,400, with about 2,500 elementary students in K-5. I'm not counting special education and alternative H.S. students which totaled about 100 between the two groups. I am also not counting the "early kindergarten" program begun in 2003 which was housed in its own building. That was our original, traditional neighborhood school system.

Beginning in Fall, 2003, and lasting through the 2005-06 year (3 years), the district closed 2 elementary schools leaving 6 open. Those 6 schools were organized under a system the district called "focus schools." The district was divided into an "East Side" and "West Side." Each side had a K-1 school, a 2-3 school, and a 4-5 school. These schools were projected to have an average of about 405 students each.

It was obvious from the beginning that the focus schools were a failure (IMO) but the district let them operate for 3 years, by which time the average enrollment in them was down to about 345 students.

In the Fall, 2003 count, the district had 93 classrooms in K-5 for about 2,300 students.

In the Fall, 2005 count, the district had 83 classrooms in K-5 for about 2,050 students.

The transitions for Fall, 2006 went as follows.

One of the elementary schools was closed down, leaving 5 elementaries.

Four of them were reconfigured as neighborhood schools for grades K-3. That sounds worse than what you have in Livonia with the LI. Compared to our original, pre-2003 neighborhood schools it is. But it is a huge improvement on the focus schools, so it was accepted by the community.

The fifth elementary was reconfigured as a single 4-5 school for the entire district except for the kids in the K-8 school. The four K-3 schools feed into it. Remember, our district is about 1/3 the size of Livonia in student population. (This is the weakest link in the current system IMO.)

Of the two middle schools (6-8), one remained a middle school for the students progressing through the K-3, 4-5 school track. That is about 75 to 80 percent of the kids in the district.

The other middle school was reconfigured as a K-8 school. It was located geographically near the elementary that was closed. Families living within that boundary were given first choice for the K-8, if they wanted it. Others in the district could request it as long as there was space. Using the numbers in the district's count, 24 percent of the 6-8 students chose the K-8 school rather than the traditional middle school, 21 percent of the 4-5 students chose it rather than the 4-5 school, and 22 percent of the K-3 students chose it rather than one of the neighborhood K-3 schools.

We now have 7 buildings serving grades K-8 which is one less than the 8 we had before, so we have saved the cost of one principal (and other building office and maintenance staff). This happened not because K-8 is more efficient but because we lost so many kids during the 3 years of focus schools that we had excess capacity.

The transition also worked because we had excess capacity in the middle schools which allowed one of the two middle schools to serve about 75% of the district.

We have the same number of teachers as before -- in terms of class size. The average class size in the K-8 school is 22.9. The average in the four K-3 schools is 23.1. The average in the 4-5 school is 28.1.

In the Fall, 2006 count, the district had 79 classrooms in K-5 for about 1,970 students.

Our K-3 building enrollments are 173, 208, 274, and 385. All of them could hold more kids and did when they functioned as K-5 buildings prior to 2003. The district hinted that they might put additional buildings on a K-8 track in future years, with one possibility being allowing the K-3 buildings to expand to K-4, K-5 etc. in subsequent years. But there are no definite plans.

Our 4-5 building enrollment is 505.

Our 6-8 middle school building enrollment is 746.

Our K-8 building enrollment is 671.

Hope that was helpful to you. If it raised some additional questions, ask away.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Pete
Principal
Mike, thanks very much for the valuable information.

Boy, Holland sure seems to be a work work in process. I'm sure you would like to have those focus schools converted back to small schools w/ large grade spans faster. Holland is lucky to have you working to get the schools back in line.

K-8 is really intriguing to me and I believe I would prefer it over k-6, 7-8 - though it still would very much depend on the number of schools. You've probably read some of the thoughts on K-8 here but have you heard any opinions or feelings from parents as to why they like or do not like the Holland K-8 school?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
mikefromholland
Member Avatar
Principal
Pete
Nov 12 2006, 09:35 PM
Mike, thanks very much for the valuable information. 

Boy, Holland sure seems to be a work work in process.  I'm sure you would like to have those focus schools converted back to small schools w/ large grade spans faster.  Holland is lucky to have you working to get the schools back in line. 

K-8 is really intriguing to me and I believe I would prefer it over k-6, 7-8 - though it still would very much depend on the number of schools.  You've probably read some of the thoughts on K-8 here but have you heard any opinions or feelings from parents as to why they like or do not like the Holland K-8 school?

Back on page 1 of this thread, I posted an article that appeared in a recent Holland Sentinel which did a decent job of summarizing parents' reactions to the K-8 school here. Between the article and what I have heard from people who chose to put their kids in the school, or not to do it, I would say that there is substantial overlap with the comments I have seen here.

Those who chose the K-8 school:
- had several kids and wanted them all to attend the same school
- liked the idea that their older kids would be on the bus with the younger ones
- valued the idea that the teachers would get to know their kids and vice versa
- wanted to minimize the transitions in their kids' schooling

Those who did not choose the K-8 school:
- had concerns about very young kids being in an environment with much older kids
- had concerns about very young kids riding the bus with much older kids

I'll give some of my own opinions now. Keep in mind that these are the opinions of an "objective" outsider as my own daughter has been attending a charter school since 2004.

I think the staff of the K-8 school here in Holland are there because they want to be. It's something they believe in. I think some of the best teachers in the district chose to request reassignment to the K-8 school. The principal there had been the principal of the K-5 school one-half block from my house (Washington Elementary) that was closed in 2003 when the focus schools were adopted. Although the focus school plan was conceived in secret (like the LI) and pushed upon the community, I did learn that one of many other alternative plans considered would have allowed this principal to operate Washington as a charter school, chartered by the district. It's a shame that plan wasn't adopted. Washington would probably be the showpiece school of the community now, likely a K-8 school. Many of the kids currently in charters would likely be attending there.

I think the transportation system in Holland is much simplified under the current plan. The elementary K-3 schools act as neighborhood schools and need no transportation. Each of the other schools (4-5, 6-8, K-8, and 9-12) has its own set of feeder bus routes. This contrasts to the previous transportation system under focus schools which is too complex to summarize here. The district gave it the fancy name of "Transportation Plus" which prompted me to suggest they should rename the focus schools "Neighborhood Schools Minus."

I really hope that the Holland district allows at least some of the K-3 schools to grow into K-4, K-5, etc. in coming years. It may not be feasible to offer K-8 in every neighborhood but the broader they can make the grade spans, the better.

I think there is no such thing as "one size fits all." Some parents like certain systems and others like different ones. One of the natural advantages (to use an economics term) that large public school districts have over charter schools and private schools is that they are big enough to have the ability to offer parents such choices. Districts that see the light and offer different choices are the ones that are going to succeed against schools of choice, charter school, and private school competition.

I think any district of reasonable size could adopt a configuration that included one or more K-8 schools without any increase in administative, overhead, or teacher costs. Remember, Holland is 1/3 the size of Livonia and we did it. A district could either transition some of its elementary schools with excess capacity into K-8 schools, or the district could do what Holland did and transition a large middle (or in Livonia's case "upper elementary") school into a K-8 school.

Well, those are my opinions. I'd like to hear some others.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
The K-8 Bunch
K-8 schools are growing in popularity across the country. Do they really lead to fewer discipline problems and better academic performance?


Lyle Rowland knows the name of each of the 238 students enrolled at Taneyville R-II School District, a K-8 district just east of Branson, Mo. What's more, he knows their parents, where they live and how some families earn their living.

In fact, he says this more intimate K-8 school structure creates a responsive learning environment that boosts student achievement and minimizes disruptive behavior more than traditional elementary and middle schools. And Rowland should know, he's been a principal and superintendent at various K-8 and K-12 school districts for the past 30 years.

These reasons, in a nutshell, are driving one of the hottest education trends today, the K-8 school. Rowland says K-8 schools outshine other delivery models.

Apparently, other administrators agree. Over the past several years, Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and other districts formed K-8 schools in hopes of reaching similar student outcomes: enhanced academic performance, improved behavior and a smoother transition into high school. In the end, some believe they'll gain more control over the learning process.

"If it's performance you're after, less discipline, there are different ways of accomplishing that," says Rowland, also co-founder of the Missouri K-8 School Association. "I have found K-8 schools to be the best."

Top
Evolving Strategy
K-8 schools were introduced more than a century ago with the one-room schoolhouse. In society's effort to accommodate students' educational and behavioral needs, reformers began experimenting with different delivery models throughout the 1900s. Consider middle schools, which peaked in popularity in the 1980s. But research indicated there was still a better way to go.

Rowland cites a 1987 national study claiming the optimum student enrollment for any school to operate at peak efficiency is 2,500. So districts began consolidating their schools, enlarging their student population, he says.

"West Virginia is a prime example," says Rowland, adding that Arkansas also followed suit. "Is it working? Heck no. Is it cheaper? Heck no. But some guru out in West Virginia said this is the way it needs to be. Well, it doesn't work."

Now the trend is moving in the opposite direction, partly due to test scores. Rowland says 40 percent of Missouri's 75 K-8 schools recently received "distinction in performance" on a statewide testing program.

Likewise, data also shows that 6-8 graders attending Denver's five K-8 schools are developing stronger math and reading skills than those in its 22 middle schools, says Jerry Wartgow, superintendent of the 74,000-student Denver Public Schools district.

Between 3 percent and 4 percent of Denver's students--roughly 200--leave the district after the fifth or sixth grade, which equates to a district funding loss of nearly $1.2 million. To find out why, Denver formed a Secondary Reform Commission last summer. While the commission's report is due in January, Wartgow suspects it will recommend a different configuration or alternative structure for middle schools, such as K-8.

Many parents, he adds, aren't quite ready to place their fifth-grade children in middle schools. "They feel more comfortable keeping them in their home school where they've always been, where all the teachers know their child and where the child knows all the teachers," Wartgow says. "We're hoping that K-8 will provide a choice for parents, an alternative within the public education system to the middle school."

Milwaukee Public Schools experienced a similar reaction. The 100,000-student district was at risk of losing its state funding for student busing, so it recently asked parents what would persuade them to send their children to the neighborhood school. Their answer was unanimous: transform them into K-8s.

"Parents like that there's less transition, they have multiple kids in one school and the safety and nourishing factor," says William Andrekopoulos, Milwaukee's superintendent. "That's less threatening than sending their child to a large middle school."

The district introduced K-8 schools in the early 1900s, then formed junior high schools in 1939 and middle schools in the early 1980s. Nearly 20 years later, the district now supports eight K-8s. However, that number will jump to 63 by the end of 2005, he says.

"If this trend gives us a higher level of academic success for children who live in poverty, of color, where there used to be an achievement gap, then that's really good news because we haven't been able to do that," he says. "That's going to be the judge as to whether we continue with it or not."

It's not test grades but rather growth and economics that are prompting Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix to build more K-8 schools. While the difference in student test scores between K-8s and middle schools has been insignificant for the past four years, K-8s are more economical in handling the district's annual growth rate of 5 percent, says Virginia McElyea, superintendent at Deer Valley, which serves 33,000 students.

Since the district saves several million dollars building a K-8 facility versus a middle school, she says it plans on adding six more K-8s in the next decade, bringing the district total to 16.

"There's an economy of scale here," she says, explaining that K-8s serve more students than middle schools. "Smaller schools cost more to run."

Top
Cold Facts
In Philadelphia, test scores are a big deal. According to the Philadelphia Education Fund, achievement data from 2000 to 2003 revealed that reading and math scores were consistently higher for fifth graders in its 61 K-8 schools than those in its 43 middle schools. K-8 students scored 78 points higher in reading and 80 points higher in math, says Liza Herzog, senior research associate at the Philadelphia research organization.

But K-8s have other advantages. Last year, less than 85 percent of the district's middle school teachers were certified compared to more than 90 percent of K-8 teachers. Teacher retention rates in the 214,000-student district are also higher at K-8s than middle schools. K-8 teachers stay an average of 14.3 years compared to 11.4 years at middle schools.

One of the reasons appears to be smaller class size, according to Fernando Gallard, spokesman for the district. At some middle schools, he says the total number of fifth or sixth graders can reach 300. So as the school district restructures to accommodate more K-8 schools, it is limiting the class size at K-8s to minimize disruptive behavior, enhance learning and help teachers better manage their classrooms.

By 2008, the district plans on creating a total of 133 K-8 schools, Herzog says.

But there may be more at risk than test scores. A recent study by the Rand Corp., which compared the well-being and achievement of middle school age youth in 12 countries, revealed that American students reported more isolation than their counterparts and that their classmates were not kind, helpful and accepting. Worse yet, only 27 percent achieved proficiency in math, 32 percent in science and 33 percent in reading.

Rand's recommendation was for school districts to "consider alternatives to the 6-8 structure to reduce multiple transitions for students and allow schools to better align their goals across grades K-12."

Top
Inherent Problems
Despite its advantages, not everyone agrees with the K-8 model. Since the student population at K-8s is usually higher than at middle schools, problems surrounding student management and discipline are enhanced as well as teacher attrition, says Corinne A. Gregory, president at The PoliteChild, an organization in Palm Desert, Calif., that helps children develop proper etiquette and social skills. According to Gregory, one of every three teachers who leave the profession does so because of discipline issues.

In other cases, she says educators may be ignoring students' social and developmental needs because they're focusing on NCLB.

"First and second graders are very easy targets for eighth graders," she says, explaining that mixing preteens with young children may lead to episodes of bullying and injuries. "You're probably better off keeping the clusters of ages smaller rather than larger."

Other concerns involve administrators. As a former K-8 principal, Curtis Montgomery created and enforced different discipline plans for various age groups. But the most difficult part of his job, he says, was managing the different grade levels and subjects.

"I was trying to spread myself out and be very knowledgeable in nine grade levels," says Montgomery, now principal at Wilder Intermediate School in Piqua, Ohio. "You have to be an expert in a lot of categories."

To avoid this scenario, the Fairview School District No. 72 in Skokie, Ill., promotes co-principals at its K-8 school with 615 students. One focuses on K-4 while the other targets grades 5-8, says Nelson Armour, superintendent at Fairview.

"If you have people who like to be a lone ranger kind of administrator, then co-principals isn't going to work," Armour says.

The district chose this approach because the needs of students in upper and primary grades vary. He says some K-8s mistakenly adopt the attitude of one-size-fits-all.

But Nancy Ames doesn't advocate any school model. As vice president of the Education Development Center, a research and development organization in Newton, Mass., she says schools must concentrate on becoming academically vigorous and responsive to students.

Since elementary and middle school students are growing mentally and are active learners, she says instead of spending millions of dollars to transform schools, administrators must focus on effective teaching strategies.

"It's not about the grade span but what goes on in the classroom," she says. "You should look at what's going on inside the school and try to make it better, whichever grade configuration you have."

Carol Patton is a freelance writer based in Las Vegas.

http://districtadministration.ccsct.com//page.cfm?p=998
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
A Cautious Opening Move
By James A. Fleming

A need for more classrooms and a desire to improve student achievement contributed to the decision by the Capistrano Unified School District to offer a K-8 school option for parents recently.

The two-year journey began as a consequence of overcrowding at our 10 middle schools. In one section of the district, we had spent several years unsuccessfully locating an appropriate site for a new middle school. We then decided to look at existing elementary schools for options.

One of the area’s K-5 elementary schools, Arroyo Vista, had once housed nearly 1,300 students, but its enrollment had declined to fewer than 800 students and remained on a downhill trend. Its feeder middle school housed 1,800 students in grades 6-8. Rather than relocate the elementary students and reconfigure Arroyo Vista as a middle school, we decided to explore the expansion of the school to serve students K-8 within its existing attendance zone.

Staff embarked on a research, planning and approval process. This covered five school board meetings, two public hearings, numerous information meetings for residents, parents, employees and students, several meetings with the city planning commissions and the city council, and preparation of extensive required environmental impact studies.

Staff carefully reviewed literature on K-8 models nationwide, including the findings on grade configuration, grade-level cohort size and transition achievement losses (see Sidebar). Our staff was impressed by the evidence showing a true K-8 model, where a school maintains the same attendance boundaries for grades K-8 and offers a “best practices” instructional program for each age group, does improve student achievement.

Enthusiastic Board
During the research phase, the staff also heard from principals, teachers and parents who stressed the potential of a K-8 school to provide social benefits for children by helping shelter students from deleterious aspects of teen-age life. Many parents expressed strong support for keeping young teens in smaller school populations where teachers can more closely monitor their education.

At the end of the lengthy consultation process, the school board approved the project enthusiastically, not simply to decrease crowding in the community’s middle school, but just as importantly to boost student performance. We moved forward in August 2004 with the addition of a 6 th-grade middle school program at Arroyo Vista School. The 7 th and 8 th grades will be added sequentially as the students move on to the next grade.

Trustees have made the K-8 school an option for neighborhood parents as part of our tradition of offering program choice. By creating dual enrollment, trustees made sure parents choose either to continue through 8 th grade at the elementary campus or to move their child to the local middle school beginning in 6 th grade.

The staff is now upgrading and expanding the campus to accommodate special requirements for a middle school. By removing aging portable classrooms and replacing them with new two-story modular-style buildings, we can create sufficient classroom space, including up-to-date science and technology labs. This also will create a courtyard for grades 6-8, distinct from the K-5 students.

Through a joint-use agreement, the neighboring community park will be available for middle school physical education activity, minimizing the impact on existing K-5 playground activities. The new buildings, along with parking lot improvements, will improve the school’s overall appearance.

When fully operational, the Arroyo Vista K-8 will reduce the population of the nearby middle school by nearly 400 students to fewer than 1,400.

Overcoming Opposition
The process is not without challenges, of course. From the outset, a small, vocal, politically savvy group of neighbors—most of whom had no children in the school—was determined to do everything in its power to derail the project.

Our most powerful strategy in gaining support was effective communication. We created a K-8 page on our district website (www.capousd.org/k8config.htm). We invited parents and teachers from successful K-8 schools in a neighboring school district to speak at a community forum. We attended community organization and city council meetings, and we held many neighborhood coffee klatches. The principal identified key parent leaders who were excited about the K-8 concept and encouraged them to speak out about the benefits.

In addition, we built the confidence and enthusiasm of 5 th-grade parents and students by the early selection of highly regarded, energetic teachers and administrators for the K-8 school and through a video showing examples of classroom programs and school activities that would be available.

The school board stayed the course to provide this option for parents because they viewed it as good for children. It provides the benefits of a smaller number of students per grade level, offers a better opportunity for adults in the school to know each student, eliminates an often-rocky transition for students, encourages parents to stay involved during their middle school years and includes a rigorous, middle school curriculum.

Future Conversions
The program is under way with 150 6 th-grade students with more than 90 percent of the outgoing 5 th-grade families opting to remain at their school. The additional seats were easily filled with requests from nearby district schools.

As word about the K-8 school has spread, parents in several other elementary schools now are asking the board consider their school for conversion to the K-8 model to provide the same option. We will carefully monitor the achievement of students in our initial effort as we consider future expansion.

James Fleming is superintendent of Capistrano Unified School District, 32972 Calle Perfecto, San Juan Capistrano, CA 92675. E-mail: superintendent@capousd.org


http://www.aasa.org/publications/content.cfm?ItemNumber=994
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
Some Findings
About K-8 Schools
List member Keith Look is a researcher with the Philadelphia Education Fund. In this note to the MiddleWeb List (07/02), Keith shared some findings from his own experience and his dissertation research around the efficacy of K-8 schools.


Hey Folks,

The K-8 vs. junior high/ middle school issue has been a major issue for me the past few years. I was part of a project that attempted to convert a large struggling urban middle school and its 4 feeder elementary schools into 5 K-8 schools. We faced issues of curricula, budget, neighborhood boundaries, staffing, etc. There were lots of lessons learned. In fact, this became my dissertation recently completed.

So along the way, I've got a bibliography if any of you would be interested, as well as a history of grade span configurations in the US and a conclusion chapter that highlights some of the strengths and weaknesses of K-8 schools and making the conversion into the model. In addition, there was an early article I wrote along the way which can be read online at:

http://www.philaedfund.org/notebook/TheGreatK8Debate.htm

Here are some highlights of what I've learned, experienced, etc:

1. K-8 schools may be a viable alternative to the large middle schools which struggle to be more than factory models of education

2. K-8 schools can enhance social capital and give at-risk students, in particular, greater opportunities at success by building relationships with staff over a course of nine years. This seems to be fueling, at least in part, the return of K-8 schools in urban and rural communities.

3. Parent involvement can improve because parents are usually happiest with their children's elementary school experiences, and therefore are more likely to stay involved in the children's school lives longer because they are already comfortable with the school and its staff AND because younger siblings/family enroll in the same bldg.

4. Middle grades students in a K-8 school behave differently than in a middle school. They take on the role of protector and role model as opposed to having to establish new reputations upon entering a middle school.

5. Absent from the Turning Points discussion, a K-8 school can incorporate a distinct, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate middle grades program within a K-8 grade span (one that includes all recommendations of Turning Points--both editions--from small learning environments to block scheduling, etc.).

6. Transitions to K-8 schools can enhance teacher collaboration and articulation within and across grades.

7. Internal accountability can increase in schools making the transition to K-8 b/c now teachers know personally who they are sending their children to next year, and middle grades teachers know who there students are coming from.

8. There's no substitute for effective leadership and good, committed teachers.

9. Districts have significant roles in supporting K-8 schools and conversions. In the district I worked with, major gaps in district-school alignment highlighted what could/should be done to support K-8 schools.

My personal OPINION is that K-8 schools are a better option than a large middle school in low-resource communities. It is not a silver bullet, but another option that may be considered in attempting to bring about successful, rigorous, and developmentally appropriate middle grades education.

The benefits ARE NOT automatically inherent in the model, but -- as in any school model -- in the process by which the benefits are pursued--so as to avoid stretching the elementary model through 8th grade or like a middle school where the high school model has been pulled down). K-8 may make some of the benefits more easily attained in comparison to certain models in certain communiites.

If there is information I can provide or stories you'd like to hear, let me know. It would be nice for me to think that this stack of paper I produced might be of use to someone somewhere.

-- keith look
klook@philaedfund.org


http://www.aasa.org/publications/content.cfm?ItemNumber=994
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
Parents' voices heard in MPS plan expanding K-8
Test scores also favor schools with kindergarten through eighth grade
By Alan J. Borsuk
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: May 23, 2000

Education & Learning



Photo/Rick Wood
DeMarco Colbert (left), 11, and Melonie Williams, 11, get a hands-on examination of a human brain during a class Monday at Sarah Scott Middle School. The school is in its second annual mini-medical school week, when students from the University of Wisconsin Medical School present a variety of lessons to classes.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
K-8 students do better
Eighth-grade students in kindergarten-to-eighth-grade schools in Milwaukee have done much better on the state's proficiency tests in recent years. This chart gives the percentage of students in each testing area who had scores rated as proficient or better.

K-8 Middle
1997-'98
READING 42.8 26.0

LANGUAGE 9.9 4.4
MATH 14.1 8.1
SCIENCE 26.5 15.6
SOCIAL STUDIES 53.0 30.6
OVERALL AVERAGE 29.3 16.9
1998-'99
READING 51.0
38.5

LANGUAGE 49.5
37.1

MATH 14.8
10.7

SCIENCE 32.9
23.6

SOCIAL STUDIES 64.0
45.7

OVERALL AVERAGE 42.4
31.1


On state testing, a higher percentage of students in Milwaukee K-8 schools has scored as proficient or better than those in middle schools.



Source: Milwaukee Public Schools


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
• Korte pleased with reaction to plan
• Spence Korte chat archive
• MPS plan stresses partnerships
• Schools plan creates 6,000 seats
• Plan would expand MPS child-care
• Neighborhood Schools Plan
• Education & Learning
• Message Board


Middle school - just the thought of it puts a knot in the stomach of many parents and teachers. Plenty of students, too.

So many kids in puberty, thrown into such big places. Peer pressure, wrong crowds, troubling social trends. And academics - middle school is sort of the weak child in America's educational family, often missed by the spotlights that gravitate toward the issues of elementary school or high school, and not regarded by many as a stage of great educational success.

Can't our children avoid middle school?

Well, they can't jump from fifth grade to ninth grade. But they can continue in sixth through eighth grade in settings much more like elementary schools.

So a concept that had been given little respect in recent years is getting new life in Milwaukee: the kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school.

It's an aspect of the draft plan proposed this week by Milwaukee Public Schools officials for returning to an emphasis on neighborhood schools. And it's a response to a message administrators say they heard clearly from parents in hearings in recent months:

Keep our kids in smaller, more secure settings. Don't throw them into the big world so fast.

The MPS plan calls for converting 10 MPS schools into K-8 programs. Two other schools already are scheduled to become K-8s in the next two years.

There are 10 K-8s and 23 middle schools in Milwaukee. Because the middle schools are often so large, some with nearly 1,000 students, and the sixth, seventh and eighth grades of K-8s usually have, at most, two classes at each grade, the proportion of middle school students in K-8s now is much smaller than the number of schools would indicate.

The plan does not indicate a preference for K-8s over middle schools, and the large majority of MPS students would continue to attend middle schools, which consist of grades six, seven and eight.

But having the K-8 option is one of the main legs that the neighborhood plan is standing on, with the presumption that this will be an option that will attract parents to a school in their own neighborhood, thereby reducing busing.

Broader Range of Classes
"There are educational advantages to both the K-8 school model and the middle school model," the MPS plan says.

Middle schools, with their size, can allow a broader range of specialized classes and extracurricular activities in areas such as music, foreign language and sports. K-8 schools can offer more stability and control, stronger student-teacher relationships, and the prospect of peer groups that have been together since younger ages.

Milwaukee School Superintendent Spence Korte said that there are trade-offs for those choosing either route, and that a well-run middle school can be a successful place. But it is clear many parents want their children in K-8 settings, he said.

"If that's their position, then I think we should give them their option," he said.

Bolstering interest in the K-8 idea is a chart, included in the report, that shows that eighth-graders in K-8 schools in Milwaukee did decidedly better on state standardized testing in the 1997-'98 and 1998-'99 school years than eighth-graders in middle schools.

Korte said the test results told him "there's a whole group of kids who do better when they're hand-carried, as you can do in that" K-8 model.

Michael Carr, spokesman for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, said there does not appear to be a national trend toward K-8 schools, but he has heard of other places where they are drawing interest.

'The Forgotten Middle'
Carr said middle school principals in large numbers feel that they're in "the forgotten middle," with their issues and needs getting less attention than other levels.

Jackie Patterson, a deputy superintendent for MPS and former middle school principal, said the shift a generation ago from junior high schools - seventh through ninth grades - to middle schools was aimed at giving students experiences that moved them a notch away from the pressures and pace of high schools, while giving them the opportunity to start showing their own identity. Teaching in teams, a middle school trademark, somewhat takes the middle ground between elementary school teaching and the one-hour-per-teacher style of high schools.

But, Patterson said, "Sometimes parents feel safer when their children are in an environment that is smaller, something they are familiar with." She admitted that as a mother, she's had those feelings.

The 10 schools mentioned in the proposal as candidates to become K-8 schools are Frederick Douglass, 53rd Street, Grant, Hi-Mount, Kagel, Kosciuszko, Longfellow, Mitchell, Sherman and Townsend. Six of them are now K-5 programs; three are K-6; and Kosciuszko is a middle school. Benjamin Carson Academy and Victory School are already scheduled to become K-8s, the plan says.

The proposal says there should be no long-term budget impact from the change because the total number of middle school students wouldn't be affected.

Several years ago, a then-high-ranking MPS official said in a private conversation that the truth was that Milwaukee elementary schools were generally pretty good and the high schools were not so bad and getting better.

But the middle schools, the official said - that was a problem area.

An essay in Education Week, an influential professional publication, argued recently that none of the many innovative programs for disadvantaged children in the early grades had been shown to have an impact that lasted through middle school. The author, a professor from Arizona, argued that it was time to turn more attention to middle schools.

A substantial number of Milwaukee parents appear to be sending messages in line with those comments. And the parents are likely to come out of the neighborhood school process with more answers to their liking.



Appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 23, 2000.



http://www2.jsonline.com/news/metro/may00/...dle23052200.asp
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
Minneapolis plan means fewer middle schools, more K-8 schools
by Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio
November 24, 2004


Ramsey seventh and eighth grade students rehearse with the school's Chamber Strings Orchestra. (MPR Photo/Tim Pugmire)

The Minneapolis school district is on the verge of phasing out more of its middle schools and placing those students in the same buildings with elementary grade children. Kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools are rare in Minnesota, but they're dominating the landscape in Minneapolis. District officials say the K-8 configuration is a a popular choice among many parents. But others question the benefits of mixing younger and older kids.


Minneapolis, Minn. — There's a wide range of learning going on at Ramsey International Fine Arts magnet school in south Minneapolis. In a kindergarten classroom, students listen closely as teacher Jessica Carroll explains a math game.

On the other side the of the school, seventh and eighth grade students in the chamber strings orchestra rehearse a piece of music.

Ramsey was originally built in the 1930s as a junior high school. Today it serves 900 students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Principal Steve Norlin-Weaver says the K-8 configuration isn't very common outside of Minneapolis. Most districts keep kindergarten through fifth grade in elementary schools and sixth through eighth grade in middle schools. Norlin-Weaver says K-8 has advantages over 6-8.

"We know our kids really well, because they start seeing them as they come up," Nolin-Weaver said. "And because of the family thing, our middle school teachers know that so and so in seventh grade has little siblings fourth grade and in first grade and maybe gets to meet them a little bit."



Ramsey kindergarten.

Parents also like the idea of elementary and middle students in the same building.

"I think the stability is better for the kids to not be switching to a separate middle school" said Margot McKinney, the mother of a fourth- and eighth-grader at Ramsey. "That's just my experience with it."

Minneapolis school district officials are counting on that kind of experience to keep students enrolled and perhaps attract more families to their schools. The school board is considering a plan to close 19 schools over the next three years due to declining enrollment. Two existing middle schools would shut down, three others would switch to K-8. Minneapolis already has more than 20 K-8 schools. School Board Chairwoman Sharron Henry-Blythe says it's a big selling point for a district trying to stay competitive.



Steve Norlin-Weaver

"All of the questionnaires and information gathering that the district over many years, I mean there's tons of information the district has collected from families, there is a much stronger preference from families for K-8 than there is for 6-8," Henry-Blythe said.

Some Minneapolis parents say they like K-8 schools because there are fewer students in each grade. But those numbers often mean a shorter menu of elective classes than are available in larger middle schools. Laura McQuisten, who lives in Minneapolis and teaches middle school in Richfield, says she doesn't want her child attending a K-8 school.

"Extra curriculars are sometimes gone, also things like tech classes, home economics," said McQuisten. "Classes like that are often cut away in a K-8 setting. And I think those are incredibly important exploratory things for kids who are in 6th to 8th grade as they prepare to move on to the high school."

McQuisten shared her views during a recent public hearing on the school closing plan. School board members also heard concerns about the social implications of K-8 schools. Bill English of the Coalition of Black Churches says many parents are fearful of mixing age groups.

"The gang culture now starts at age 12 and up," English said. "There is way too much sexual activity among today's early teens that should preclude mixing them with much younger children who often see the older ones as role models and emulate their behavior both positive and negative."

Minneapolis school leaders say the disappearance of middle school buildings does not diminish their commitment to the middle grades. They say the district approved a middle school reform strategy six years ago, and that philosophy toward instruction and services is still in place.



http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/feat..._mplsk8schools/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Administrator
Administrator
Monday, April 11, 2005
Back To The Future: Are Middle Schools Becoming Obsolete?

I've been teaching in a junior high school for more years than I care to say here. Now I see The Wall Street Journal is reporting that middle/junior high schools are being phased-out in many school districts.

In a return to a more traditional arrangement, school districts are eliminating the middle school in favor of a two-campus configuration, where one school would be grades k-8 and the other 9-12:
The number of public K-8 schools still is relatively small -- around 5,000, according to the U.S. Department of Education. But that number represents a 17% increase since 1993-94. That compares with a 9% increase in the total number of public elementary schools, which now number about 65,000, most of which go up to grades five or six.

These so-called elemiddle schools took root in the late 1990s with a few large, urban districts such as Cincinnati, but the movement has been spreading. In affluent Orange County, Calif., officials with the Capistrano Unified School District are planning to convert as many as eight of their 36 elementary schools to K-8 schools. School officials in Bristol, Conn., last month visited Brookline, Mass., an entirely K-8 school district, to observe a K-8 school in action. School-board officials plan on proposing the idea of building two K-8 schools to the full board of education in the coming months. The Boston suburb of Everett, Mass., converted its junior high and elementary schools to pre-K through 8 schools and built three new pre-K to 8 schools from 1999 to 2003.

Parents have understandably expressed concern over the fact that most K-8 schools usually cannot offer the same variety of classes as can middle/junior high schools:

In Baltimore, which has created 30 new K-8 schools, a report showed that in K-8 settings, "students...had less opportunity to take Algebra 1 and a foreign language," which it says are "gatekeeper" courses, or courses that increase the likelihood that a student will attend college.
The Journal cites a study that would seem to support the idea that students who do switch to middle schools are more likely to develop long-lasting negative attitudes toward school in general.
An early study tracked hundreds of middle-school-age students in Milwaukee public schools, comparing those who switched to a new school in grade seven with their counterparts in a K-8 school who didn't have to make any switch. The research found that those who switched had more negative attitudes toward school and lower grades. Girls in particular didn't recover in middle adolescence (grades nine and 10) when it came to self-esteem and participation in extracurricular activities.

A number of districts that have recently begun converting to K-8 configurations say they have already noticed fewer disciplinary problems among students, as well as an increase in test scores.

The largest district that has made a concerted effort to change from a three-school to a two-school model is Philadelphia. According to administrators, the two school model produces higher test scores:

The School District of Philadelphia is in the midst of a five-year plan to do away with many of its middle schools -- reducing the number to 21 from 36 by 2008 -- and increase the number of K-8s to 137 from the current 61. The district's chief executive, Paul Vallas, says the district was emboldened by research and anecdotes from other school districts that pointed to the benefits of K-8 grade configurations. Particularly troublesome in Philadelphia was the noticeable decline in test scores after students graduated from elementary schools, which mostly went through the fifth grade. "Sixth-grade test scores were always our lowest," Mr. Vallas says.

Now, an analysis of standardized test scores from 2000 to 2003 shows that reading and math scores are consistently higher for eighth-grade students enrolled in some of Philadelphia's new K-8 schools compared with those in traditional middle schools. The average reading score for K-8 students was 1218 in 2003 compared with 1146 for students in middle school. Also, Mr. Vallas says, K-8 schools have higher attendance rates and fewer incidents of student discipline than do their middle-school counterparts.



http://educationwonk.blogspot.com/2005/04/...le-schools.html
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create your own social network with a free forum.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Livonia Neighbors Archive · Next Topic »
Add Reply