Goodbye, middle school! This top school’s K-8 model works

 

By: Mike Thomas

At the time, it seemed like a good idea—concentrating students during their erupting hormones phase in an education environment known as middle school.

Thanks to modern testing, researchers have been able to revisit this decision more than 40 years later and evaluate its effectiveness. And the data are not good. To sum up the sentiment, one called middle school the place where “academic achievement goes to die.”

The result has been a resurgence of K-8 schools in urban school districts, including in my hometown of Orlando. Orange County Public Schools, which shared the 2014 Broad Prize for excellence in urban education, has five K-8 schools on the drawing board and three in place.

And that means more work for Paige Tracy.

For 14 years, she has been the principal at Arbor Ridge K-8, which not only ranks as one of the top schools in Orange County but the state as a whole. She is a strong believer in the model.

“Your middle school population is so much smaller,” Tracy says. “That is a definite plus. There are minimal discipline problems, and teachers can teach bell to bell.”

At Arbor Ridge, there are about 250 students in grades 6-8, about a quarter or less the number in a traditional middle school. While some see mixing older and younger students as a negative, Tracy’s experience is that the dynamic very much can be a positive for both groups of kids…

Continue reading…Students at desks