The Middle School Plunge

More research about The Middle School Plunge reveals:

"Our results cast serious doubt on the wisdom of the middle-school experiment that has become such a prominent feature of American education."

"entering a middle school causes a sharp drop in student achievement relative to the performance of those remaining in K–8 schools"

"After three years in a middle school, students who entered in 6th grade score 0.23 standard deviations in math and 0.14 standard deviations in reading worse than we would have expected had they attended a K–8 school."
We would be better off getting rid of middle schools and jr. highs. They are the worst time of a student's schooling.

New York Leaps into the Middle School Trap : Education Next

New York Leaps into the Middle School Trap : Education Next

"In the specific year when students move to a middle school (or to a junior high), their academic achievement, as measured by standardized tests, falls substantially in both math and English relative to that of their counterparts who continue to attend a K–8 elementary school. What’s more, their achievement continues to decline throughout middle school. This negative effect persists at least through 8th grade, the highest grade for which we could obtain test scores."

7-12 Secondary schools instead of jr. highs

Jr. highs have proven to be the worst time of a student's public school experience. That's when kids are most likely to take a nose dive in either behavior or academics. Many people have just written it off to hormones! While that makes things harder, the configurations of middle schools and jr. highs play a big role too.

Elementary students typically have anywhere from 50-100 students per grade level, usually with one main teacher per class. They know their teacher and the other students well, usually of the whole grade. They can't hide in the mob. In a jr. high they typically have 200-300+ students per grade level. It takes those kind of numbers, when you only have 2-3 grades in a school, to be financially viable. In that setting students become part of the mob. Their behaviors deteriorate along with their grades.

Many districts are now experimenting with K-8 schools, which have shown much improvement. Still better, though not as prevalent, are 7-12 secondary schools. There are many advantages to this configuration, but few have really considered this option.

If you turn each jr. high and high school into a 7-12 school, they would house the same number of students, but would reduce the number of students per grade level.

By readjusting school boundaries, the schools would be closer to the homes of the students. This would lower the amount of traffic and travel times.

Students would be in the same school longer without having to transition to a new school, thus reducing the loss of learning and time of adjustment.

Students and teachers would get to know each other better. Parents would tend to be more connected with the school.

If the students had siblings near their age, they would be in the same school - family-friendly, one-stop schooling! They could look after each other better.

One study shows that students who attend 7-12 schools do better in college.

The more you look at 7-12 schools the better they look!