Middle School Reform When Addressing

Middle School Reform

When addressing the concept of middle school reform, the first question arises is -- what is a middle school and what was the original purpose of creating such an institution? At the beginning of the 20th century, schoolchildren in the United States attended two types of schools, elementary and secondary schools. Educators developed the specific concept of special schooling for students in grades 7-8, or junior high schools as a method of preparing students for high school mid-century. American middle schools today usually encompass grades 6-8. Middle schools were created to meet the unique needs of young people who neither young children nor sexually mature adolescents. Thus, a middle school is not merely a school designed to house certain grades. It is a relatively recent innovation that is supposed to address specific developmental and academic needs of prepubescent students. (Friedman, Hartshorne, & Algozzine, 2005).

But although the age range middle schools cater to is relatively narrow, and the original concept of a middle school is highly specialized, around the country, "middle school teachers are often trained as elementary school generalists or as high school subject specialists, with little understanding of young adolescent psychology" (Gootman 2007:1). While "46 states offer some sort of credential specifically for middle school teachers, only 24 require" such specific certification (Gootman 2007:1). Middle schools are supposed to serve special needs of students, yet teachers are not specifically trained in those needs.

In New York City, where middle school has undergone a substantial revision in policy, ending social promotion and mandating proficiency tests at critical junctures of student education, "of New York City's 13,296 middle school teachers, only 82 are certified as "middle school generalists" (Gootman 2007:1). True, "some policy makers fear that stricter credentialing requirements could further narrow the pool of potential middle school teachers" (Gootman 2007:1). However, the fact remains that in grade-by-grade testing conducted across New York State for the first time last year, "reading scores plunged from fifth to sixth grade, when most students move to middle school, and continued to slide through eighth grade" (Gootman 2007:2).

To remedy the gap between the philosophy of middle schooling and the reality, many "states and school districts looking to strengthen their teachers are trying a variety of approaches, among them offering special certifications for middle school teachers, paying them extra to work in tough schools, or having them cover two subjects instead of one to let them develop closer relationships with students" (Gootman 2007:1). Schools struggle with striking a delicate balance between fostering mentoring relationships between students and teachers, which middle school students require to gain a sense of security, and preparing students for the subject-specific academic rigors of secondary school.

The education of middle school aged children all over the nation has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, particularly with 'No Child Left Behind' and its use of standardized testing as a means of measuring objective performance of school efficacy. However, many educators fear that this emphasis upon objective individual performance assessment through testing does not really suit the developmental needs of middle school children nor help them transition into the more competitive environment of junior or senior high. Instead, a better approach to teaching middle school students in might be to encourage students to pose questions, tackle and solve slightly more open-ended questions than they coped with in elementary school, learn to research subjects of personal interest, debate and defend their believes, and try to find solutions to problems they themselves pose.

Although using standardized assessment to measure performance may be more difficult with this approach to learning, using these techniques teach students to learn and think independently, which many believe is a more important goal for students of this age, rather than meeting standardized proficiencies. This approach may better reflect the unique needs of middle school students who are facing particular intellectual, social, emotional, moral, and developmental challenges (Clark & Clark, 1993). These students are beginning to go through puberty, are beginning to become able to reason abstractly, are facing social and emotional pressures from their peers for the first time and have just begun to develop a sense of self. Advisory programs to accompany individual student research problems can be helpful so that students work one-on-one with teachers and adult mentors, but still advance their academic skill levels. This also shows students that adults are not 'the enemy' which helps them retain a sense of connectedness with adults over the course of their adolescence.