Junior high school may be the last frontier of educational reform.
Yet that is changing as educators in Illinois, and at numerous schools in the northwest suburbs, rethink this decades-old concept.
Many educators are finding alternatives by restructuring their programs as middle schools, a concept that draws on the elements of both elementary and high schools to best meet the needs of junior high`s young adolescents.
”Middle school is first an attitude and then a delivery system,” says Sherrel Bergman, professor of middle level education at National-Louis University in Evanston and cofounder of the Association of Illinois Middle Schools.
Savario Mungo would agree. ”Middle-school philosophy advocates a student-centered approach similar to that of the elementary school and combines it with the subject specialization of high schools,” says Mungo, who is coordinator for the middle/junior high school program at Illinois State University in Bloomington. ”Kids need both at this age.”
It is an age that can be difficult. ”These years, from 11 to 14, are years of the most tremendous changes in a human`s life, except from birth to 2,” says Judith Baenen, director of affiliate and member services for the National Middle School Association, an Ohio-based professional advocacy organization for middle level education founded in 1963.
”We`ve known (about the changes) for years but have never translated those needs into teaching practices,” says Mungo.
Indeed, for many years, the junior high school system has not addressed those changes in adolescents. Instead, junior high has been the stepchild of education ever since it was introduced in 1910 as a watered-down version of the high school model that channeled students on a purely academic track with little regard to the needs of young adolescents.
These days, though, that`s changing with the growing interest in middle schools. While the terms ”middle” and ”junior high” are often used interchangeably and the grades covered can vary from 4th through 10th grade, experts agree neither the label nor the particular grades housed within a building matter as much as what actually goes on inside the building.
What does go on in the buildings is being strongly influenced by
”Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21st Century,” a report issued by the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development in 1989.
The report tells schools just what needs to be done to effectively educate this age group. While the ideas aren`t new, the Carnegie report startled educators and the public because it thoroughly analyzed the problems young adolescents face today and how schools need to be restructured to meet those special needs.
The Carnegie report pointed out that middle level education represents the last best chance to make sure young adolescents get on and stay on the right track, and it made eight recommendations that schools need to implement to effectively educate students ages 10 to 15.
”The Carnegie report showed that the development of adolescents is crucial at this age and that they need a different approach,” says Mungo,
”Rather than the mini-high school approach, they need greater parental involvement and teams of teachers who meet with smaller groups of students.” To achieve that, the Carnegie report advocates middle schools use team teaching and advisory programs. These both help create smaller communities of students so adults can get to know students well, which research says young adolescents need.
”A significant adult outside the child`s family can have a fantastic effect on a child`s life,” says Mungo, ”and by teaming teachers, a student has fewer adults to deal with. It gives the students a better chance of knowing one well.”
Schools across the nation are using components of the middle-school approach in varying degrees. While some states, including Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina, have been educating young adolescents this way for years, Illinois has been slow to integrate such programs.
Thanks to Project Initiative Middle Level (PIML), a network of 31 Illinois schools are now restructuring according to middle-school concepts, making Illinois one of the fastest-growing states in developing middle schools.
Gregory and Hill Middle Schools in Naperville are serving as model schools for the state. In the northwest suburbs, schools in communities ranging from Johnsburg in northern McHenry County to Palatine and Elgin are studying or implementing the middle-school concept.
Central Middle School in Burlington, part of PIML, is in its first year of restructuring.
”With teams, we can really be on top of our students and how they`re doing academically in all their classes, not just our own,” says Joanne Tamms, an 8th-grade team leader at Central. ”We know the kids` caseload and space things out, and we have one set of rules for all of us.”
Central houses grades 5 through 8. Each grade level operates on its own master schedule. No bells ring during the day to announce the changing of classes.
”I was skeptical of (no bells) at first, but it works and it runs smoothly,” says principal Bob Warski. ”The halls aren`t crowded, and the climate of the building has improved considerably.”
With each grade level on its own schedule, they can have mutual planning time, which is a key component of team teaching. This, in turn, allows the teams to hold special assemblies just for their grade level, or a science teacher can request extended class time to conduct an experiement.
Middle-school philosophy also advocates a rich exploratory program as a way to give young adolescents a chance to try things they`ve never tried before.
”This doesn`t mean they take Spanish in order to get advanced placement in high school. It means they take Spanish to see if they want to go on with it later,” says NMSA`s Baenen.
Northwood Middle School in Woodstock is also a PIML demonstration site and has been practicing team teaching since 1972. But in the last four years the staff has been working to restructure their school in other ways as well, particularly when it comes to dealing with the emotional and social needs of young adolescents.
”We`ve had absolutely no student leadership, and we`re working hard to develop that,” says principal Pete Anderson. ”We`re also trying hard to get every kid involved in something.”
Monthly recognition assemblies by grade levels, a no-cut interscholastic sports program, intramurals and special student participation days help create a positive and healthy climate for kids to succeed, Anderson says.
To meet the unique developmental needs of the age group, students can sign up for Gab Room, a place where it`s okay to talk. ”Students this age have a tremendous need to socialize,” says Anderson, ”and this gives them an outlet for that.”
Schools that implement middle-school concepts also look for alternatives to dances, a widely accepted practice in junior high schools. Bergman says a seven-year biological difference exists between the slowest maturing 7th-grade boy and the fastest-maturing 7th-grade girl, a fact that social experiences in junior high schools don`t consider.
”If a boy can`t even get his own locker open, can you really expect him to interact socially with a girl at a dance?” Bergman says.
While Bergman says it`s okay to offer dancing as an activity, surveys of kids indicate they want something more, including lots of food; something wildly athletic, like volleyball; a place to sit, talk or play board games;
and an unobtrusive adult.
Implementing a middle-school program can be costly, and few school districts have extra money these days. But many schools in Illinois have begun transition by reallocating the resources they already have and coming up with creative programming alternatives.
”Lock-step miniature high schools are not working,” Bergman says.
”It`s time to take what is developmentally appropriate for young adolescents and make it work in your own community.”
