Focus on the Wonder Years


Book Description

Young teens undergo multiple changes that seem to set them apart from other students. But do middle schools actually meet their special needs? The authors describe some of the challenges and offer ways to tackle them, such as reassessing the organization of grades K-12; specifically assisting the students most in need; finding ways to prevent disciplinary problems; and helping parents understand how they can help their children learn at home.




A Comparison of Traditional 6th - 8th Grade Middle Schools and K - 8th Grade Academies in the Areas of Student Achievement and School Climate


Book Description

Researchers differ in their views of the structure of traditional middle and high schools in public education on student performance. They question the effectiveness of school and age level configuration, and its comparability with the age-appropriate cognitive, social and emotional development needs of students. Some believe that eliminating the traditional break between elementary and middle schools would enhance students' overall learning opportunities, particularly for ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students and reduce the current disparity in student performance between traditional middle schools and K-8 academies. This research is founded on a study of (a) curricular and co-curricular richness of the core program; and (b) the organizational elements of the elementary and intermediate school configurations. This mixed-methods investigation utilized both quantitative and qualitative methods to develop the data. The quantitative method incorporated a comparison of six schools that were once either K-5 elementary schools or 6-8 traditional middle schools but were later reconfigured to encompass all grade levels making them K-8 Academies. The quantitative method was used to evaluate the quality of (a) student performance in mathematics and language arts as determined by state assessments (b) the school climate as perceived by the teachers, parents and community members. Creswell (2005) noted that the combination of quantitative and qualitative data gathering, analysis, and interviews strengthens the understanding of the problem and related research findings. Many school districts with 6-8 traditional middle schools have experienced students not making adequate progress and are considering changing their grade structure to K-8. DeJong and Craig (2002) list the reasons for this conversion to cause fewer transitions for students, to keep students in neighborhood schools, to reduce transportation costs, to improve safety, and to accommodate declining enrollment. The researcher hopes that, along with other current research, this study may serve to compel more school districts to consider adopting alternative grade configurations when students are not making adequate progress in the traditional 6-8 grade configuration.




School, Family, and Community Partnerships


Book Description

Strengthen programs of family and community engagement to promote equity and increase student success! When schools, families, and communities collaborate and share responsibility for students′ education, more students succeed in school. Based on 30 years of research and fieldwork, the fourth edition of the bestseller School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Your Handbook for Action, presents tools and guidelines to help develop more effective and more equitable programs of family and community engagement. Written by a team of well-known experts, it provides a theory and framework of six types of involvement for action; up-to-date research on school, family, and community collaboration; and new materials for professional development and on-going technical assistance. Readers also will find: Examples of best practices on the six types of involvement from preschools, and elementary, middle, and high schools Checklists, templates, and evaluations to plan goal-linked partnership programs and assess progress CD-ROM with slides and notes for two presentations: A new awareness session to orient colleagues on the major components of a research-based partnership program, and a full One-Day Team Training Workshop to prepare school teams to develop their partnership programs. As a foundational text, this handbook demonstrates a proven approach to implement and sustain inclusive, goal-linked programs of partnership. It shows how a good partnership program is an essential component of good school organization and school improvement for student success. This book will help every district and all schools strengthen and continually improve their programs of family and community engagement.




Should Sixth Grade Be in Elementary or Middle School? An Analysis of Grade Configuration and Student Behavior


Book Description

Using administrative data on public school students in North Carolina, we find that sixth grade students attending middle schools are much more likely to be cited for discipline problems than those attending elementary school. That difference remains after adjusting for the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the students and their schools. Furthermore, the higher infraction rates recorded by sixth graders who are placed in middle school persist at least through ninth grade. A plausible explanation is that sixth graders are at an especially impressionable age; in middle school, the exposure to older peers and the relative freedom from supervision have deleterious consequences.







Closing the School Discipline Gap


Book Description

Educators remove over 3.45 million students from school annually for disciplinary reasons, despite strong evidence that school suspension policies are harmful to students. The research presented in this volume demonstrates that disciplinary policies and practices that schools control directly exacerbate today's profound inequities in educational opportunity and outcomes. Part I explores how suspensions flow along the lines of race, gender, and disability status. Part II examines potential remedies that show great promise, including a district-wide approach in Cleveland, Ohio, aimed at social and emotional learning strategies. Closing the School Discipline Gap is a call for action that focuses on an area in which public schools can and should make powerful improvements, in a relatively short period of time. Contributors include Robert Balfanz, Jamilia Blake, Dewey Cornell, Jeremy D. Finn, Thalia González, Anne Gregory, Daniel J. Losen, David M. Osher, Russell J. Skiba, Ivory A. Toldson “Closing the School Discipline Gap can make an enormous difference in reducing disciplinary exclusions across the country. This book not only exposes unsound practices and their disparate impact on the historically disadvantaged, but provides educators, policymakers, and community advocates with an array of remedies that are proven effective or hold great promise. Educators, communities, and students alike can benefit from the promising interventions and well-grounded recommendations.” —Linda Darling-Hammond, Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education, Stanford University “For over four decades school discipline policies and practices in too many places have pushed children out of school, especially children of color. Closing the School Discipline Gap shows that adults have the power—and responsibility—to change school climates to better meet the needs of children. This volume is a call to action for policymakers, educators, parents, and students.” —Marian Wright Edelman, president, Children’s Defense Fund




The Influence of Building Configuration on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Demographic Variables in Selected Midwestern School Districts


Book Description

This study examined the influence of building configuration on the academic achievement and attendance of students who were considered chronically absent. A longitudinal nonequivalent groups research design was used to test the study’s six hypotheses. Data were collected from over 10,000 students within 38 K-8 schools and 40 6-8 middle schools in 24 urban school districts. These districts belonged to the Middle Cities Education Association (MCEA) in a Midwestern state. Student achievement data were collected from this state’s Department of Education’s Center for Educational Performance and Information (CEPI) database that focused specifically on 6th (2009) and 8th-grade (2011) achievement and attendance results. Data were analyzed using an independent samples t-test to measure the differences in mean scores of the two groups, and a one-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) to determine the intervening effects of the covariates on various demographic characteristics. Findings in this study indicate that there were no significant improvements in mathematics, reading, and chronically absent attendance rates for students who attended K-8 configured schools as compared to their corresponding peers attending 6-8 middle schools. This held true when adjusting for race, gender, Free and/or Reduced Lunch status, and students with disabilities. This study helps fill a void in the current body of literature by examining the influence of grade configuration (i.e., K-8 schools versus traditional 6-8 middle schools) on student achievement and attendance, and whether selected demographic variables (e.g., race, gender, Free and/or Reduced Lunch status, and students with disabilities) had an influence on these differences. The study concludes with several recommendations for further study.




This We Believe


Book Description




The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs


Book Description

The Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs is a resource to develop effective and high quality comprehensive school counseling programs that align with Texas statutes and rules governing the work of school counselors. It outlines a process for tailoring school counseling programs to meet the varying needs of students across an array of school districts through implementation of the four components of school counseling programs, Guidance Curriculum, Responsive Services, Individual Planning, and System Support. With this resource, a school counselor will learn to use campus-specific data to identify the unique needs of a campus and design a comprehensive school counseling program to meet those needs. Recognizing the important roles of the entire educational community, the Texas Model for Comprehensive School Counseling Programs provides examples of how parents, teachers, administrators, principals and school counselors can best contribute to implementation of each of the four components of comprehensive school counseling programs. It provides a developmental framework for a school counseling program curriculum that includes activities at each grade level to enhance students¿ educational, career, personal and social development.