Revival of the K-8 school: Criticism of middle schools fuels renewed interest in a school configuration of yesteryear

School Administrator, March, 2002 by Priscilla Pardini

Less than one year after signing on as chief executive officer of the 77,000-student Cleveland schools in late 1998, Barbara Byrd-Bennett came to the conclusion that the district's 25 middle schools were failing. Overall, test scores plummeted once students reached 6th grade and absence and suspension rates soared.

Byrd-Bennett concluded that Cleveland's middle school model, mandated by the courts to address overcrowding, had not been well thought out. The schools were too big. Teachers had not been adequately trained in nor had the resources to implement a true middle school philosophy. Beyond that, Byrd-Bennett had come to believe that the configuration of grades 6-8 that prevailed in Cleveland's middle schools actually worked against the needs of young adolescents.

"Here we were," she says, "taking children at 10--at their most delicate--and ripping them from a stable school environment. Then we put them in a new school where they had to move from class to class, learning to deal with a series of other adults while they were still learning to deal with each other."

Her solution was this: Begin phasing out middle schools and replace them with K-8 elementary schools. Says Byrd-Bennett, "We wanted to extend the stability of the school environment, to address the needs of the kids rather than make them fit into a particular structure."

Since the 1999-2000 school year, 21 Cleveland schools have been reconfigured or are in the process of being reconfigured to accommodate kindergarten through 8th grade. The results have been significant, with 6th graders in K-8 schools posting better attendance and higher standardized test scores than their peers in middle school. Down the road, predicts Byrd-Bennett, "We'll basically be a K-8 district."

A Trend Begins

Byrd-Bennett is not the only school system leader singing the praises of the K-8 model. In fact, more and more school districts--urban, suburban and rural--are scrapping their middle schools in favor of K-8s. The move is being prompted by several factors, including growing discontent with middle schools, the district's own research on the link between grade configuration and academic achievement and the wishes of parents.

Consider:

* The 43,000-student Cincinnati Public School District completed its five-year transition to K-8 schools in June 2000. Kathleen Ware, associate superintendent, says the move came largely in response to parental dissatisfaction with the district's middle schools.

"It's worked very well," says Ware of the shift, noting that discipline problems and absenteeism have declined while overall student achievement has improved. She concedes that other variables prevent her from attributing all the student gains to the K-8 model. Yet, she says, "We're very pleased with it. And parents here like it so much I don't think they would give it up."

* In Philadelphia, a school district empowerment plan calls for converting middle schools to K-8 schools where feasible. The move is based largely on the results of a school district study that found 8th graders in K-8 schools scoring significantly higher than those in middle schools on standardized tests of achievement in reading, mathematics and science. The study is particularly noteworthy because researchers controlled for the effects of poverty and race.

* In the Everett, Mass., Public Schools, a district of 5,600 students in suburban Boston, all five elementary schools will have been converted to K-8s by next year. Superintendent Fred Foresteire says he is convinced K-8 schools provide "a better atmosphere where no child falls through the cracks."

* In rural Fayetteville, Tenn., all 4,300 students will be attending K-S schools by next fall. The move, which involves reconfiguring four K-6 elementary schools, is designed in part to address a nearly 30 percent dropout rate.

Under the new plan, middle-level students will attend schools closer to home. "We want them to stay in their own communities," says Wanda Sisk, supervisor of instructional programs for the Lincoln County Department of Education. "In the elementary schools, the principals know all the kids and their families well."

* In the Baltimore city system, a move toward K-8 schools is an integral part of a major school reorganization plan that calls for doubling the number of K-8 schools to 34 over the next three years. In the words of Superintendent Carmen Russo, the district aims to "create smaller learning communities that would better meet the needs of our students."

* Oklahoma City residents last fall approved the expenditure of $530 million over the next seven years to finance a school reform plan that includes renovating every school in the district. The plan, which is intended to stem the exodus of students from the district after completing elementary school, will reconfigure most district elementary schools into K-8 buildings.

To be sure, the middle school model still predominates. According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics for the 1999-2000 school year, the most recent available, a total of 26,130 elementary schools served students through either 5th or 6th grade, compared with 3,249 schools that top out at 8th grade. Still, several school leaders whose districts are returning to the K-8 model believe they are part of a growing movement.