Getting middle school students back on track: A school-university-corporation partnership

Educational Forum, The, Spring 2002 by Brown, Mark, Johnson, Iris DeLoach, Grueninger, Carl E III

Social Impact

The Back-on-Track Program includes two separate classes of approximately 30 students each. Each class is team taught by two teachers. These teachers cover all of the academic subjects for that group of students in the same classroom for the entire school year, taking turns throughout the day either teaching or serving as the academic coach or instructional support while the second teacher taught. During the year, a family-type atmosphere develops in the classroom. Students support and encourage one another to be successful in their academic pursuits. Teachers in the program have reported that students are given high expectations, demonstrate higher motivation, are absent less frequently, and are less likely to be referred to the office for disciplinary infractions than the general population at Bloom.

There were early indicators of the academic impact of participation in the Backon-Track program as the California Achievement Test (CAT) scores of the first two years of seventh graders were compared to their CAT scores of the previous year. As a group, their performance in the sixth grade revealed that only 5 percent of the students scored at or above the 50th percentile on the reading section of the CAT, only 27 percent on the language section, and only 30 percent on the mathematics section of the CAT. However, after only one year of participation in the Back-onTrack program, 80 percent of the students scored at or above the 50th percentile in reading, 68 percent on the language section, and 62 percent on the mathematics section of the CAT. During the second year of the program, Back-on-Track students demonstrated similar gains.

Later, we observed the academic impact of participation in the Back-on-Track program as we compared Ninth Grade Ohio Proficiency scores of Back-on-Track participants with the general population at Bloom. On this test for eighth graders in Cincinnati Public Schools, Back-on-Track participants scored higher than the general population in all areas except writing (in 1996) and only slightly higher in science (in 1997).

BRIDGE BUILDERs ADAPT THE BACK-ON-TRACK PROGRAM

During the 1996-97 school year, another core academic team at Bloom, called the Bridge Builders Team, investigated ways to adapt features of the Back-on-Track program. Their version involved five teachers who taught 120 seventh graders, looping with them for two years. They regrouped the students into four slightly larger classes instead of five smaller classes. This move allowed the team to use one of their five allotted classrooms as an office area for their personal desks, team-planning room, and supply area. The teachers also rearranged their teaching schedules so that, at different times during the school day, there were at least two teachers in the classroom-one serving as the academic coach for the other.

Bridge Builders' classrooms are located either across the hall or next door to each other. Teachers changed classes from room to room, while the students remained in one self-contained classroom, except for art, music, and physical education. Large plastic containers were provided under each student's seat to store papers, books, notebooks, school supplies, etc., thus eliminating the need for lockers and movement in the hallway. Classes were organized into two 90-minute blocks of time for science/ math and communication arts. Social studies was taught in one 45-minute period.