| Starting over at the middle
By Shari Rudavsky, Globe Correspondent, 5/4/2003 NEW BEDFORD - Three years ago the state's Board of Education deemed Roosevelt Junior High “underperforming,” a label the school hopes to shed soon thanks to its reincarnation as a middle school. Differences abound. A brand-new facility has replaced the moldy decrepit building that housed the old school. A sixth grade was added to grades 7 and 8, expanding the student body to 1,000. And the school changed its name to Roosevelt Middle School. But beyond the external changes is a whole new approach to education: The school no longer mirrors a high school. Instead, in keeping with the middle school philosophy, Roosevelt focuses on the developmental needs of students ages 10 to 15. Teachers integrate classes more, adopt a team approach to instruction, and use hands-on experiences rather than lectures. When a state education review committee visits Roosevelt for three days at the end of this month, hopeful school officials will point to a rise in test scores, a drop in disciplinary problems, and a better connection between teachers and students. “This is not a hard school to be in,'' said Nicole Pinto, an eighth-grader. ''Everyone accepts you for who you are.” Across the state, as education reform celebrates its 10th year anniversary, struggling schools continue to search for the key - from physical improvements to curriculum changes - that will turn their schools around. In some cases, the challenge has fallen to new principals like Brian Abdallah, who took over the Roosevelt in 2001 after the school was labeled “underperforming.” Abdallah began selling the New Bedford School Committee on the notion of becoming a middle school. “I didn't know that this would end up being as good as it ended up being,” he said, “but I did know that there were a bunch of kids who had a lot of needs here and they werent being met.” The review committee will examine data, interview teachers and make a recommendation by June. Still, even as school officials hail the changes, they acknowledge challenges remain. For example, while the eighth-grade MCAS failure rated dropped from 87 percent in 1999 to 59 percent in 2001 - some students took refresher courses in math instead of music classes - it increased to 64 percent in 2002. Abdallah and his staff say students are still adjusting to the new education model and the new building. They note that the state considers two years of data in evaluating scores. Some Roosevelt students also have tired of the school-within-a-school concept, which has students belonging to one of three “houses” or one floor of the school. They spend all three years on that floor, studying with the same group of teachers on a team. “I want to meet some people who are not on the same floor,” said eighth-grader Pablo Lopez. With the gains also have come sacrifices. The school offers no foreign languages, and students have gym only once every six days. To compensate for the short time in physical education, Roosevelt created a pre-class morning fitness program that draws about 200 students who spend half an hour walking in the gym. Still, Abdallah and other school officials believe the middle school concept is the answer to achievement because it refuses to isolate students’ cognitive development needs from their social, emotional, and phsyiological characteristics. The middle school concept was born roughly 35 years ago when educators began pointing to students in this stage of development who were not thriving in a mini-high school setting. Rather, they argued, students required more of a bridge between elementary and high school. “Students between the ages of 10 and 15 go through more change than at any other time except for the first three years of life,” said Sue Swaim, executive director of the National Middle Schools Association. Across the country more than 20,000 schools now define themselves as middle schools. Fewer than 1,000 still go by “junior high.” Still others group students in K-8. But name alone does not distinguish a middle school from a junior high, Swaim warns. “It’s what’s going on inside that building to address the needs of young adolescents,” she said. Some schools have changed their name, but maintained practices that resemble a junior high such as courses taught in discrete subjects without much attention to the distinct needs of students in this age range. In middle schools, teachers work to integrate classes instead of having students take five or six separate subjects. True middle schools also abolish grouping or tracking students by abilities, said Robert Spear, executive director of the New England League of Middle Schools in Topsfield. The group named Roosevelt one of its Spotlight Schools in 2002 because of the school’s quick embrace of the middle school concept. “This is a whole different way of thinking. It usually takes three to five years and they did it in two,” Spear said. Last month, some of the 3,000 participants at the National League of Middle Schools’ annual conference toured Roosevelt. Many of the educators praised the state-of-the-art computer/library facility, the spacious gymnasium and the students learning from one another in small groups. Bilingual and special-education students are mainstreamed. Better relationships between teachers and students have translated into better behavior, school officials say. Suspensions are down 6.4 percent and detentions are down 44.9 percent. Even the school’s design serves its middle school philosophy well, noted Mark Fisher, vice principal of Massabesic Junior High School in Waterboro, Maine. Details such as wide halls and recessed lockers with ample space for oversized backpacks show the school puts students first. “Middle school is more about a whole look at the child, whereas high school is more about content,” he said. Teachers also appreciate the new environment. “The children are known personally by the adults much better here,” said Amy Deneault, a guidance counselor who spent several years at the old school. The school committee recently voted to adopt the middle school model for all schools serving children in that age range. Eighth-grader Brittany Brown understands why her school has set the standard. “This is a great school.”
This story ran on page E1 of the Boston Globe on 5/4/2003.
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