I hate to say it, but I don't think the changes we would like to see at the middle level are going to happen any time soon. The people in control who can ultimately make the changes (school boards, state departments, national legislators, policymakers, etc) are not aware of the needs of schools. School administrators, teachers, students, and parents should have more say in the formation of standards and age-appropriate curricula. These people see and understand the ins and outs of a school, as well as the needs of the students, and should be the ones making the most important decisions about what goes on in the school. Until that happens, not much will change for the better.
With all the new laws and reforms (NCLB, Race to the Top, etc.) that are trying to improve schools, the opposite effect is happening. Schools are under too much pressure to make AYP that the welfare of the students is given a backseat. What is best for the students does not help the school meet the preset standards for these reforms. Even though schools may be making AYP, it doesn't prove that they are meeting the social, emotional, and moral development of the students, which is just as important. As a result, administrators, teachers, and students are becoming stressed out and overworked with all the additional tests and test preps needed to succeed. If students don't do well on these tests, schools are wrongly punished. Does this make things better? Absolutely not!
Curriculum should be interdisciplinary. Subjects should not be seen as separate factors, but connected within the curriculum, just as it is in the 'real world'. I like how Marion Brady described it as a jigsaw puzzle. "The more pieces fitted together, the more sense the puzzle makes" (Education Reform: An Ignored Problem and a Proposal). Each subject is a piece of the puzzle and bringing all subjects together completes the puzzle. It is not only about the subjects, but their relationships that explain reality.
In regards to my own school, it is like most other middle schools. It carries the middle school name, but only a few of the ideas from the middle school concept. We have teams with common planning times and exploratories (art, music, tech. ed., computers, health), but that's about it. We do not have an advisory program, a curriculum that meets the social, emotional, moral developmProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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t along with the cognitive development of the students, or full use of technology in each classroom. The disciplines are taught separately, with little use of outside resources or active learning opportunities outside of the school building. There is a lot the needs to be done in order to be considered a true middle school.
I heard today (August 25th) that Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, will visit King Middle School in Portland next week. Very interesting because King MS is one of the top middle schools in Maine and possibly in the country. And it operates as a true ms should...paying attention to young adolescents and making many opportunities for them to learn. King MS is as far away from a school dictated by NCLB or Race to the Top, as a school could be. Should be an interesting contrast.
ReplyDeleteI understand what you are saying about the lack of implementation of ml principles in many ml schools. Why is there such a disconnect between when we know makes a difference and what actually happens?