The Power of
Interdisciplinary Teaming
and Teacher Collaboration
A MiddleWeb Listserv conversation
Also see: "The Bloated Curriculum"
MiddleWeb participants discovered a discussion topic within a discussion
topic when Ellen Berg pointed out the connection between "coping with
a bloated curriculum" and the role of teaming in schools. She suggested
that teaming might be the very breakthrough educators are looking for as
they attempt to meet curriculum expectations without losing the heart and
soul of learning.
As the discussion, developed, several participants shared thoughts and stories
about making collaboration happen. The discussion eventually provoked some
conversation about planning time, scheduling, and other factors that influence
the ability to collaborate. The chat ended with a flurry of useful resources
about collaboration, scheduling, small schools, and making the case for
the middle school model. (Whew.)
I think this dilemma/problem (bloated curriculum) makes the case for interdisciplinary
teaching. I find it very difficult to "cover" the whole curriculum
as an isolated teacher. With the cooperation of other teachers (not just
core teachers), I am able to cover and practice much more.
We often think of related arts classes as being nonacademic, but they are
only nonacademic if we teach them that way. The science teacher on my team
has partnered with the health teacher on human body, hygiene, and rocks/fossils/minerals
content very successfully. Likewise, the science teacher on my team is having
her students reply to lit response-like questions in the same way I have
been requiring them to answer in my classroom. We are already making plans
for next year's first quarter to be sure our students are able to take notes
and present research effectively as well as other overlapping skills.
We need more time to plan together as well as the openness of others to
include ways to hook into each other's subject concepts. It takes time to
see the connections, but it is vital if we are ever to live up to the grand
expectations of those who write our curriculum.
In "The
Case for Constructivist Classrooms," (an ASCD publication) there
is a fabulous quote:
"Complete coverage...inevitably results in superficial and unengaging
teaching, like painting a room-covering plenty of square feet but only one-thousandth
of an inch." (Zemelman, 1998) Breadth is wonderful, but not if it is
at the expense of understanding and deep knowledge."
Ellen Berg
St. Louis
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Deb pointed out the importance of team members developing the skill of "back-mapping"
so that they can effectively connect the disciplines.
Ellen,
Can your school give a team some time over the summer break to engage in
some back mapping? Maybe you call it curriculum mapping, but whatever you
call it, it sounds like the process of connecting disciplines that you're
describing.
When I started teaching, I looked at my curriculum, decided on goals and
planned backwards from those outcomes to the steps I needed to take to reach
them. I shifted things around so that I could teach mythology and astronomy
at the same time etc. As a self-contained teacher I had it easy, but the
experience sold me on the idea of teaching thematically.
-Deb Bambino
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Ellen responded to Deb's question concerning the level of support provided
by her school and pointed out several barriers that appear to limit effective
teaming.
Can my school give us the time? Yes. Would they? Probably, if the leadership
was even remotely aware that curriculum mapping existed. The science teacher
on my team and I have done some of this in a very limited way, and we're
anxious to do more. A few problems, however, exist:
1. We need some guidance/direction for the process. We're both novice (5th-year)
teachers. There really isn't anyone in the building with the experience
to assist us.
2. One member on our team looks at teaching as more of a hobby (open the
book to chapter X, answer these questions, lecture, lecture, lecture, no
papers at home, no discussion of practice, etc.). The other member is a
continuing sub who thinks anyone can teach so she might as well do it too.
It can be very frustrating!!
Because of our challenges, the science teacher and I are doing what we can
to make connections between our two disciplines. It's not nearly enough,
but it's a start and we're hoping that if we show our enthusiasm and success,
others will want to join the party.
Really, the hugest challenge we've encountered over the past two years is
getting all members from our team on the same page.
- Ellen
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Rick proposed that administrators play a key role in creating schools
where collaborative teaching flourishes.
Ellen,
As a member of an interdisciplinary team for 11 years now, your point about
time to coordinate with the other team members is right on the mark. I have
seen many teams that are set-up at schools, but fail because the administration
or the system itself does not provide common preparation time. I am able
to cover more information, and in more depth, because of the ability to
team with the Language Arts and Science teachers.
- Rick Selby
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Robbyn shared how her team manages to work out common planning time.
We have 4 person teams, which are about 120 students per team. All 120 students
go to Related Arts (Music, Tech, PE, Art, Band or Orchestra) during the
same period. That allows all of the teachers on the team to have common
planning. All of the students go to lunch at the same time so teachers can
eat together also. When I was teaching, my team would eat together in one
of the classrooms and do lots of our planning at this time. It also kept
us away from the gossip in the teachers lounge!
-Robbyn LaFollette
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Robbyn encourages Ellen to become a change-agent in her school by modeling
effective teaming.
Ellen,
Having a team that works well together is the key. However, don't give up
just because others are not with you....yet. I know from experience that
the enthusiasm you spoke of is contagious. You and the Science teacher need
to keep plugging away and hopefully one of two things will happen: the teachers
on your team will come on board or the teachers that are not interested
will leave and you will be able to get someone new who is as excited about
teaching as you are.
-Robbyn
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The discussion took a different direction when one of our MiddleWeb listserv
members suggested that an attitude of teaming needed to spread from teachers
to the student body as a whole.
This is the way that it works at my school as well, although on the 8th
grade team we have a six-person team. We work pretty well together and we
feel like a team, but our students don't, I don't think.
What do others with teaming in place do to create a team feel for 120 students?
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Robbyn shared several ways her team worked towards establishing team
spirit throughout their middle school.
One thing we did every year was to take our students camping. We would divide
the team in half and take half one week and half the next week. We would
leave first thing on Thursday morning and return just in time for buses
on Friday. We would have 1 or 2 Advanced Program groups, 1 or 2 Comprehensive
Program groups and 1 or 2 Honors groups on our team. We were careful to
get a very good mix of kids for each trip. Kids that did not seem to have
anything in common would get to know one another. It worked very well.
We tried very hard to make sure we offered many occasions where the students
were integrated among the team. Our Language Arts teacher and Social Studies
teacher did a unit every year where they mixed one comp class with one advanced
class. They used block scheduling and were able to keep the students for
2 class periods. This helped the kids really get to know one another and
taught them how to work together.
We were also a very competitive team and would rally our kids together anytime
there was a fundraiser of some kind such as Crusade for Children, Dare to
Care, Fund for the Arts, etc. Our school had team wide competitions, but
we would always offer incentives to our homerooms. This also helped build
team spirit.
Sorry for the lengthy response, I didn't begin with that intention.
-Robbyn
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Brenda suggested a number of ways that team building can be fun activity
for both teachers and students alike.
Our middle school team has worked very hard to establish an identity this
year. At this point in the year I would say we've made a fair amount of
progress. Here are a few things we've done:
- We took the kids to a camp for three days in September. It
was a great way to help the new classes and teachers to gel early in the
year.
- We have had several "special activity days" for the purpose
of further connecting kids and their teachers. For example, we've had a
sports afternoon (dividing the kids into teams that have a mixture of Grade
6-8 on them- we've used these same teams for several activities this year)
and a team-building afternoon (the team designed a banner, played "fly
on the wall" and rotated through various centers that encouraged leadership
and team building).
-We plan to have a "Clue Night" next month when the kids and their
families will come back to the school on a Friday night and play a "larger
than life" clue game (our classrooms will be set up like the rooms
on the clue board- kitchen, dining room, library etc- and parents will play
the role of that room as kids and their parents try to identify the room,
the weapon and the person, just like in the board game.
-We had a Middle school potluck dinner last fall (granted, our Middle school
is not big- just 6 classes- it might be a little difficult for larger Middle
Schools). The families loved this!
- We have ongoing assemblies to work on middle school issues
- Our teachers have met socially several times this year in an attempt to
gel as a team themselves.
- We have lunch at a restaurant each month (admin covers our lunchroom supervision)
to help this relationship building along.
We are still working at it, but we are all encouraged because we sense the
kids (and teachers too) are starting to jive as a Middle School.
-Brenda
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Mary-Anne shared some creative team-building activities that supported
curriculum and promoted learning.
We really work at creating a "team" feeling. Once a month, each
team schedules a "team day". They choose something they are studying
or a field trip they are about to take and let the kids get someday long
experience with the topic. For example our eighth grade social studies teachers
are studying the Civil War. They planned a Civil War Day for all 120 kids
on their team.
They will have eighteen centers set up all over the school. Students will
pull random groups and spend the day together. For two periods they have
access to their elective teachers who will be teaching Civil War songs (general
music), playing the fife (band), playing games popular at the time (PE)
etc.
Then, for the rest of the day, they will travel to academic centers. They
will watch excerpts from "Gettysburg" or "Gone With the Wind",
take part in a speech contest, make lye soap, eat hard tack, plot a battle
as part of either the Union or Confederate troops, compare maps of Virginia
then and now etc. One will pull a card that says he is a runaway slave.
Others will try and identify him. They will have very strict schedules to
follow. The day will culminate in a reenactment of a Civil War battle.
This month our seventh grade team is planning a "fossil day."
They are going to bury a fake dinosaur skeleton on the football field and
the kids will have to find and excavate it.
Sometimes they get a little weird!
I will tell you, the teachers love planning them and the kids look forward
to it. It also helps with behavior. Kids know they can't go if they end
up in ISS. It really creates a team feeling!
-Mary Anne
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Larry told of a powerful discovery he made while principal: When effective
teaming methods are practiced between an administration and staff, it naturally
spills into how teachers deal with each other and their students.
I have always believed that teaching can be a very unhealthy adult profession,
when practiced in the style that I was used to seeing for many years. I
mean that adult teachers spent a great deal of time in their classrooms
with their students or by themselves. Only during breaks, like at lunchtime,
did they interact with their peers. These brief peer interactions were typically
discussions around complaints about the students and about the system. Rarely,
if ever, were these brief discussions of a positive nature.
When our district allowed middle schools to create common planning time
based on the requirement that adults had to work together in teams, by departments,
or on school committees, we suddenly created a healthier environment for
ourselves to work in. Now I see so many positive interactions that lead
to sharing and caring between adults. The focus is not about negative feelings,
but about how to make things better.
We periodically used common planning time for town hall meetings. We created
a safe environment where it was okay for staff to share concerns, however,
there was a caveat that was agreed upon by the staff. If someone had a concern,
they had to either propose a solution that would be discussed by the staff,
or they had to be willing to be part of a committee of staff to work on
solving it. This led to a school that developed a sense of true reform that
reached well into the classroom. This led to a staff that felt that they
mattered and weren't just being given inane direction by the principal.
Did common planning time make a difference? It sure did. As of last June
I am no longer principal of this school in Los Angeles, but I am so proud
because we brought our school to a point where the local newspaper described
it as "A jewel of the valley." They recognized it because they
said that the reputation of the school raised property taxes in the area.
More importantly, the staff feels that we were successful, and our state
has just recognized the school as a State Distinguished School.
Common Planning Time was not the only thing that led to our achievements,
(we created a block schedule, a bridging program, a strong articulation
program within the school and between our schools, we developed an advisory
program that has been very effective with student achievement, and we changed
the perception of our school for the students, staff and community) but
it initiated a healthy environment for the staff that allowed many other
things to happen.
Sorry about the ranting and raving, but this is a passionate topic for me.
Thanks for listening.
-Larry Tash
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Brenda asked MiddleWeb readers to consider some "out of the box"
ways for teachers to meet and collaborate.
Successful learning communities work together in "interdependent"
teams. Collaboration needs to be imbedded in the very routine of a school,
because collaboration by invitation does not work.
From the Journal of Staff Development, here are eight real-life examples
of how schools are finding time to meet and collaborate:
http://www.nsdc.org/library/jsd/pardini202.html
Question:
How does your school carve out time in the school calendar so that teachers
will meet and collaborate? Any "out of the box" solutions?
-Brenda Dyck
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Ellen wondered how schools create collaborative environments without
it becoming a power struggle between administration and teachers.
I like the phrase, "collaboration by invitation," and I agree
that it does not work. However, "collaboration by mandate" does
not work either. How do principals, staff developers, and teachers create
the expectation of collaboration without it becoming a power struggle? How
do we create a collaborative environment? There are those of us at my school
that seek each other out to work together, then there are those who want
to close the door to their classrooms and offices and leave with the buses.
Finding the time to collaborate is not a difficulty at my school. Each team
has 80-minutes of common planning time each day, and the principal pays
teachers extra-service pay if they stay after school to work on committee
or team projects. Furthermore, instead of hosting summer school this year,
our entire staff will be participating in a summer-long in-service with
a large amount of collaboration time (team, content-area, and school-wide)
built into the schedule. So, time is not a factor at my school, but willingness
to participate or participate in a meaningful way (you know, actually being
there in mind instead of cracking jokes and complaining...) are huge problems.
Have any of you been in situations where you've been able to turn it around?
-Ellen
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Brenda's doubts about the need for collaboration were challenged after
hearing speaker Richard DuFour suggest that collaboration was the only way
to transform schools into effective learning communities.
Ellen is very right. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make
it drink. Sometimes, I'm just like that horse myself!
I've been challenged to rethink that idea this week.
I just attended a conference (yesterday) where I heard Richard DuFour, superintendent
of schools at Adalai Stevenson High School, in Illinois. Rick's school has
moved, in recent years, from "The School Nobody Wanted to Attend"
to a school that is considered one of the most successful learning communities
in the state. This has caused quite a stir and educators are interested
to know how they did it.
He was bold enough to suggest that collaboration is the only way we are
going to transform schools into effective learning communities. He was probably
thinking about the horse and water issue when he shared with us the difference
between achieving "unanimity" and "consensus" on a staff.
This is how he defined "consensus":
Consensus: all points of view have been heard and the
will of the group is evident -- even to those who oppose it.
I don't think we as educators will reach unanimity on anything but the process
described in the definition above is a fair and much needed approach for
us in schools if we are to get on with impacting teaching and learning.
If administration and staff sit down and hash out the issue of collaboration
(or any issue for that matter) and the consensus is to move in a certain
direction, that's where they should move and those who just can't get on
board have the choice to not do so. If there are too many "off board
issues" for those individuals, this school may not be a great fit for
them.
That may sound very dogmatic but anything else presents major barriers to
establishing powerful learning communities.
I, as much as the next person dislikes being in an environment that mandates
anything but if I have been allowed to be part of dialogue that allows authentic
input (and I don't sense that it is already a done deal), I can usually
live with the outcome. When I can't, then it may be my issue and this isn't
the place for me. Putting teachers into a collaborative group and expecting
meaningful collaboration to suddenly happen is unrealistic.
DuFour talked about the necessity of giving teachers questions to discuss,
and clear goals to work towards as a team so that team members don't just
sit and stare at each other .I haven't had the best experiences with teaming
myself. Sometimes I've ended up with people I don't really "jive"
with or with people who appear to have a different approach to teaching
than I do or are worn out and rather disinterested. But when teaming works,
something very magical occurs and the kids (and us) are the winners. We've
probably all heard the saying, "it takes teamwork to make a dream work."
Margaret Wheatley says (and I think she may be thinking about teaming or
maybe marriage or parenting teenagers!): " Life is not neat, logical
or elegant...Its mess upon mess until something workable emerges. It takes
a lot of repeated mess to get it right" (paraphrased)
-Brenda
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Larry had additional thoughts regarding how one might make those horses
drink!
I believe that you can lead a horse to water when you are working with teachers.
However, they have to have a sense of urgency to want to work collaboratively
and they have to be involved in the decision-making.
They have to believe that they as a staff can impact change. I experienced
this change and the results were very positive.
-Larry
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Deb asked Larry to describe the process his school followed while attempingt
to realize change.
Please share some of the steps you took to achieve the changes you've described.
We had common planning time at my school, but it was constantly used for
"administrivia" and complaining. How did you break out of the
culture of complaint?
-Deb
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In response to Deb's question, Larry described a school culture that
thrived because the stakeholders (teachers) believed there was a need to
change. He explained how this was key to successfully implementing change
in his school.
I provided the staff with a clear picture of where we were, the positives
and the negatives. This allowed me to create a sense of urgency in developing
an atmosphere of change to improve our working conditions and our teaching
situation. I early on saw that if we did not make the changes and work to
improve student achievement in a measurable way, that others (under our
state accountability law) would come in and tell us what we were doing wrong
by analyzing only the state testing data.
I spoke to the entire staff, I met with key staff individually and they
helped move the agenda forward. We created rules as a school staff that
common planning time was to be used only for adult interaction, not for
prep time or administrative trivia. We did use it periodically for professional
development, but that need came from the staff. We began working on creating
school wide writing rubrics, reviewing student work by teams and by departments,
developing departmental writing prompts that were given school wide at the
same time, but the topics were embedded in the instructional program.
The reality was that the staff felt empowered with common planning time,
and with several other decisions that had to be made. They believed and
knew that their input was important and would be a strong determinant in
policy and decision-making in our school.
When people believe there is a need to change, and when they feel that they
are part of decision in how the change will look, they will act and be professional.
There were a few teachers who did not follow the expectations of our school.
It was the administrations responsibility to monitor that people were doing
what was expected. Several chose to retire and two who were emergency credentialed
did not return. When administration did not monitor, the teachers would
let me know that we had to do a better job. We always felt that the district
would just as soon take common planning time away, even though it led to
our school being a community of learners.
If you have more specific questions, I will be glad to respond.
Larry
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It's not unusual for listserv conversations to "migrate" toward
related issues. This discussion of teaming and collaboration eventually
provoked some conversation about planning time, scheduling, and other factors
that influence the ability to collaborate.
Margaret observed how our education system sometimes works against itself.
We love our common planning time. However, the system is in the process
of doing away with it so that we can spend more time teaching language arts
and math. Needless to say, teachers are most unhappy.
-Margaret
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Chris Toy, a principal in Maine, asks Margaret for further details.
Oh no...That's not good for you or the students. What other options
have been explored? How much time is spent on core academics now?
Chris Toy
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Margaret provided additional information about her school program.
Right now we spent 60 minutes on each of the 4 core academic classes, 45
min in each of 2 exploratory classes, 1/2 hour reading and half hour lunch.
Next year we need to spend at least 90 minutes in math and language arts.
We have been looking into other options, and we think that the students
need exploratory classes. We've been looking into a math-science block,
and a language arts-social studies block. Our problem is that our 8th grade
teachers are currently only teaching one subject. It's harder to come up
with a workable schedule that way
-Margaret
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Larry offered some suggestions for Margaret.
Consider a block schedule so that every period is similar to a double period,
it won't matter then if the 8th grade teachers remain departmentalized.
We have used this approach for the past five years.
We use a four period block each day. Not only do you get to have more instructional
time and less passing period chaos, but you also sees fewer people each
day in your classrooms.
-Larry
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Anita explains how budget cuts have threatened the viability of effective
teaming in her school.
It has been a while since I have posted, but I have another question.
Our faculty is looking at some serious scheduling issues right now and we
have a severe split among the teachers. We have been revisiting the middle
school concept with the backing of our admin and superintendent for the
last two years. Due to a shrinking enrollment, we are going to "lose"
two teaching slots next year. When this happens, the schedule as we know
it cannot continue. A committee was appointed to address this issue.
Here is the problem. They have proposed thirteen or so schedules with and
without seminar, SSR, home base, longer periods, and shorter lunches. The
division is not over any of that. In order for any of the schedules to work,
the elective teachers (art, music, foreign language, etc.) will have to
give up being on a team and take on an extra class. They will be teaching
6 and have one personal planning period. The core teachers will be required
to continue the team concept with 5 members to the team rather than 8. They
will have to meet as a group every team planning period and put together
interdisciplinary units, plan field trips (currently we go on one every
marking period), do the parent conferences, answer admin directives, etc.
The elective teachers would not have to supervise SSR and thus would have
100 extra minutes added to their personal planning time. Core teachers would
have to split up their students and supervise SSR either just before or
just after lunch, which will be a shortened period.
Elective teachers are feeling exploited! They are yelling unfair labor practices
because one of their preps has been taken. Core teachers are yelling because
of the additional 100 minutes of personal time they do not get. Neither
side seems to be listening to each other.
We have 11 elective teachers and three grade levels. There are approximately
125 students per team. There are 2 8th grade teams, 2 7th grade teams, and
three 6th grade teams. Our new gym is half the size of the old one and we
are going from 4 PE teachers down to 2.
Personally, I am a core teacher who would rather have the extra class then
all of the "team" stuff. I love working with my students. I can't
always say that about my co-workers, much as I like them. Sometimes we just
don't seem to get anything DONE!
Okay, I am venting. We are currently on spring break and I don't want to
go back to school because of these issues. The tension is almost visible--who's
right, who's wrong--if you don't agree you are the enemy? What a horrible
waste! We should be supporting each other not taking pot shots! How can
we help the students? Exploratories are there so that these young people
can "taste" what is available before they have to engrave it in
stone (college and high school).
Budget cuts stink. Any thoughts on how someone could mediate this one?
Anita
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Bill responded to Anita's query by describing a similar situation he
encountered and the learning he gained from the process.
I have had a day off, and the chance to emerge after a rather busy two weeks.
I went through an analogous situation at my old school when we were trying
to design a "Full Time Equivalency" plan to try to ensure that
all faculty members had approximately similar workloads.
At the time, a survey showed, some teachers spent much more than double
the time working that others did. Worse, we discovered, you couldn't just
redistribute work from the high end to the low end; we simply could not
accomplish the total work of the school with the numbers of teachers we
had. You can well imagine the discussions that ensued!
Your school seems to have a similar situation, except that everyone is being
asked to work more. To be fair, it is only natural that no one likes this.
The question is, does everyone understand that it is everyone who is working
more and not only them? One technique we used in the second year of this
process was to develop, on paper, sample job descriptions and have everyone
look them over and react to them. It led to some degree from understanding
between the two factions. You will also probably need to acknowledge directly
this increase in workload, and figure out ways to allay any faculty fears
for the future, which may develop.
An underlying problem for us was a solid minority of teachers for whom "Let's
agree to disagree." was not an option. With strong leadership from
influential day faculty and house parents, we were able to build enough
consensuses to get a plan passed with over 80% of the faculty voting for
it.
I suppose the lesson here is, look for a few well-respected and influential
core and elective teachers who are open to compromise, and make sure they
are actively involved.
And in the end, you may just have to adopt a neo-existentialist attitude
toward the whole thing. You are unlikely ever to get an entire faculty psyched
to have their workloads increase, and that's just the way of it.
Good luck, and take care,
-Bill
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Jean joined in to describe another situation that indicates how collaborative
teaching may be threatened because of restructuring initiatives in schools.
I have just been asked to attend a meeting next week concerning the future
of our school district. From the addressee list on the email, my guess is
that I'm the only teacher invited (from twelve middle schools). One other
name is that of a middle school counselor, but I think that the rest are
principals. The email simply said that we would be discussing junior highs
vs. middle schools.
I am a firm believer that teams within middle schools are far superior to
junior high settings. However, I assume that the central office powers that
be feel differently. This year we were no longer allowed to have teams,
supposedly because teams are more expensive. We lost 1 1/2 teaching units
for this year, and with budget cuts throughout the state, I imagine more
cuts loom. Working without teams has posed many problems such as scheduling
parent conferences, planning field trips, planning curriculum...and effective
"hovering" is very difficult when we don't share the same students.
I am to bring along any documentation or information that I feel would be
helpful to the discussion. Does anyone have any suggestions for concrete
reinforcement that I should be sure to include in my fight for keeping middle
schools?
Thank you,
Jean
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Bill proposed ways that may assist Jean in her effort to keep middle
schools functioning in her area.
First off, I would be sure a fight is looming. And if it is and you recognize
any names on that list that might be supportive of your point of view, I'd
suggest contacting them and talking things over. Building coalitions in
advance can be an effective technique.
As far as concrete support goes, I would strongly suggest "Turning
Points 2000". The National Middle Schools Association website
is bound to have something that would be helpful, as would Middleweb! I
would think any sort of concrete examples of how this year's changes have
specifically affected your school would also help build a case.
As you build your case, look for common points as well as differences. As
much as you might legitimately disagree with some or even all (please no!)
of the people at that meeting, in the end everyone there presumably wants
what is best for the kids. The financial angle is a legitimate concern,
after all, and so would be more easily addressed once you have more people
sharing your point of view.
Good luck, and take care,
Bill Ivey
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John Norton reiterates the importance of referring to Turning Points
2000 to help maintain balance between academic issues and non-academic supports
in middle school education.
I agree with Bill's suggestion. Turning Points 2000 does a good job balancing
the need for non-academic supports for students at this age, while making
a strong case that we must also address achievement issues and build strong
academic programs. Balance is the key.
Critics of middle school most often criticize the lack of attention to academics
and high achievement, and the authors of Turning Points really make the
case that you have to have both. If your schools do not achieve the balance
now, then your education leaders may have to agree that "Yes, we need
to work on balance, but we don't want to throw away the idea that these
students have special needs at this special age" -- and then offer
some concrete proposals to get to "balance."
Here's
the page we posted during our Jan. conversation about Turning Points
2000, which includes a useful excerpt from the book and links to ordering
info.
John
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Keith directed MiddleWeb readers to a wealth of resources that support
the use of a middle school model.
Our district is facing similar questions, particularly in relation to K-8
vs. middle schools.
I know of a few studies comparing junior highs to middle schools to K-8
schools. The studies look at student achievement as well as self-esteem,
adolescent development, and victimization.
In those studies, middle schools are preferred to Jr highs, and K-8s are
preferred to middle schools--in these FEW studies. Here are a few citations.
1. Simmons and Blyth (1987) Moving
Into Adolescence (book documenting Milwaukee's comparison of Jr High
to K-8)
2. Offenberg (2001) The Efficacy of Philadelphia's K-to-8 Schools Compared
to Middle Grades Schools. The Middle School Journal.
3. Whiry et al. (1992) Grade
Span and Eighth-Grade Academic Achievement: Evidence from a Predominantly
Rural State. The Journal of Rural Education.
4. Paglin & Fagler (1997) Grade
Configuration: Who Goes Where? Published by NWREL
Your mention of teaming seems critical in the conversation. The movement
from jr high schools to middle schools was about much more than just servicing
a different grade configuration, as I'm sure you're aware. With the middle
school movement came greater efforts to be a developmental bridge between
elementary and high school (via teaming, looping, advisory periods)--not
just a miniature version of high school. Here are a few citations.
1. Oakes et al. (2000) Becoming Good American Schools
2. The EdWeek special "Feeling
the Squeeze" currently available at edweek.org
3. Corbett and Wilson's series of reports on middle grades students, available
at http://www.philaedfund.org
or the now book from http://www.crosscitycampaign.org
called Listening to Urban Kids by the same authors/researchers
4. Phi Delta Kappan's middle grades series in both 1997 & 2000
5. NMSA's "This We Believe" and grade
configuration paper.
6. Anne Wheelock's Safe to Be Smart (published
by NMSA)
Also, teaming doesn't have to be more expensive. Rather, scheduling needs
to be more creative and maybe reviewing priorities. For suggested middle
school scheduling models, see J. Allen Queen's work on "The Fan,"
(Block Scheduling Revisited)
also available from Phi Delta Kappan.
A potentially powerful corollary is the research around small schools--both
overall school size and number of students per grade. It seems that once
any school tops 500 students (approx), the important relationships between
and among students and teachers are much more difficult to achieve, leaving
many more students to fall through the cracks. Jr High Schools were once
part of an economies of scale movement, where it was thought to be cheaper
to house as many students as possible in one school. The accompanying argument
said that more opportunities and resources could be made available.
Neither of these is entirely true since anonymity grows significantly in
larger buildings and social/community/cultural capital is more difficult
to foster as students from many schools and neighborhoods merge into one
when attention to development is so important.
1. "Small Schools: Great Strides" report from Chicago. It's available
on-line at www.bankstreet.edu (I
think that's the college's web site)
2. Bank Street also published a series of occasional reports on the issue
that are also very good.
I hope this helps. Good luck!
-Keith
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