*The History – Abridged
The K-8 school model dominated public education until the early 1900’s and has since returned to middle schools as an intervention reform conversation along with the theories of “looping”, teaming, and “advisories” -- all in an effort to address the issues that trouble middle school educators across the nation.
More specifically:
- How can schools increase academic rigor in the middle schools?
(A very real and common concern among the PPS parents.)
- What school conditions are necessary to support adolescent identity development?
(This is of personal importance to me and I’m sure with parents in general.)
- What intervention aids students’ transitions between grades and between schools?
(Again a very relevant concern for PPS Parents.)
In the early 20th Century the historic Committee of Ten endorsed the potential of the junior high school model as a more effective structure to help answer these questions, and ultimately boost middle grades student achievement. There was a considerable amount of permutations that followed including: K-6, 7-12 and K-12 and within Plainfield there exists the first permutation in addition to 7-8, and 9-12.
In recent years shifts in both State and Local education policies supporting the K-8 model have been implemented in Baltimore, Boston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Denver, Harrisburg, Hartford, Palm Beach and Phoenix but published results have yet to substantiate the true impact of these reforms.
According to Keith Look, researcher for the Philadelphia Education Fund, there is a growing body of research that shows K-8 schools are effective in improving student achievement in the middle grades. This is certainly an area Plainfield needs to concentrate on to ensure our schools meet the State standards of education that has eluded us for so many years.
Look does warn however, that this platform should not be viewed as an education panacea for what ails failing districts, but rather there is a need to constantly evaluate if, when, where and how K-8 school modeling applies.
So, what does Plainfield hope to gain by implementing this model? Tune in next Monday as we explore this question and many more.
* The information provided in this article was taken from "The Great K-8 Debate" written by Keith Look. A full citation can be found at: http://www.philaedfund.org/notebook/TheGreatK8Debate.htm
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