Study bolsters schools’ shift

to three tiers
District adopted middle schools in 1990s.
 

Research suggests a new grade-level configuration will boost academic achievement among Columbia Public Schools’ mid-level students.

The Board of Education tomorrow is expected to approve the first of a three-phase, $180 million bond package to build a third major high school. That new building would allow the district to eventually eliminate the middle or junior high school levels, reconfiguring the system to include K-5 elementary schools, grades 6-8 intermediate schools and grades 9-12 high schools.

Parents and patrons expressed overwhelming support for that reconfiguration during public hearings in September. Administrators say research also justifies the change. They point to a University of Missouri-Columbia study that shows fewer transitions during K-12 education result in better academic performance.

"When you have a transition, in the first year in a new organization, you always have an achievement drop," said John Alspaugh, emeritus professor of education who researched the effect of transitions on academic performance in the 1990s. "It doesn’t make a difference what grade that transition occurs; it’s consistent. When you reduce the number of transitions, you reduce the number of hits you take on achievement."

The success of Columbia’s future mid-level buildings also will hinge on how those schools are structured, said Jerry Valentine, an educational leadership and policy analysis professor at MU and director of the Middle Level Leadership Center.

"Some of the best practices associated with the middle school philosophy is more interdisciplinary teams and exploratory programs than electives," he said. "It’s more child centered than content centered."

Columbia middle schools already offer a team approach, which groups students with the same two or three teachers throughout a school year. District administrators are also looking into the benefits of "looping," which involves placing the same group of students with the same teachers for more than one year.

Valentine is working on research in Missouri that shows a correlation between those practices and good student achievement, regardless of a district’s socioeconomic make-up.

"The literature tells us clearly if middle school practices are implemented, schools should see some steady changes in student achievement," he said. If Columbia implements "these types of programs and practices, they’re going to see an academic boost."

Shifting eighth-graders to middle school and ninth-graders to high school might also clear confusions that exist in junior high buildings, Oakland Junior High Principal Kim Presko said.

In existing junior highs, eighth-graders and ninth-graders might have the same classes, but the classes only count as high school credit for the ninth-grade students.

Trying to stress the importance of earning high school credits while a student is in junior high can pose a challenge, Presko said.

Likewise, it’s difficult to administer standardized testing to eighth-graders but not ninth-graders who are in the same building. Eighth-graders are required to take the Missouri Assessment Program test, which determines whether a school meets No Child Left Behind. Ninth-graders do not take the tests.

"In a 6-8 situation, there’s more accountability for the kids," Presko said. "Right now we’re testing kids in eighth grade, but we’ve only had them six or seven months before they take that test."

Presko believes a longer middle school experience might also get parents more involved in those transitional years because families will have three years, rather than two, to build relationships with teachers.

Columbia schools had a three-tiered system until middle school was added in the early 1990s. Before then, Columbia had grades 1-6 in elementary schools, 7-9 in junior highs and grades 10-12 in high schools, said Russ Thompson, who was Columbia superintendent at the time.

Thompson said district officials were looking for a way to transition sixth- and seventh-grade students out of the self-contained classroom setting and introduce them to more rigorous coursework. Adding ninth grade to the existing high schools wasn’t feasible without building additions or another major high school, he said. The community at the time favored the four-tiered plan, Thompson said, which made the best use of district resources.

Columbia’s decision to add middle school predated Alspaugh’s research linking transitions to academic losses.

Alspaugh said he supports the district’s plan to return to the three-tiered system. "Clearly, it’s a step in the right direction."

 

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Reach Janese Heavin at (573) 815-1705 or jheavin@tribmail.com.

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