Anne Arundel Country Maryland Addresses Middle School Problems

From today's Baltimore Sun:

Anne Arundel County school officials hope new recommendations to overhaul middle schools through smaller classes, mentoring programs and more counselors will help curb an alarming statistic the district has struggled with for years: More than a third of high school freshmen have D-averages or are failing.

Middle schools typically have lower performance than elementary schools and high schools. Part of the issue is related to the massive physical and emotional changes that 11-14 year olds are going through at the time, but part I think is a failure of the schools to hold up higher standards. Because of the dramatic, often traumatic, changes middle school students go through, schools tend to go a little easier on these kids in order to "reduce their stress." But in taking it easy academically, many students are not ready for the academics of high school. Some of the insecurities, of course, spill over into high school, but some changes at middle school could help.

Anne Arundel's plan includes longer school days, more counselors and social workers and a beefed up science and social studies curriculum. While the plan is simply at teh recommendation stage, Superintendent Kevin Maxwell is hopeful that some elements of the plan would arrest the academic free-fall. However, some items, specifically the longer school day, would be complicated by teachers union rules.

One idea that I think should be considered and may work in the long haul is to alter elementary schools to cover K-8 rather than K-5. But it is not simply a matter of having the older students there. The school will still need to challenge the older student academically, but also provide mechanisms for improving their self-confidence, such as tutoring arrangements with younger students, leadership opportunities and continuing with interscholastic sports. At the same time, increased academic standards coupled with help with study skills and time management, these "middle school" students can prepare for high school and enter high school confident in their academic skills. By extending a comfort zone, you can ease a transtition into high school a little better because you are not forcing two transitions in four years, but one transition supported by a smaller school.

This idea in particular appeals to me:

Other high schools like Northeast High are developing "academies" where students attend similar classes together based on common interests. Northeast is developing academies around computer science, law, health and a number of other areas. The academies of 100 or so students are more manageable to some teenagers than buildings jammed with 1,500 others.

The academic part of the acedemy idea is a take or leave for me, but the smaller "group" can help ease a transition. Using smaller groups, even 50-75 can make any school more personal and allow for connections between students, in much the same way clubs and organizations on college campuses make the school more personal.