Please re-post this to the pages of as many Warren County - TopicsExpress

Please re-post this to the pages of as many Warren County residents as you know. This is a critical juncture in education for WCPS. The Warren County Board of Education will consider a realignment of elementary and middle schools from the current K-6/7-8 structure to a K-5/6-8 system. The Board has posted an information page at tinyurl/o7cmukn that all residents of Warren County should skim. The page is unfortunately light on information, giving very short, vague answers to a series of soft questions. The most important question is unasked: how will this affect the children in Warren County—both the children currently in school and the ones to come along in the future? I’ve written some thoughts here, and there is a list of resources on the subject at the end of this post. In their FAQ the Board asks “Is there research to support moving 6th graders to middle schools.” Given the positive presentation at last month’s Board meeting, their unsurprising answer is “yes.” But the Board provides no evidence to support its conclusion. Given the lack of information they have provided to the public thus far, I call on the Warren County Board of Education to delay their vote and to form a working group that includes members of the public. The working group would be tasked with researching the topic and presenting a recommendation to the Board in the coming months. What follows is some research on the subject that I’ve been glancing at since the last Board meeting. The vast majority of research on K-6/K-5 realignment is overwhelmingly negative. To be frank, it is actually a bit alarming. For example, in a 1998 article in the Journal of Educational Research (v 92 n 1 Sept/Oct 1998, p. 20 – 25), researchers reported on a study that found “statistically significant achievement loss associated with the transition from elementary to middle school” for 6th graders caught in the transition, with a greater drop in achievement measurements when students from multiple schools were brought together into one middle school, as would happen in Warren County. A 2007 study published out of Duke University (available online at tinyurl/nywrfnh) concluded that 6th graders in middle schools had more discipline problems and lower tests scores, and that the problems persisted through 10th grade. A study of eight years of data from the Harvard Graduate School of Education (online at tinyurl/7aru32y) found that students entering middle school at grade 6 experience lower test scores, greater behavioral problems, higher rates of absence, and higher dropout rates, which, again persisted through 10th grade. Students entering middle school at grade 7 did not experience the same problems. In a June 2002 study in the journal School Planning and Management (v 41, n 6, June 2002, p. 26-32) researchers examined grade configurations and realignments and concluded that the educational difficulties of realignment were such that it was better for districts to give teachers in existing classrooms more resources and greater flexibility rather than undertake the risks associated with realignment. The most positive studies I found conclude that no firm conclusions can be drawn, except that the fewer transition a student undergoes the better, and that the ideal grade configuration from the standpoint of student achievement and student learning outcomes seems to be K – 8 and 9 – 12, which is not under consideration by the Board. On the whole, there seem to be no reasons related to academic achievement that suggest going forward with realignment. Studies that found negative outcomes and those that found no consequences all (I did not find any that indicate positive academic outcomes that offset the negative consequences of earlier transition) conclude that the main reason for realignment is financial—districts can combine and cut programs, eliminate some staff positions, and close unneeded schools. None of this discussion gets into the issue of how much money will be spent to construct additional space in the existing middle schools so that 6th graders can be isolated from the older, more mature 8th graders. All studies, and the Board at the last meeting, agree that this will have to happen. Where will the money come from to support this? Another tax increase? In the FAQ the Board states that “Research indicates the factors, which yield the greatest impact on academic achievement, are administrative/teacher leadership, school climate, and the quality of instruction within each classroom. [sic]” At the July meeting Superintendent Clayton stated that Warren County would buck the trend and do well but that if a school is effective it will go well, if it isnt, it wont. It would be good if the Board could provide links to the research that supports this, since I’ve not read anything to indicate that teachers are to blame for the multiple problems encountered in realignment. Given the lack of public discussion about this so far, and the lack of hard research the WCSB has provided, I offer the following links to help county residents better understand what’s at stake for the future of education in Warren County. Research on Grade Span Configurations (A long list of articles and resources, some of which I’ve used in this post) tinyurl/mr23992 Grade Configuration Resources from the National Clearninghouse for Educational Facilities: tinyurl/ptrw4ps Grade Configuration: Who Goes Where? (Considered one of the most informative studies on the subject) tinyurl/m632bdh The (Limited) Evidence Regarding Effects of Grade-Span Configurations on Academic Achievement: What Rural Educators Should Know. ericdigests.org/2003-2/rural.html The Early Childhood and Planning Collaborative (ECAP)’s Grade Configuration in K-12 Schools tinyurl/ltwtboo “Relationship Between Grade Span Configuration and Academic Achievement” (files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ880581.pdf) “Configuring Schools: A Review of the Literature” (hpedsb.on.ca/ec/directorsOffice/arc/documents/Configuringschools.pdf)