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DC Public and Public Charter Schools
Middle School vs. K-8
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Anonymous
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Interesting study in the WSJ
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704421104575464151699794576.html?mod=dist_smartbrief |
Anonymous
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Interesting article but a bit shallow. The writer doesn't discuss whether the k-8 models are able to offer the same elective, languages and extra curricular activities that a stand alone middle school can due to more students, space and funding
I see the social and test score benefits of k-8 but would welcome a deeper look at what the trade offs might be. |
Anonymous
| My friend's kids go to West K. She likes the extra opportunities offered by a K-8 school. There are things that are offered in Middle School that you don't get in an elementary school setting, and when your school is K-8, everyone gets to share these things. |
Anonymous
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This makes a lot of good, intuitive sense to me. We know, from decades of study, that smaller schools do a better job of educating kids than large ones do. Extending the elementary environment all the way through 8th takes a lot of the social pressures off of kids who are at an emotionally vulnerable place. It's well-known in education circles that middle schoolers are the hardest kids to teach - anything that makes the environment easier for them to navigate should pay off instructionally.
This is one of my biggest beefs with Deal MS. It is just enormous. |
Anonymous
| Does you kid go to Deal? Although it is large by DCPS standards, it does not feel "enormous." |
Anonymous
| Exactly, 14:38. I was extremely happy in my elementary school and was totally unprepared for Junior High's teasing and focus on clothes. It took me until 10th grade to recover my confidence. All my elementary school friends were used to my eccentric style; that safety net was gone when several schools fed into one. Also, if it's K-8, the kids have a history at the school. If little Bobby shoots up over the summer & is suddenly 6'1", the teachers aren't afraid of him like they would be if they'd never seen him before. "Oh, that's just little Bobby - remember when he threw up on the principal?" |
Anonymous
Exactly. The school environment is structured in a way that makes it easier for students to navigate and teachers to teach. |
Anonymous
Ditto this. What if the school is unable to offer all the sports, languages, etc because there are only 20 students in 7th or 8th grade, and the school was not designed for middle-school-age kids? |
Anonymous
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How many students does Maret have per grade? 50 something? And yet they manage to offer everything a student could want in order to get into an elite college or university.
If anything the excellent local private schools prove that smaller is better. |
Anonymous
| But Maret is a private school that was (I assume) designed to be K to 8, and has very different resources, to say the last, from a DCPS. |
Anonymous
Maret goes all the way through 12. Small classes all the way. |
Anonymous
| Thanks for the info. Regardless, the point remains the same. |
Anonymous
| 11.29. We are talking public schools in this forum. With public per pupil funding and limited facilities and educating every kid who shows up. The question was if in these circumstances k-8 programs could offer similar richness in programming to a stand alone large middle school. |
Anonymous
| It seems to me that there are some kids who would thrive in a K-8 environment and others who would really benefit from the offerings of a junior high. It's a shame that in DC such a decision is made not by parents who know what their kids need, but by accidents of geography. |
Anonymous
| Deal's back to school night was wonderful tonight! |