[Mpls] Middle schools

[David Brauer]

Dorie quotes Lydia Lee:

>" We need to
> build teacher's skills before creating more K-8s . There are 23 k-8
schools
> in the district now and only a handful of them are doing well. "   

As someone who had to pick an elementary school within the last three years,
I'd say that the trend to K-8s is driven by parents, not board members.
That's because - as poorly as Lee might think K-8s are doing - the
perception is that "true" middle schools (grades 6-8 only) are doing worse.

I don't know if this is perception or reality. My sense is that a lot of us
remember junior high as a horrible experience; we look at our little
4-year-olds, look down the road, and do anything we can to get them in a
K-8, where at least won't be 100 percent hormonally awakening pre-teens.

Our kids ended up in a K-5, not because of the middle school factor. During
our search, I heard two interesting things. One was from a parent who was a
K-8 veteran, who did not want her kid in a K-8. That was a minority view
based on my search, so I asked her why. "You're in the same clique in 8th
grade that you were in 3rd grade," she said.

The other thing I didn't realize is that - counterbalancing the Lord of the
Flies factor -  true middle schools offer a wider array of classes (such as
foreign languages) than K-8s can. I didn't really check this out; can those
in the know say if that's true?

I know former board chair Catherine Shreves and others were involved in a
big middle-school reform effort in recent years; again anecdotally, I've
heard it's made things better. Love to hear first-hand reports.

Overall, I'm agnostic (for now) on the K-8 versus K-5/6-8 question. But it
seems to me that we need to train better middle school personnel whether or
not we change - so why not try something new if we need to do the training
anyway?

Unless parents flock back to MPS because there are more K-8s - which would
be its own evidence of success - we're going to have the same number of
middle-school-age kids as we do now. So training is a given; the real
question is what is best for kids. Whatever your answer, parent perception
is a huge factor in who ends up where, or even in, Minneapolis public
schools. 

David Brauer
Kingfield