U46, D300 easing way for students going into middle school

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Students head to classes under Greek mythology banners Thursday at Tefft Middle School in Streamwood. The banners display names of "houses" to which students are assigned, giving them a sense of belonging. | Michael Smart~Sun-Times Media

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Updated: January 7, 2012 8:07AM

STREAMWOOD — “Hear ye,” the hand-lettered poster on the wall read. It was accompanied by a series of royal proclamations by the Kingdom of Zeus.

One, by Sofia Alfaro, proclaimed she would “not give up on my dreams.” Another proclaimed A.J. Santori would “determine what’s best for me.”

Those posters lined the hallway at Tefft Middle School where Zeus, one of the school’s six “houses of learning,” meets for classes. Yellow construction paper lightning bolts dangled from the ceiling, cotton ball clouds clung thick to the walls above lockers, and near-life-size drawings of the Greek thunder god and his wife, Hera, stood guard at the doorway.

The students deck the halls during the first few weeks of the school year at Tefft, after they’ve been sorted into their houses, differentiated by grade level, according Principal Lavonne Smiley.

“This stays up all year,” Smiley said. “They really take this seriously. What it does is it builds their whole sense of belonging.”

“I know it impacts learning when kids feel that,” she said. “I think our test scores — we’re one of only two schools that made (Adequate Yearly Progress under federal guidelines in Elgin School District U46). I think that speaks to all the work we do on their social/emotional development.”

And that’s something that a study of middle school students, released in mid-September, suggests is important to the continued academic success of those students.

The study

The study, part of the Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series at Harvard University, found that many students moving from an elementary to a middle school — traditionally in grade six — suffer a sharp drop in achievement in that transition year. It was based on data from students in grades three to 10 in Florida public schools for the school years 2000–01 through 2008–09.

Those findings backed a 2010 study from New York City also indicating that entering a middle school often causes a sharp drop in student achievement, according to the Harvard study.

In that most recent study, those achievement drops continued every school year from the start of middle school through grade 10.

But those are drops that students who attended the same school from kindergarten through eighth grade did not experience.

“We … find suggestive evidence that the overall climate for student learning is worse in middle schools,” the study said.

“Students may benefit from being among the oldest students in a school setting that includes very young students, perhaps because they have greater opportunity to take on leadership roles. This interpretation could account both for the gains in relative achievement made by K-5 and K-6 students prior to entering middle schools and for the superior performance of K-8 students relative to their middle school peers.”

The study noted that transitions to high school in grade nine caused a smaller, one-time drop in achievement, but those drops did not continue every school year.

Lots of changes

There are “big changes” for students as they enter Elgin School District U46’s eight middle schools at grade seven, according to Greg Walker, assistant superintendent for secondary education in U46.

There are more students, Walker said, and class sizes may be larger. Students switch classrooms for different subjects and have to deal with more than one teacher, he said. There’s no recess. There’s more homework.

Not to forget, he said, “You have students — their bodies are changing. They’re in seventh grade. There a lot of emotions.”

Nearby Community Unit School District 300 offers several different middle school models. Some take into account that “fifth- and sixth-graders are more similar than sixth- and eighth-graders,” said Tom Hay, District 300 assistant superintendent for instructional services in teaching and learning, said,

Algonquin, Dundee and Hampshire middle schools all are traditional middle schools, starting at sixth grade. Westfield Community School in Algonquin is a K-8 school. About 90 percent of students at both models met state standards on last year’s ISAT, contrary to the Harvard study.

Lakewood School in Carpentersville serves fifth- and sixth-graders, and Carpentersville Middle School serves seventh- and eighth-graders.

Those schools were restructured as the district opened several new elementary schools using 2002 bond referendum money.

The transition

U46 Principal Smiley said the Harvard study told her, “You can’t leave it to chance — all of the things we talk about that make effective schools. You can’t just count on that happening. You have to make sure those structures are in place.”

Tefft staff looked several years ago at the transition for seventh-graders entering the school and decided they weren’t doing enough, Smiley said. After visiting students at its feeder elementary schools and holding an orientation, she said, “We set them forth: ‘Go ye into the seventh-grade experience.’”

Since then, the Streamwood school has been named a Breakthrough School 2010 by the National Association of Secondary School Principals. It also is one of 17 high-performing middle and high schools nationwide that have been selected to present at the National Association of Secondary School Principals Breaking Ranks K-12 Conference in March in Tampa, Fla.

Tefft students now spend at least the first week of school learning the policies, the procedures and the movements on middle school — everything from what an organized locker looks like to how to move through the lunch line, Smiley said.

At first, she said, teachers balked at losing that instruction time, but, she said, “it pays off in the end.”

Like many other schools in both U46 and District 300, Tefft also organizes events for elementary students and their parents starting the spring before they join their new schools.

But Smiley said, “It’s not just about the transition process. It’s about the support that we put in place once they’re having the middle school experience. I think that’s significant.”

Teacher help

One thing the Streamwood school has added this year is a 12-minute advisory period at the end of every day — something that is part of the traditional middle school model, Smiley said. That gives students time with the same teacher every day.

Tefft is one of only two schools in U46 that use the traditional “team” approach, or “houses of learning” (the other is Ellis Middle School in Elgin).

What those houses do, Smiley said, is create a “safe haven” for students starting middle school. They’re not just one of 840 students in the building, she said — they’re one of 150 in their house.

And that makes them “feel that they’re cared about, they’re safe,” she said.

That’s something that also allows the teachers on that team to meet to talk about their students and coordinate their lesson plans across all subjects, according to Kara Vicente, District 300 assistant superintendent for middle school teaching and learning.

There are other benefits to the middle school model, administrators said.

Middle school teachers specialize in different subject areas, which is important as the content becomes more advanced, said Joe Schumacher, principal of Dundee Middle School in West Dundee. They also specialize in middle school-age students and their unique needs.

“We know how important and how much they hone in on that social piece,” Schumacher said.

“Above all, we want them to feel comfortable and safe. If we can get them to feel that way, they’re going to perform.”