Middle School Teaching Units

The middle school model was conceived in the 70s and implemented throughout the 70s and 80s across the nation. It was thought that middle schools would provide a nurturing bridge between the early elementary school experience and high school. Unfortunately, many education experts now consider the experiment a failure with their poor performance and uprooting children twice during their turbulent and challenging adolescent years. Middle schools now are being viewed as the weak link in the educational chain by many.

Prior to the implementation of middle schools, these grades were either part of the elementary school experience or an expanded high school environment. Now, education leaders across the nation (including the Boston schools) are looking to return to those earlier models.

Kindergarten through Eighth Grade Model

With this model, the Boston schools would expand their elementary schools to include kindergarten through eighth grade. Many Boston schools educators believe this would deliver a supportive structure that would foster longer-term relationships between the teachers and their students. The thought is to use the earlier school experience to extend the nurturing that the middle school model was suppose to provide but hasn’t.

The push to integrate the middle schools with the elementary Boston schools is gaining momentum. Parents are especially in favor of the K-8 model for the Boston schools, wary of sending their children to the current middle school environment — especially within the urban areas.

Many Boston schools leaders and educators are familiar with the middle school struggle to raise achievement levels. They believe the K-8 model will keep the students and their families not only involved with their Boston schools but also connected on a more positive level.

Upper Grades Model

Others support the upper grades model of Continue Reading