LAST BEST CHANCE
LAST BEST CHANCE INTRODUCTION
Middle Level Education
Public education in North Carolina is divided into three separate levels of instruction - elementary, middle, and secondary. The middle level serves children from ages 11-14 while they are transitioning from childhood into adolescence. The grade configurations in North Carolina that encompass these ages come in many forms. The "typical" middle school contains grades 6-8, but may also be 5-8, K-8, 6-9, 7-12, or any number of other configurations. The overwhelming majority of recently built schools in North Carolina, and nationwide, reflects a "middle school" organization with grade 7 and at least two other grades being housed in the school. The traditional "junior high" familiar to so many is rapidly fading from the scene. Fewer than ten remain in North Carolina, and several of those will be phased out as new middle schools are built.
The middle school years are a time of tremendous physical, intellectual, social, emotional, and spiritual growth and development. (See Appendix A) At no time other than the first years of life does a person undergo the enormous changes that adolescence brings. While growth may be faster at birth, the infant unlike the adolescent, is not staring into the mirror looking at the changes that are occurring—sometimes daily. It is indeed a special time in a child's life that requires special ways of schooling. It is essential when educating the middle level student to take into consideration these vast changes in intellectual, physical, spiritual, and emotional development. Students experience changes in the way they think and learn that are every bit as pronounced as the physical changes they undergo. Students who are the same age may be in very different places with respect to their academic or emotional development. These same students, when viewed a year later, can be expected to show marked changes among peers. Indeed, growth and development can best be described as "erratic." Middle school philosophy attempts to address those needs.
It is the very nature of the middle level child that requires providing learning experiences both within and outside of the classroom expertise that allow for positive physical and developmental growth, attention to personal and social concerns, as well as a strong focus on academic learning. Middle level education does not sacrifice one of these areas for the sake of another. All are of critical importance to the developing child. In the past decade, middle schools were sometimes criticized for over-emphasizing the social development of the child at the expense of academics. In recent years, many educators have interpreted the state's accountability standards to mean an overemphasis emphasis on test scores. In truth, research shows a balance of social and academic experiences provides the "best" conditions in which all young adolescent students can achieve and thrive.
This task force, has been challenged to help chart the course for middle level education in North Carolina. As the task force went through the process of examining middle level education, as it is now the members continuously asked, "What should it look like in order for all children to be successful?" A distinction was made between "change" and "progress." Education researcher Seymour Sarason's work (Sarason, 1990) clarifies the difference between change and progress:
To confuse change with progress is to confuse means with ends. Keeping those ends in mind is a responsibility that too often fades into the background in the turmoil of change. The means become ends in themselves and, therefore, the more things change the more they remain the same, or worse. It is the rare reform that has been true to its initial vision.
There has been a subtle shift in focus over the last decade regarding what people want education to provide for their children. Previously countless mission statements and goals stress the longterm development of the child into a "productive citizen and life-long learner." Now there is a focus on the part of some with limited vision on the short-term goal of an education that provides the child with "good scores" on standardized tests. Virtually all middle grades educators welcome high standards and believe in high achievement for all students, but the goal should not be at the expense of the development of the whole child. The task force stresses that legislators and educators must be cautious against "sacrificing our students on the altar of accountability."
In order to accomplish the many tasks set before middle level educators today, organizational patterns and practices generally used in the past must be reexamined. North Carolina's middle schools are up to the challenge of meeting the many varied needs of our students while providing an academically rigorous curriculum. It is not enough to look at middle school as something that will prepare students to be academically successful in high school. Middle level education has more to offer in and of itself in the lifelong development of the child.
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