Word: gradings
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...international ratings of math achievement, U.S. students rank about average--ninth out of 17--at Grade 4, but sink to 12th place by Grade 8, setting the stage for further slippage in high school...
...Milwaukee, school vouchers and a policy of choice put a lot of decision-making power in parents' hands, and pressure to keep vulnerable sixth-graders in their familiar grade schools has sprung up from the grass roots. "I don't care if you have world-class middle schools, parents just don't like moving their children from the elementary school," says Andrekopoulos, who used to be principal at Fritsche. Pressure to score high on the math and reading tests mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act also seems to favor K-8s. "Elementary schools have done a better...
...less to do with the philosophy behind the middle school movement and more to do with how it was executed. Coming after a period of youth unrest, when juvenile crime and drug use were rising, middle school proponents argued that old-fashioned junior highs, which usually served Grades 7 and 8 and sometimes 9, were not meeting kids' social and developmental needs. Instead, they were providing a watered-down version of high school, literally a junior high. Reformers proposed that schools for this age group needed to educate "the whole child," addressing social and emotional issues as well as building...
...more intimate schools tend to foster strong teacher-student relationships, but they often put their older students in positions where they can exercise judgment and leadership. At Humboldt Park, for instance, seventh-graders have worked with the third-graders to write letters to U.S. soldiers in Iraq. "The older grades become mentors and tutors to the younger kids, giving them a sense of responsibility that may not happen in middle school," says Milwaukee parent Tina Johnson, who has two kids in a K-8 school. "All these raging hormones are kind of directed in a positive way." Some administrators believe...
...schools were originally intended to be nurturing places, but it hasn't been easy to pull that off, says Harry Finks, a veteran middle school teacher and principal, who wrote one of the first handbooks for middle school staff: "You want to create a dialogue, so that an eighth-grade boy can come up to you and say, 'Man, my guinea pig died and I'm really upset.' Most schools don't have that atmosphere...