Tuesday, October 28, 1997
Board reaches fuller understanding of middle
schools
By JONATHAN KRYDER
Staff Writer
The Abilene school board's objective to gain a "fuller
understanding of the middle schools" was reached at Monday's
meeting after trustees voiced their concerns on a few key issues.
"There's always room for improvement, but our middle schools
are doing well," said board president Betty Davis.
The board heard a panel of seven middle school principals and
Superintendent Charles Hundley present an overview of middle school
issues ranging from student-teacher teams and course work to adolescent
development.
After the presentations, the board addressed specific concerns
relating to student safety, academic achievement and extracurricular
involvement.
Hundley led off by introducing the district's middle school
philosophy as "child-oriented rather than program-oriented."
He said the middle school philosophy, which replaced the junior
high school structure in 1985, is successfully providing children
with a smooth transition between elementary and high school.
Last year, the district spent $20,370,000 on seven middle school
campuses, he said.
After offering seven reasons why the district's middle schools
are succeeding, the superintendent cited a number of areas needing
improvement.
Those include improvements in test scores, early identification
of at-risk dropouts and teamwork among teachers.
Concerning student safety, principals said they and their teachers
walk school halls between class periods and monitor high-traffic
areas like restrooms, lockers and street crossings before and
after hours.
"A teacher has the right to teach and a child has the
right to learn," said Jefferson Middle principal Hubert Pickett.
"We always have to be aware that something could happen."
Concerning academic achievement, deputy superintendent Kay
McMahon said administrators are considering a number of ways to
keep students on academic par with their ages. Ideas include a
state-funded summer school and vertical teaming among teachers.
Vertical teaming, also called curricular alignment, involves
communication among different grade-level teachers about what
and how they are teaching. This improves lesson planning and efficiency
of curricula between grades, which helps the students learn better.
Project PASS principal Jerry McCutchen reported that a state
policy concerning grade failure has changed. In previous years,
students could advance to the next grade with two failures in
core classes. Now, the state permits only one class failure.
McCutchen said the new policy could double the number of failing
students in the district.
Currently, Project PASS, directed toward children academically
deficient for their ages, contains 113 students. The state policy
could cause problems next year for Project PASS by drastically
increasing that number, McCutchen said.
McMahon said the school district has implemented a no-failure
policy for years.
As for extracurricular involvement, Pickett reported a strong
correlation between dropout rates and uninvolved students. Principals
agreed that about 5-10 percent of Abilene middle schoolers are
currently uninvolved in extra activities.
Activities for middle schoolers include a variety of sports,
student council, band, choir, orchestra and speech. District policy
mandates that all activities are completed by evening hours, with
only eighth-graders allowed one evening trip away per year.
Hundley said the at-home policy keeps with the district's middle
school philosophy of close family ties.
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Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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