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Unstuck in the Middle
Capitol Hill Day School
D.C., 225 students, pre-kindergarten to 8; principal Catherine Peterson (22 years); tuition $20,590; 62 percent white, 38 percent other; 100 percent completed algebra.
Just 75 sixth-through-eighth-graders inhabit the former public school building and adjoining rowhouse at Second Street and South Carolina Avenue SE. But parents speak of a family atmosphere quite beyond what some better-known private schools achieve. Middle-schoolers feel like royalty with so many younger kids around. Marcia F. Silcox, parent of two graduates, has seen kindergartners clinging to the legs of their favorite eighth-graders.
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Unstuck in the Middle Local middle schoolers make the most of the tricky years between elementary and high school. Washington Post Magazine
Unstuck in the Middle: The tricky years between elementary and high school don't have to be a nightmare or a loss. | Q&A Grass-Roots Teaching: Can a public school program empower the surrounding community? That's the goal of Linkages to Learning in Montgomery County. Reading, Writing & Frustration: Her bright but dyslexic daughter seemed destined for a future as an underachiever. Then new technologies provided help. Up Close and Personal: During a school trip to Washington, a nonprofit program offers teachers their own intimate glimpse of how government works. |
Throwbacks to an earlier era, the English teachers make sure everyone knows how to diagram sentences. The school also trains students to study in an organized way, as taught by the school's legendary English teacher Della Spradlin. Field trips are an obsession. Day school students watch live heart bypass operations, tour landfills, test principles of physics on a curling rink, visit museums and attend the theater.
Rachel Carson Middle School
Herndon, Fairfax County, 1,149 students, grades 7 and 8; principal August "Augie" Fratalli (four years); 6 percent low income, 59 percent white, 6 percent black, 4 percent Hispanic, 28 percent Asian; 64 percent completed algebra.
So, here is a typical Fairfax County middle school, full of great teachers and children from affluent families. Yet the parents see something extraordinary about the way the faculty members apply themselves to their jobs. Frances Hartnett Angara, a seventh-grade parent, said Rachel Carson teachers e-mail her with weekly reports of what her son is doing. Daily physical education classes keep adolescent bodies as sound as their minds, and bullying, a frequent complaint on middle school campuses, is rare, parents said.
Even the custodial staff gets raves: "Every time I step into the building, I cannot help but notice its cleanliness," said seventh-grade parent Shery Palmucci. Parent Linda Pesce praises the lively arts program, which includes five bands, three choruses and three orchestras.
Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School
Hanover, Anne Arundel County, 191 students, grades 6 to 9; principal Fatih Kandil (one year); 18 percent low income, 59 percent white, 35 percent black, 3 percent Hispanic, 3 percent Asian; 75 percent completed algebra.
This new charter school had a bad start, with teachers in bitter conflict with the school's leadership and the school system having to intervene. But parents have remained very loyal and say the worst is over. Steven Andraka overlooked the school's problems because he wanted a middle school for his son that emphasized mathematics and science, and, "to our delight, the school is a perfect match," with its challenging classes and after-school clubs in Web design, electronics, math and robotics.
Tina Lawrence's son had long struggled in English and math, but she found the school to be "the best thing that ever happened" to him. Special education teacher Lois Godboldte and English teacher Lovetta Thompson "have worked very hard with him, even on Saturdays," Lawrence said. Ali Gurbuz, her son's math teacher, welcomed him to the school's special Saturday tutoring sessions and tutored him individually on Fridays.
Cooper Middle School
McLean, Fairfax County, 931 students, grades 7 and 8; principal Arlene Randall (10 years); 1 percent low income, 76 percent white, 1 percent black, 4 percent Hispanic, 14 percent Asian; 59 percent completed algebra.
Cooper sits in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in America, where people expect the public schools to be good. But the many parents who nominated it most often cited the little instances in which faculty members go out of their way for kids. For instance, Petra Barrientos's son could not get his locker open his first day of middle school last September. She did not expect he'd get much help, with everything else going on. But, to her surprise, an assistant to the principal made fixing that mechanical mishap a top priority, and then called Barrientos the next day to say all was well.
Despite Cooper's advantages, parents and students say staff members still act as if they have to prove themselves. Seventh-grader Andrew Havasy praised social studies teacher Jeff Ahern's "map tag" geography game. Eighth-grader Chinelle Ekanem loved the challenge of the congressional simulation, in which she had to write and lobby for her own bills. Seventh-grade parent Robyn Maselli said principal Arlene Randall "tells it like it is, and I believe the students appreciate that."
