By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 30, 2007

Reflecting a shifting national philosophy on how to educate middle-grade students, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee is considering expanding several elementary schools to include students up to eighth grade, going back to a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade structure once the norm in the District.

Rhee has been discussing the idea with parents and teachers for the past several weeks as part of her proposal to close nearly two dozen schools. The idea is being met with skepticism from elementary school parents who do not want adolescents in the buildings with their young children and elementary school teachers who are opposed to altering what they consider successful programs in the schools.

For others, the proposal is yet another change in a city in which the plan for the middle grades has changed with virtually every new school administration. Vestiges of the shifting strategies are seen in the pre-K-8 schools and middle schools in operation, as well as the converting of junior highs, which have fallen out of favor, into middle schools over the summer.

"I'm more concerned about getting the program right than whether it's a K-8 school or whatever," said Margot Berkey, director of Parents United for the D.C. Public Schools, whose group has studied the middle-grade issue. "I just think these critical years are ones educators haven't figured out what is the perfect thing to do."

For many years in the District and elsewhere, the norm was for students to remain in elementary school until eighth grade. Then the baby-boom years hit, forcing schools to create space by moving seventh- to ninth-graders into junior highs. By the 1980s, junior highs were passe and educators were embracing a new incarnation called middle schools, with grades six to eight.

In recent years, numerous urban districts, including Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York, have been phasing out middle schools and converting their elementary schools into pre-K-8 schools. Prince George's County is considering a plan that would create 25 schools over the course of five years that are pre-K-8. The advantage of such schools, according to some experts, is that adolescents are able to maintain their support systems and avoid a sometimes abrupt transition when they already are experiencing emotional and physical changes.

The D.C. proposal calls for establishing six pre-K-8 schools in Ward 4 and eight in Ward 5 out of existing elementary and middle schools, some of which would close. The elementary schools targeted for expansion include Barnard, Brightwood and LaSalle in Ward 4 and Emery, Langdon and Noyes in Ward 5. Barnard and Brightwood are in Northwest Washington, and the others are in Northeast.

Education officials said they have not determined whether they would extend the conversion to other parts of the city.

The school system's enrollment has dropped by nearly 20,000 students in five years, and Rhee proposes to close or consolidate 23 schools by summer to eliminate 15 million square feet of excess space. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) has told the D.C. Council that the proposal could save $23.6 million, money that could help the school system plug a budget shortfall.

Rhee has said the savings also could pay for new academic offerings, including Montessori and gifted and talented programs.

Middle school is the stage "we have the most difficulty with. This is where our enrollment drops," said Abigail Smith, special assistant to Victor Reinoso, deputy mayor for education.

The exodus out of the system accelerates after elementary school, Smith said, because parents believe that middle schools in the system are not working. "Part of what we want to do is help kids get through this transitional period in a supportive environment," she said.

The conversion to middle schools was prompted by growing recognition in the 1970s, '80s and '90s that junior highs were not meeting the emotional and academic needs of adolescents, experts say. Middle schools enrolled sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, instead of seventh- through ninth-graders. The idea was to offer a more nurturing environment by dividing students into small groups and keeping them with their classmates and the same teachers all three years.

But few urban middle schools succeeded because districts didn't have the money to hire the additional teachers to maintain the recommended student-teacher ratio and to provide teachers with specialized training, said Barbara Byrd-Bennett, an early advocate of middle schools. As chief executive of the Cleveland school system from 1998 to 2006, she led the conversion from middle schools to pre-K-8 schools.

"All of us who spent two decades as proponents of middle schools were unwilling to say, 'This really ain't working,' " said Byrd-Bennett, now an executive with the local office of New Leaders for New Schools, which trains teachers to become D.C. principals. After making the switch, she said, test scores for middle-grade students rose dramatically.

Byrd-Bennett said she has advised Rhee on pre-K-8 schools. Rhee also is relying on the experience of three former Cleveland school officials -- Lisa Ruda, Tracy Martin and Sherry Ulery -- whom she has hired for senior-level positions in the D.C. system.

Although many urban districts are experimenting with conversions, little empirical evidence "shows 10- to 15-year-olds do better in a middle school or a K-8 school," said Jack Berckemeyer, assistant executive director of the National Middle School Association, based near Columbus, Ohio.

More study is needed on pre-K-8 schools to determine what happens "when you bring sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders into an elementary school," he added. "What are you teaching them, and how are you teaching them?"

Over the years, the District has had a dizzying array of grade configurations, reflecting the education trends and leadership that have come and gone. The system has had schools enrolling students in K-9, fourth to seventh grade, K-3, K-7 and K-5. Unlike most other school systems, the District's was unable to make a complete conversion from junior highs to middle schools because many parents were unwilling to put their sixth-graders in a middle school and their ninth-graders in a high school, said Mary Levy, director of the Public Education Reform Project for the Washington Lawyers' Committee.

Smith, the special assistant to the deputy mayor for education, said the converted elementary schools would get teachers certified to instruct middle-grade students and would house older and younger students in separate parts of the building.

Still, parents and teachers said they are wary.

"I love the school the way it is," said Velle Perkins, whose two sons attend Barnard Elementary. "The influence [the older students] can bring in the school will not be positive."

Carmen Jenkins-Parris, a visual arts teacher at Clark Elementary, which is among the schools that could be closed, agreed. Jenkins-Parris, who also teaches at Fillmore Arts Center, at Backus Middle School in Northeast, said the older students often set poor examples for the younger students visiting the center.

The middle school students "show a lack of respect to adults and to younger students. . . . They run through the hallways and use vulgar language," Jenkins-Parris said.

"I can only imagine what it will be like in the pre-K-8 schools."

Staff researcher Rena Kirsch contributed to this report.