Superintendent Thinks Small in Plan to Revamp Middle Grades

Alexandria Superintendent Morton Sherman was less than a week into the job, greeting parents outside an elementary school, when he was first asked how he planned to fix the middle schools.

Last night came his answer: through a massive overhaul.

Sherman, seven months into his tenure, presented a plan for restructuring the city's two middle schools, which have never met federal benchmarks and which, he said, contribute to Alexandria's dropout rate being among the highest in the area.

Locally and across the nation, middle schools have generally been regarded as the problem child for school systems, marking the turbulent teenage years in which test scores and enthusiasm drop. In response, school systems have begun getting creative and investing more resources into those grade levels. The District school system, for example, has a program that pays students for their performance, and Montgomery County schools have committed to a three-year, $10 million plan to accelerate curriculum, train teachers and improve the leadership structure.

Sherman's plan, which he presented to the Alexandria School Board last night, calls for splitting the two middle schools into five smaller ones, each with its own principal and staff. The change would not cost the school system more, he said, adding that staff would be reallocated. If the board approves the plan, the new structure will be in place in time for the next school year.

"We could tinker, we could move slowly, we could wring our hands, and I'm saying, 'Enough,' " Sherman said yesterday. "No more tinkering. That doesn't work. We need focused, wholesale change at the middle schools."

His plan, he said, came not only in response to parents' concerns about sending their children to the middle schools but also from data. The latest statistics show that the city's school system, which is among the smallest in Northern Virginia with 11,300 students, has a higher dropout rate than any other district but Manassas. Overall, 11 percent of Alexandria's students drop out, including 25 percent of Latino children. None of the city's secondary schools has made what the No Child Left Behind law calls adequate yearly progress.

"Simply put, the indicators are strong, the imperative is obvious, and the time is now," Sherman wrote in a letter to the School Board. "We must, on behalf of the children we serve, make a difference in their lives. I believe that of all places in America, here in Alexandria is the place where we can reasonably, professionally, successfully, and expeditiously address our moral and educational responsibilities."

Sherman's plan also calls for allowing students at Jefferson Houston Elementary School to stay through eighth grade (it now stops at sixth grade) and introducing an International Baccalaureate program there and at all middle schools.

Al Summers of the National Middle School Association said research has shown that the middle grade years are critical to children's success, and he said school systems increasingly are seeking ways to address them. Many, he said, are finding that smaller schools give students the attention they need.

"If you haven't got them by the end of their eighth-grade year, you're going to lose them," Summers said.

Under Sherman's plan, George Washington Middle School, which has 950 students, would be divided into two schools. Hammond Middle School, which has 1,350 students, would be split into three.