1.2 Change and the knowledge base of educational administration  (Page 9/16)

The involvement of the teacher and administrative staff in the process was critical. We were all inthis thing together. The administration had to change. We had to change. Everybody had to change.

Another participant gave a perspective on the impact of the preparation activities on the future middle schoolteachers. It seemed that the blending of“top-down”and“bottom-up”involvement created an emerging sense of shared ownership as the district transitioned into the middle school model.

We were allowed to go out and visit and see things in action. We had people come in to talk to us about it. Weread about middle schools and shared about them and I think that by people at the top not just making all the decisions, we were more apart of the decision making and not just the principals. I think that the teacher involvement was important at that time becausethere was an emphasis from the central administration that we understood what the change was going to be. They wanted us to studyit and understand it before we went into middle schools. They allowed us to develop the program and set the structure that wefelt would function in the school.

Final Preparations

In the summer, two months before the opening of middle schools in the district, the consultants conducted atwo-day workshop to prepare teachers for that fast-approaching and important fall event. Two workshop topics centered on theimmediate, practical concerns of teachers and administrators: getting ready for the first day of school and planning theorientations for parents. Other topics, such as using different instructional strategies in the middle school and organizing ateam, were the extensions of earlier workshop sessions.

As September approached, the spotlight was on the middle schools. One study participant spoke about the mixedfeelings expressed among teachers across the entire district about the impending openings of the middle schools and their operationalsuccess:

People’s feelings were half and half. Half were confident. They believed the middle school would work and theother half were skeptical and wanted to wait and see what was going to happen.

Opening the Middle School with Grades 7 and 8

When the first students walked across thelawns and stepped off the buses on that bright September morning, the district’s middle school concept became a reality. Study participants reported there was a general sense of excitement amongthe teachers, administration, support staffs, parents, and students at the middle schools. At a school board meeting in early November,the Middle School Coordinator delivered the first official report on the conditions of middle schools in the district. He reportedpositive results of the transition, with teachers characterized as enjoying their new settings and school climates described asexcellent. The Coordinator expressed particular pride that“no other school system had initiated the middle school concept with adevelopmental reading program, a home-based advisory program, and an interdisciplinary instructional program in place from itsinception.”