We were scared to death about the athletic program in the high school. High school enrollments were getting sosmall. You had a small pool of talent and you also had the threat of being dropped down to Double A. That wasn’t discussed publicly, but it was discussed privately. And, if you get the ninth gradeinto the high school, you get a bigger pool [of talent].
Preparation for Implementation
The two-year preparation period prior to opening the district’s middle schools was filled with numerous activities, including the (1) resurrection of the approved middleschool design, (2) selection of staff, (3) additional education requirements for participants, (4) visitations to neighboringmiddle schools, (5) community education, and (6) committee work. These activities were required in addition to each individual’s existing responsibilities.
Design
The original philosophical design, approved by the school board seven years earlier, was resurrected forimplementation. An examination of the document showed that 9 foundational components were in the middle school design. Thesecomponents were: (1) teams of teachers working with small groups of students; (2) all teachers teaching reading to all students; (3)exploratory courses in the fine and practical arts; (4) a student advisory program conducted daily by team teachers; (5)instructional time divided into big blocks for flexibility in scheduling; (6) teams of teachers sharing a daily period forinstructional planning; (7) interdisciplinary curriculum and teaching; (8) provisions for safety and security; and (9)replacement of an interscholastic sports program with intramural sports.
Staffing
All teachers who wanted to transfer could make a request. Ninth grade teachers were given the option ofmoving with their students to the high schools. All ninth grade teachers did move to the high school and 75 percent received theirchoice of assignments. Study participants commented on the impact of these transfers:
We lost a lot of those who really didn’t want to be there in the first place. And, I think that was verysignificant…We asked for elementary teachers who would like to be involved and we were able to get some elementary people to come inas seventh and eighth grade teachers to help us in that area.
Some educators who elected to be involved with the middle schools remembered their apprehension because thetransition would demand a change in their ways of thinking and working. Study participants recalled some of their initialthoughts:
…in the beginning it was something new and we were not sure if we could really handle this revolutionary changebecause [in junior high] we were isolated according to departments.Now we would have to learn to work with three more people in groups. I had fear of the unknown after doing something a certainway for so many years. And, I was really uneasy about having to teach reading.
In junior high you know exactly what you are going to do at every moment. I mean, everybody left at a certain time. Theball rang. Then I had to get that out of my head and so it’s like, I had to be retrained.