Everyone tried to remain flexible in adjusting to the new middle school learning environment. The two-yearpreparation time prior to implementation was paying off. Soon the first year was over, without any instructional glitches ordiscipline challenges. At the end of the first year the Middle School Coordinator again reported to the school board that thedistrict was satisfied with the progress. He acknowledged the hard work of teachers and attributed the success of the transition tothe reading program and the flexible blocks of time where teachers were able to help with the social and emotional development ofchildren as well as with their academic needs.
Teachers reported their perceptions of the first year:
It wasn’t until you got working in the middle school that you realized what that meant and how to do it. Eventhough we weren’t told, the worst pressure that first year was thinking we had to do everything right. There was so much thrown atus at once and we were professionals and wanted to do it right. We put the pressure on ourselves…And, I remember that last day of the first year in middle school, turning everything in, getting thatlast paycheck, going home, getting in bed, and crying, because of the pressure. It finally, the relief, it was finally over and justall that pressure of doing everything we wanted to do perfectly.
In the middle school that first year, it was like all the problems stopped. I mean, in the junior high we weredealing with discipline situations where students were paralleling high school. Then, middle schools opened and like overnight theproblems stopped. We had had a monster and the monster was gone.
I think immediately parents felt that kids were in a safer environment. With the ninth graders out, there werefewer problems associated with that age group, such as smoking, aggressive behavior, drugs, and those kinds of things. I thinkparents were very happy about what was going on in middle schools. And, parents also saw a change in teachers’attitudes. There was a big increase in parent contact and teachers had time during the dayto call parents. Working as a team with parents made the parents more cooperative with us and us more cooperative with them. I thinkparents were more involved in the middle school than they were in the junior high school.
Administrators commented too:
The role of the principal changed when we implemented middle schools. We weren’t dictating everything. We were doing a lot of listening to the teachers and learning aboutwhat they needed and using their suggestions. We went from pure management to having to get involved in academics again.
Preparation for the Sixth Graders
Educational preparations for the sixth grade teachers paralleled that for the seventh and eighth grade teachers.The sixth grade teachers enrolled in the same college courses on the characteristics of middle school students, had the sameconsultant-led workshops, worked on committees to write an interdisciplinary curriculum, and visited the middle schools in thedistrict and in the state. The district also replicated its public relations efforts. Each middle school held an orientation for thestudents and their families. Families were included on the newsletter mailing list to increase awareness of the programs andpractices in the middle schools. Two of the sixth grade teachers expressed some general thoughts about going to the middleschool: