1. K-8 and 5-8 or 6-8 Grade Configuration: Does it Matter? Prepared for
New England League of Middle Schools (NELMS)
by Robert C. Spear Ed.D. Executive Director
460 Boston Street #4, Topsfield MA, 01983,
From Programs and Practices in K-8 Schools: Do They Meet the Educational Needs of Young Adolescents?
By C. Kenneth McEwin, Thomas S. Dickinson, and Michael G. Jacobson
(2004, National Middle School Association, Westerville, Ohio):

2. Core Curricular Offerings
K-8 schools reported offering language
arts at an average of 16 minutes more
per day than did middle schools.
Young adolescents enrolled in K-8
schools are likely to spend more time
in core subjects and less time in
elective classes.

3. Interest Class-Minicourse Programs
27% of K-8 schools and 49% of
middle schools reported having
interest class or minicourse
programs.

4. Interdisciplinary Team Organization
33% of K-8 schools utilized
interdisciplinary teaming as compared
with 77% of middle schools.
Teaming is utilized by
27% of rural K-8 schools
48% of urban K-8 schools
88% of suburban K-8 schools.

5. Interdisciplinary Team Organization (con’t)
Teachers in K-8 schools are also much less
likely to have common planning periods
with other teachers on their teams
Teachers in K-8 schools are much less
likely to have ten planning periods
per week (94%) than those teaching
in middle schools (41% of schools).

6. Interdisciplinary Team Organization (con’t)
The percentage of K-8 and
middle schools providing five
common planning periods per
week are almost identical
(39% and 40% respectively)
K-8 schools were more likely than
middle schools to have smaller
teams at all grade levels.

7. Advisory Programs 29% of respondents from K-8 schools
and 48% from middle schools indicated
having advisory programs
suburban schools (56%)
rural schools (29%)
urban schools (29%).

8. Interscholastic Sports
K-8 schools and middle schools
have same percentage of
interscholastic sports programs
Middle schools offered a wider
variety of sports.

9. Ideal Grade Organization Patterns
73% of respondents from K-8 schools
believed that the best grade organization
is either a 6-8 middle school (59%) or a
5-8 middle school (14%)
Only 16% of K-8 schools respondents
believed that the ideal grade organization
is K-8

10. Why it is a good idea to have the middle grades in a M S ?
Fewer disturbances for grades K-5
Scheduling improved
Students in 5-8 require more time and attention
Middle school students cannot be given the best
opportunity to succeed in a school that is focused
on the early elementary model
Fewer negative influences on younger students
Too much difference in K-5 and 6-8 teaching
philosophy
Detachment from elementary is crucial

11. Why it is not a good idea to have the middle grades in a M S ?
Interaction with K-5 students is a positive
Being affiliated with K-5 keeps instruction more
student focused and less subject focused
A small school is too small to separate out the
middle grades
Not enough students for a middle school to work
All grades levels should be integrated
Keeps the eighth-graders “younger”
Older students serve as excellent mentors
Mixing older kids with younger kids allows for
community

12. Advantages of having the middle grades housed in K-8
K-5 students learn from 6-8 students
Student behavior is better
Cross-age tutoring and mentoring is a plus
Develop a better sense of community
Stay immature a little longer
Transition to the middle grades is easier
Teachers know students over a longer
period of time

13. Disadvantages of having the middle grades housed in K-8
Different socially, emotionally, and academically
Schedule options are severely limited
Being an instructional leader more difficult
Middle grade students sometimes harass
younger students
K-8 doesn’t promote responsibility for upper
grade students

14. Disadvantages of having the middle grades housed in K-8
(con’t)
K-8 doesn’t help students develop realistic
expectations about high school
Older students are more mature and display
inappropriate behavior
Fewer elective options than a middle school
Don’t get to experience advanced activities

15. Analysis of Key Issues 99% of MS principals selected grade
organization patterns that included separately
organized elementary, middle, and senior high
schools. (2000 study)
84% indicated that they believed young
adolescents are best served in separately
organized middle level schools (K-8 principals)

16. Organization Trends There were 5,552 public K-8 schools
in 1988 and 3,170 in 2001.
The numbers demonstrate that the
majority of educators, policy-makers
and other stakeholders favor the
tri-level plan of elementary school,
middle school, and high school

17. Grade Organization and Student Achievement
One grade configuration over another
has long been debated, large-scale studies
examining the relationship between grade
configuration and student achievement
have not been conducted ...
The question of which grade organization
is associated with the highest
achievement scores remains unanswered
at this point.

18. Developmentally Responsive Programs and Practices
Programs and practices considered to be
essential for effective middle level
education were more frequently found
in middle schools than in K-8 schools.

19. School-to-School Transitions
“Students in the P/K/1 to eighth-grade
structure do worse than other students
once the effects of public versus
private school are controlled.” (Lord and Midgley (1991)
“largely inconsistent and inconclusive.”
(Eccles, Lord, and Midgley (1991)
far too inconclusive to abandon
separately organized middle schools

20. Other Reasons Given Parents are looking for an elementary-like
environment for their children ... however,
all schools can and should be safe and
nurturing.
Less expensive to operate K-8 schools...
However they often do not serve young
adolescents well.

21. Summary and Conclusions
Grade organization
per se may not make
the difference.

22. Conclusions Major reorganization decisions
are to often being made based
primarily on anecdotal information
and a very limited research base...
…instead of school districts doing
the difficult and crucial work of
making middle schools what they
could and should be.

23. Conclusions “This is another attempt at a magic
bullet, which is much easier than
getting down to the really hard work
of preparing teachers to work with
this age group, having strong curricula
for this age group, and having
personalized schools that hold high
expectations for all kids and also meet
their developmental needs.” Joan Lipsitz

24. Conclusions “The positive results from research
offer clear direction for how to
improve middle schools. Rather than
abandoning them for a different
organization that seems less likely
to serve young adolescents well,
educators should stay with [fully]
implementing the middle school concept.”

25. Conclusions Only 16% of K-8 principals believed
that the K-8 organization they were
currently heading was ideal for young
adolescents, while 84% favored
separately organized middle schools.

26. Conclusions The degree of implementation of
interdisciplinary team organization
at schools enrolling young adolescents
is important because of the high
correlation between the use of
this organizational plan and
student achievement.

27. Conclusions The bottom line is that nothing
surfaced in this study to lend
support to moving young adolescents
from middle schools to K-8 schools.