Kansas City: End of Middle School?

Charles Gibson:

The Kansas City, Mo., school superintendent believes he has found the wave of the future in education: Eliminate middle school and test scores will go up.

For 50 years, the model for American public schools has been elementary school, then middle school and then high school.

But Kansas City, Mo., is eliminating the middle schools in favor of a single "elemiddle" school that will go from kindergarten through eighth grade. There, students in all grades stick with one teacher for the most of the day, so older kids will not switch classrooms for every subject as is the practice in middle schools.

"You're in a nurturing environment," said Kansas City School Superintendent Anthony Amato. "You don't see as many teachers as you would in a large environment, [such] as a middle school of 1,000 students."

He said the kids will calm down when they can be role models for the younger students. And he believes reading and math scores will go up as expulsion rates and drop-out rates go down.

Kids Reactions: 'Horrible' to 'Helpful'

Posted by Jim Zellmer at September 10, 2007 12:00 AM
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