Dave Pinard
03-27-2005, 03:23 PM
Some urban districts combine middle and high schools, as Portland is considering at Jefferson High, but the benefits are unclear
Sunday, March 27, 2005PAIGE PARKER
If the Portland School Board votes Monday to close two middle schools and add their students to a high school, it will embark on an experiment that researchers have yet to prove works.
Superintendent Vicki Phillips wants to close Whitaker and Tubman middle schools and combine their seventh- and eighth-graders with the Jefferson High campus in the 2006-07 school year. She contends that merging the North and Northeast Portland schools will eliminate the often shaky transition between eighth and ninth grades, give teachers more time to get to know students, and improve lagging achievement and enrollment in all three schools.
Education officials, however, can point to few districts that have improved underperforming middle and high schools by merging them. Such mergers are rare in urban districts, and researchers have not determined if combined schools are better than stand-alone middle and high schools.
Read the rest of the article here (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1111834953101540.xml).
Sunday, March 27, 2005PAIGE PARKER
If the Portland School Board votes Monday to close two middle schools and add their students to a high school, it will embark on an experiment that researchers have yet to prove works.
Superintendent Vicki Phillips wants to close Whitaker and Tubman middle schools and combine their seventh- and eighth-graders with the Jefferson High campus in the 2006-07 school year. She contends that merging the North and Northeast Portland schools will eliminate the often shaky transition between eighth and ninth grades, give teachers more time to get to know students, and improve lagging achievement and enrollment in all three schools.
Education officials, however, can point to few districts that have improved underperforming middle and high schools by merging them. Such mergers are rare in urban districts, and researchers have not determined if combined schools are better than stand-alone middle and high schools.
Read the rest of the article here (http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1111834953101540.xml).