Major Middle School Overhaul in the Works?

Thirty years ago, Paul George was among a group of visionary UF education professors who campaigned for creation of separate schools to meet the needs of children in early adolescence.

Now George says many Florida middle schools may no longer be serving their original function. He recently headed a panel of Florida educators that produced an assessment of critical issues for middle school reform in our state, at the request of the Helios Education Foundation.

“When we think of the student as the client – rather than the high school or the FCAT – we are obligated to address all the developmental needs of children in early adolescence,” George said. “We need to think about the students’ social development, their health, their self-esteem and a number of other issues that reach a crucial point in early adolescence, rather than treating a student as a test score.”

George, who has been identified by Middle School Journal as the nation’s “number one ranking scholar” in middle grades education, led a group of middle-school experts in a review of the latest scholarship addressing the successes and failings of Florida’s middle schools.

The review was requested by Helios, a foundation created when a large not-for-profit student loan corporation — which provided loans in Arizona and Florida — was reorganized in 2004. One of the goals of Helios is to promote better middle-grades education in both states.

George’s group found a system in which many schools were doing their jobs admirably well – but many other schools were too large and too testing-focused to meet the special developmental needs of adolescents.

“Florida has the largest secondary schools in the nation,” George said. “While there are good economic reasons for this – per-student costs are lower in a large school – it isn’t always the best environment for learning.”

The Sunshine State’s massive middle schools are often staffed by administrators and teachers with little training specific to middle school issues, George said. Those educators are often biding their time in middle school while looking for positions in high schools. The result, he said, is an alienating environment where classroom instruction resembles the grade level teachers wish they were teaching, rather than instruction that is appropriate for students in their early teens.

“The curriculum is often organized like the curriculum at a college,” he said. “There’s even a push now to have students declare a major in middle school. This is completely inappropriate. Students at this age should be exploring their potential, not focusing on a career.”

George and his co-authors presented preliminary findings to Helios in June and submitted their final report in October.

Helios was formed after the Southwest Student Services Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with subsidiaries that made student loans in Florida and Arizona, reorganized its corporate structure in 2004. The newly-reorganized entity sold its loan operations to a for-profit company, generating more than $500 million for the creation of Helios, which is dedicated to improving educational opportunities for students in the states served by its former student loan operation.

Helios has already given more than $10 million to various educational institutions in Arizona. The foundation expects to give between $20 million and $30 million in grants per year in the future.

According to George, Helios has identified middle-grades education as one of the critical areas requiring improvement in both states. George said reforms in Florida and Arizona could lead other states to reexamine their approach to middle-school education.

“Many of our findings have been borne out by other studies at the national level,” George said. “This could be the beginning of a nationwide reform of middle-grades education.”