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Lyle Rowland knows the name of each of the 238 students enrolled at Taneyville R-II School District, a K-8 district just east of Branson, Mo. What's more, he knows their parents, where they live and how some families earn their living.
In fact, he says this more intimate K-8 school structure creates a responsive learning environment that boosts student achievement and minimizes disruptive behavior more than traditional elementary and middle schools. And Rowland should know, he's been a principal and superintendent at various K-8 and K-12 school districts for the past 30 years.
These reasons, in a nutshell, are driving one of the hottest education trends today, the K-8 school. Rowland says K-8 schools outshine other delivery models.
"It's not about the grade span but what goes on in the classroom." -Nancy Ames, vice president, Education Development Center
Apparently, other administrators agree. Over the past several years, Cleveland, Denver, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and other districts formed K-8 schools in hopes of reaching similar student outcomes: enhanced academic performance, improved behavior and a smoother transition into high school. In the end, some believe they'll gain more control over the learning process.
"If it's performance you're after, less discipline, there are different ways of accomplishing that," says Rowland, also co-founder of the Missouri K-8 School Association. "I have found K-8 schools to be the best."
Evolving Strategy
K-8 schools were introduced more than a century ago with the one-room schoolhouse. In society's effort to accommodate students' educational and behavioral needs, reformers began experimenting with different delivery models throughout the 1900s. Consider middle schools, which peaked in popularity in the 1980s. But research indicated there was still a better way to go.
Rowland cites a 1987 national study claiming the optimum student enrollment for any school to operate at peak efficiency is 2,500. So districts began consolidating their schools, enlarging their student population, he says.
"West Virginia is a prime example," says Rowland, adding that Arkansas also followed suit. "Is it working? Heck no. Is it cheaper? Heck no. But some guru out in West Virginia said this is the way it needs to be. Well, it doesn't work."
Now the trend is moving in the opposite direction, partly due to test scores. Rowland says 40 percent of Missouri's 75 K-8 schools recently received "distinction in performance" on a statewide testing program.
Likewise, data also shows that 6-8 graders attending Denver's five K-8 schools are developing stronger math and reading skills than those in its 22 middle schools, says Jerry Wartgow, superintendent of the 74,000-student Denver Public Schools district.
Between 3 percent and 4 percent of Denver's students--roughly 200--leave the district after the fifth or sixth grade, which equates to a district funding loss of nearly $1.2 million. To find out why, Denver formed a Secondary Reform Commission last summer. While the commission's report is due in January, Wartgow suspects it will recommend a different configuration or alternative structure for middle schools, such as K-8.
Many parents, he adds, aren't quite ready to place their fifth-grade children in middle schools. "They feel more comfortable keeping them in their home school where they've always been, where all the teachers know their child and where the child knows all the teachers," Wartgow says. "We're hoping that K-8 will provide a choice for parents, an alternative within the public education system to the middle school."
"Parents like that there's less transition [and that] they have multiple kids in one school." -William Andrekopoulos, superintendent, Milwaukee Public Schools
Milwaukee Public Schools experienced a similar reaction. The 100,000-student district was at risk of losing its state funding for student busing, so it recently asked parents what would persuade them to send their children to the neighborhood school. Their answer was unanimous: transform them into K-8s.
"Parents like that there's less transition, they have multiple kids in one school and the safety and nourishing factor," says William Andrekopoulos, Milwaukee's superintendent. "That's less threatening than sending their child to a large middle school."
The district introduced K-8 schools in the early 1900s, then formed junior high schools in 1939 and middle schools in the early 1980s. Nearly 20 years later, the district now supports eight K-8s. However, that number will jump to 63 by the end of 2005, he says.
