by Jon Gaskell

Everyone has a theory about why kids' math and reading scores in public schools drop so significantly in eighth grade. But no one, here or nationwide, has a real solution. And if one isn't found by the year 2014, the federal government - author of the widely assailed No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) - can step in to restructure our schools. And this very real threat has sent administrators, teachers and parents into a frenzy of finger pointing.

Students in fourth grade (when scores to NCLB are first reported) are testing increasingly better annually, and the same can be said for 11th-grade students. So what is it that's causing this middle-school slump? There needs to be transition as kids get older, but is the summer between fifth and sixth grade the right time to implement it? Is it puberty? Is it bullying? Is it peer pressure? Is it too much teacher time paid to underachievers? Is it a lack of community pride in regard to middle schools? Is it an increased homework load? Is it the empty hours after school? Is it strained student-parent relationships? Is it the confusion of going from class to class as opposed to the warm-and-fuzzy elementary environment? Is it the fact that during a time when the body is growing at a wildly alarming rate, the growth of the brain has slowed? Or is it, as conspiracy theorists note, simply a program that has been set up to fail by individuals who want their kids in private school and want you to pay for it?

Whatever or whomever is to blame, the statistics are disconcerting.
Nearly 80 percent of Iowa fourth-graders are proficient when it comes to reading at their grade level. Four years later, however, when those students are in eighth grade, that number drops to 72 percent. In math, 81 percent of fourth-graders are proficient. Four years later, only 75 percent are. The statistics are better than the national average, according to recent data. But Iowa still has a long way to go.

Jane, an eighth-grader at Callanan Middle School (at the request of the district, real names of students interviewed for this story during school hours will not be used), stands next to a lunch table with her hands on her hips. She is pleading for a few of the girls sitting at the table and already eating their lunch to join her and two other girls at another table nearby. She pleads with them, gesturing, but the girls she wants to move shake their heads and tell her "no." A handful of the other girls already sitting at the table giggle and whisper into the cupped ears of one another. With only one chair left at the table, the girl abandons her other friends and sits down.

Callanan Principal Kathy Danielson, who taught in the Des Moines Public School District for 24 years before taking over the middle school, says the physical and emotional changes of the kids who attend what is arguably Des Moines' most ethnically and economically diverse middle school "slam her everyday." Danielson admits she doesn't know for certain what educational configuration would be best suited for kids in sixth, seventh and eighth grade, but no matter how it might be set up, the challenges are "immense."

"I'm not saying that keeping sixth-graders in elementary wouldn't be better, or going K through eighth wouldn't be better or going back to the traditional junior high wouldn't be better," Danielson says. "I'm just asking, 'Is it overwhelming for these particular kids to be handling all of these changes at once, and is this setting we have what they need to be successful?'"

Danielson runs down a laundry list of what sixth-graders stare down when they first arrive at Callanan: an increased homework load, moving from class to class and many new and different-colored faces.

"Not to mention puberty, peer pressure and whatever is going on at home," she says. "We see it in their faces: nervousness and a tough time transitioning."

So, following a number of long, philosophical discussions, Danielson and the teachers at Callanan began to approach things in a different way. Instead of loading kids down with homework on day one, the school chose to "take its time" and concentrate on relationship building.

"After six weeks we were having kids who were not doing their homework and we were flunking them," she says. "We had to ask ourselves if that made sense, and the answer was 'no.' With all this stuff going on, we weren't getting through. So we started teaching organization, routine and process, and you know what? It pays off."

Just not where the Bush Administration wants it to. Seventy-five percent of fourth-graders in the Des Moines Public School District are proficient in both reading and math, while only 51 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in reading and a staggering 41 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in math.

Simply put, critics say, Des Moines' middle schools are obviously not making the grade, and all the warm-and-fuzzy Kathy Danielsons in the world are not going to change it. True, it may be a bad hand, but it's the one that has to be played. Math scores and reading scores need to be vastly improved or there will be consequences.

Director of the Iowa Department of Education Judy Jeffrey agrees there are many factors contributing to why kids aren't doing as well in middle school, but the reality is that our schools will be held accountable by NCLB.

"You need to pay close attention to social and emotional development, but you can't lose focus on academics," Jeffrey says. "It's a matter of doing both. I think we've taken it too far to the extreme to say we can't push these kids at this age."

Jeffrey, like many others, says the brain of a child going through puberty slows somewhat in its development, but adds, "If you don't use it, you'll lose it." And what scares Jeffrey the most is that Iowa kids who flunk their classes in ninth grade drop out of high school at a rate of 50 percent; and that could be the result, in some cases, of a middle school curriculum that is designed to simply "hold kids in place."

When asked how, with all that is going on socially and emotionally, middle-school students could not be doing worse - held in place or not - she answers, "It's a fair question. But you have to transition at some point.

"We lose some of the relationships and the support when we transition," she adds. "Hopefully we can figure out a way to learn from it."

The hallways at St. Augustin Catholic School are quiet and clean. Kids whisper to one another. There is no monkey business. And there is also no real transition to speak of. The sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders attend classes in a different part of the building than the elementary students, but they are, fundamentally, attending school with the same kids they've been with since kindergarten (there is typically a small jump in classroom size at St. Augustin when kids in the western part of Des Moines have to leave schools like Hubbell, Hanawalt and Greenwood after fifth grade for Merrill and Callanan).

"It's comfortable and familiar, yes," says St. Augustin Principal Nancy Dowdle. "But the expectations are much greater, too. These kids have a lot to juggle."

Private schools are not required to submit data to the U.S. Department of Education in accordance with the NCLB Act, but St. Augustin does, scoring 20 percentage points higher than the Iowa average in eighth grade for math with 93.5 percent of the students proficient and 21 percent higher than the Iowa average in reading with 90 percent of the students proficient.

Dowdle points out that emotional and social challenges happen everywhere, and while kids in middle school need to be taught somewhat differently because of these challenges ("by keeping them involved"), it doesn't take away from the fact that they still need to know what is expected of them and there needs to be discipline.

"It has proven to be successful here," she says. "We don't see our scores drop. We see them go up."

However, Connie Cook, principal of both Hoover High School and Meredith Middle School, says schools like St. Augustin shouldn't be used as a tool of comparison with regard to the trouble Des Moines' middle schools are having when it comes to NCLB.

"A self-selected population doesn't provide a very accurate snapshot," she says. "And you could say the same thing about the public schools in the suburbs." To Cook, an administrator may think he or she is getting down to the brass tacks when it comes to providing a solid education; but when there are no problems at home, no real economic challenges, and "complete control over one's own life," it provides a quite different model.

Cook maintains that No Child Left Behind is "absolutely set up to fail - set up to make public schools look bad" in Iowa and everywhere else.

"They were very clever - No Child Left Behind. Who's going to argue with not wanting to leave children behind? This is for people who want taxpayers to pay for sending kids to religious or private schools. One hundred percent proficiency in anything is unrealistic."

And because of NCLB, Cook feels that middle schools in Des Moines and other urban areas have gotten a bad rap. In fact, she says, no one ever really thought there was a problem with the city's middle schools until No Child Left Behind was created.

Des Moines School Board President Phil Roeder says there is no room for excuses for our slumping middle school test scores, but agrees with Cook that things need to be put in proper perspective.

"The scores speak for themselves, yes," Roeder says. "But there's more to it than just Des Moines as one school district. Perception may be reality to most, but lumping an eighth-grader who is learning English as a second language for the first time in with the blue-eyed, blond-haired girl from the cul-de-sac and saying the average of those two scores is where Des Moines sits is far from fair."

District-wide, Des Moines has 11 percent of its students in ESL programs (put those students in their own district, and it would be a 4-A-level school, the 28th largest district in the state), while suburbs like Ankeny and Johnston have .72 percent and 1.4 percent, respectively, in much smaller districts. Also, in Des Moines, 52.5 percent of all students take part in the free-and-reduced-meals program.

"And we're testing these kids all the same," Roeder says. "When you don't know the language well, you obviously don't test as well. When you have real problems at home, your mind is probably not on social studies."

But when pushed to explain why the perceived social and language problems are causing kids to do much worse with regard to testing in eighth grade than fourth grade, Roeder says he wishes he could put a finger on it.

"I think it's a little bit of everything," he says. "But the biggest problem with NCLB is that we're forced to work on making everyone average... everyone. And only the scores are brought into the equation to measure success. How is that supposed to work?"

Amy Donnelly, a parent of three, including one child starting Callanan this year and one who was an eighth-grader there last year, says it won't, especially when the kids who don't want to be in school are the ones who are getting the most attention.

"I think the test scores are a tangible number that reflects the sum of all the intangible variables happening in the schools," she says. "(NCLB) is wonderful in theory, but it's never going to show Des Moines as making the grade."

Donnelly says 5 to 10 percent of the kids in middle schools are problem causers who have no desire to be in class. However, because kids are required by law to be in school until 16, the teachers simply have to deal with them. Lump in NCLB, and those 5 to 10 percent are aiding - however negatively - in the snapshot of how the district is performing overall. Not to mention, when a teacher struggles with the difficult students, he or she invariably forfeits time with the students who want to learn.

"We're really leaving about 80 percent of the kids behind (10 percent are considered gifted and talented students)," says Donnelly, who removed her children from St. Augustin to give them a better idea of the "real world." "Too many resources go to too few students. Let teachers teach the kids who want to learn, and create an alternative like they have in high school for kids who make teaching impossible. Don't tie (teachers') hands by forcing them to deal with kids who can't or won't learn. Politically correct or not, that's how you get the scores up. It doesn't take a private school or K through eighth. It takes a district that's committed to its teachers and its students."

In cities like Milwaukee, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Memphis and Baltimore, a trend has begun that is reconfiguring their schools away from the middle school model and toward one that is K through eighth. Most, according to an Aug. 8 Time magazine article, cite issues like crowding and cost cutting as the reason behind the moves. However, according to a 2004 Rand Education report prepared for the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation titled "Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School," the real reason is that kids in middle school have simply lost their way.

The report indicates that fewer than half of U.S. eighth-graders are proficient in math and reading; internationally, our fourth-graders are average when it comes to math scores, but by eighth grade, the United States ranks 12th out of the 17 countries who keep data on the subject; reported levels of emotional and physical problems, as well as crime statistics, reach their highest levels in middle school; and, according to the report, kids in a K-through-eighth environment simply perform better academically. It is why the middle school dilemma has become such a hot-button issue.

But is K through eighth the answer?

Sophie, a seventh-grade student at Des Moines Christian School says not having to transition has better prepared her for what lies beyond eighth grade - at least she thinks so.

"I didn't have to think about it," she says. "I get to think about school - not all of the other stuff."

She says there are cliques and teasing and boys ("nothing explicit and no PDA") at DMCS, just like anywhere else, but two hours of homework after two hours of after-school activities give her little, if any, time to be bothered by it.

"It's school. And it's hard. Trying to find time for everything is hard," she says.
And while some would likely roll their eyes and say this 4.0 student doesn't have the distractions that come along with a diverse school community, what she and her classmates do have are off-the-charts scores in reading and mathematics - high 80s in both reading and math proficiency for eighth grade and no drop off whatsoever from fourth.

"It shows that puberty isn't an excuse, because kids are going through puberty everywhere," Roeder says. "But I go back to the economic and geographic challenges. Would one teacher with the same group of kids for eight years show a marked improvement? Do we need to look at interjecting that kind of stability? We need to look at doing everything we can. But thinking we'll ever have kids scoring in the high 80th percentile across the board isn't realistic. Private schools and schools in the suburbs don't have the challenges we have."

But is Des Moines making matters worse by switching at fifth grade instead of at sixth when many other emotional and physical changes are taking place, and also by letting the problem kids eat up precious classroom time? Former board member and parent Graham Gillette says we are.

"We need to take the middle school concept and break it into smaller pieces we might be able to fix," he says.

Gillette has long recommended moving sixth grade back to elementary (as it is in West Des Moines, where 93 percent of eighth-graders are proficient in math and 86 percent are proficient in reading) because the kids are not ready for independence; creating a longer school day to give kids less time on their own; and "not forgetting the kids in the middle" who are not getting the necessary teacher attention in middle school.

"Middle school shouldn't be a place a kid merely has to survive," he says. "But that's exactly what it's become. We can't hide from it anymore."

Gillette says the scores we see at the eighth-grade level are "breathtaking" and, quite simply, the result of a flawed approach.

So what might be a better one? Look north to Ankeny and you find a district that routinely ranks in the top 10 in the state for overall academic achievement. The eighth-grade students in 2004 were 85 percent proficient in both reading and math. True, Ankeny does not have many of the urban challenges that Des Moines has, but it didn't stop the district from "fixing" its traditional system a decade ago.

Ankeny has conventional elementary schools, K through fifth, but it has two middle schools (sixth and seventh at Parkview, eighth and ninth at Northview) to answer to what Northview Principal Scott Osborn calls "vastly different academic and social needs."

"We added that other transition which doesn't seem logical to some, but it has worked exceptionally well for us," Osborn says. "Parkview gets to concentrate on the physical, social and emotional needs because it's such a challenging time in the student's development, while Northview gets kids who are ready to concentrate on academics." Osborn calls it a "softer" approach to transitioning.

"Sixth-graders don't walk in completely overwhelmed, and ninth-graders aren't quite ready for the full high school experience," he says. "This helps break it up. This helps us pinpoint rather than lump kids with different needs together into one place."
After visiting Ankeny, both Waukee and Johnston switched to the two-middle school system, while Norwalk is making the move to it in 2006.

The middle school movement, according to Jeffrey, started some 25 years ago, with educators and administrators pointing out that the junior-high model (basically a smaller version of high school) was not meeting the growth needs of kids. The concern, however, wasn't over test scores, but rather the social ills seen in these schools nationwide. Crime and drug use for this age set were growing profusely. This smaller version wasn't preparing students for high school. It was more of a holding cell for kids during a time in their development when their brains weren't growing. Not to mention, elementary schools were burgeoning and high schools could absorb the ninth-grade students.

So a more warm-and-fuzzy approach was invented - one that concentrated on relationship building and addressed social and emotional issues, as well as whatever was on the blackboard.

Sound familiar? It should, because it's the approach that has led, according to the Bush Administration, to a drop in our students' overall reading and math scores. The warm-and-fuzzy approach that was to cure our 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds of the evils that were crippling them socially was making them stupid.

Or was it?

"I just don't buy it that it's an accurate snapshot," Danielson says. "What if the kid taking the test was just having a bad day? I mean one test score is just one assessment. It does nothing to show all of the things our kids do well. I wouldn't call (NCLB) unimportant, but I wouldn't call it a completely accurate measure of our kids overall. There's a lot going on here."

A number of Callanan students say that blacks and Mexicans "hate each other" and there is a gang atmosphere at the school. Teachers complain of students "getting in their faces." There are fights, suspensions, public displays of affection and bullying.
"And we're not even talking about the stuff going on at home," says Danielson, listing physical abuse, drug and alcohol use, parents not around and so on. "I mean, let us do our jobs. For many schools it's not as simple as just teaching. For many schools you have to actually reach the kids first."

Miranda's lunchbox is exquisitely packed. Sandwich on the bottom. Carrot sticks. A banana. Chips. Cookies. She is alone, sitting on a chair in the school's lunchroom. She wears a huge smile, sharing it with no one in particular. But when another girl finally plops down beside her, she laughs and throws an arm around her.

"We're best friends," the sixth-grader says of her and her friend. What she doesn't say, however, is that her mother was recently imprisoned and she has been moved to foster care. Add to that all of the other social, physical and emotional changes going on in sixth grade at her new school, and Callanan Vice Principal Dennis Cumpston has but one question: "Can that kid be 100 percent focused on studying?"

Danielson says "no chance." And while Miranda is not a disruptive presence and, in fact, earns good marks, she is far from the norm, as kids who are having a rough go of it at home typically act out at school. This, many say, leads to an environment that is unsuitable for learning and is a direct cause behind the district's poor test scores.
Parents are paying attention.

"You could land here from Mars, pick up The Des Moines Register and think this was Detroit, not Des Moines," says Roeder, who believes parents are concerned, but not always for good reason. Still, the district is reacting. The threats of NCLB loom large, so Des Moines has answered by implementing 40 new teaching and coaching positions for middle schools in the subjects of reading and math; most middle schools are now using a "team" concept, with students staying with a lot of the same mid-ranged group in the same area of a building; and Moulton Elementary has added sixth, seventh and eighth grade to its student body - all done in search of results.

But will it do the trick? Not for the parents of the nine kids who left Des Moines middle schools this fall to enroll at St. Augustin. Nor for the parents of the other kids who left Des Moines middle schools with 266 fewer students this year than last. And guess what? Roeder says the kids leaving are not the ones doing poorly. They are our some of the best students - the ones who are helping the system's test scores linger in mediocrity.

"It scares people, the stories of how horrible things are, how poorly everyone is doing," Roeder goes on. "But when you break the whole story down, it doesn't make for such great headlines."

And that's all administrators like Cook and Danielson want: the rest of the story.

Across the hall from the main office, a hand-colored sign in the trophy case reads: "Way to go Callanan!" But some parents, teachers and definitely those keeping tabs on Des Moines' public middle school test scores would rather it read: "Callanan, a ways to go." Des Moines middle schools are not living up to their end of the bargain according to national statistics, and the drop from fourth to eighth grade, like Gillette says, is "breathtaking." The No Child Left Behind Act is simple when it declares: "School districts and schools which fail to make adequate yearly progress toward statewide proficiency goals will, over time, be subject to improvement, corrective action, and restructuring measures aimed at getting them back on course to meet state standards." It is the direction in which this city's middle schools are heading.

But is it an accurate snapshot? Is it fair? Is it a conspiracy? Or is it the simple fact that middle school, especially in the urban areas of cities like Des Moines, is just so tough?

"I think it's all of the above," says Danielson. "But we also need to do a better job of meeting the needs of an urban population."

So to a certain extent, parents like Donnelly are right. But, Danielson says, "It doesn't change the fact that we have to do everything in our power to prepare each and every one of them."

Callanan, she says, is far from perfect. No Child Left Behind, she says, is far from perfect. She herself is far from perfect.

"But I can't sit here and dream about, can we do it a better way?" she says. "I have to do the best I can.

"Do we need to do something about these poor test scores? Yes. But am I willing to base my complete perception of how we're doing overall on this one test? Absolutely not. I'm a principal in a Des Moines middle school and it's harder than ever. I want for nothing more than good kids from good homes to show up ready to learn everyday. But that's not realistic, and there's no silver bullet that's going to change the way things are." CV

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