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Johnson Middle School Cited As a Model in State

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 09:00 CST

By Sandy Louey, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Feb. 23--Toby Johnson Middle School has something to celebrate.

The California Department of Education recently named it one of four exceptional middle schools, receiving the 2006 "California's Schools to Watch - Taking Center Stage" award.

The four model middle schools will be recognized at the annual California League of Middle Schools conference March 9-12 in San Jose.

The other schools are Gaspar De Portola Middle School in San Diego; R.H. Dana Middle School in Hawthorne, Los Angeles County; and McKinleyville Middle School in McKinleyville, Humboldt County.

Toby Johnson Middle School has 1,475 seventh-and eighth-grade students.

"We're experiencing so much success because we have an exemplary faculty," said Principal Patrick McDougall.

The Bee spoke to McDougall last week about the award.

Q: How do you feel about Toby Johnson being named a model middle school?

A: As you can imagine, we're thrilled and very energized. The reason it's exciting is it puts us in the conversation we want to be in, and that is we want to be involved in the conversation of what great middle schools are doing. Being a model middle school allows to us interact with other middle schools. I've already had two phone calls from schools wanting to dialogue about things we do that they're considering.

We think we're going to learn as much from the process as we will be able to share with others.

Q: Why do you think Toby Johnson was chosen as a model middle school?

A: I think the school has a unique delivery model for students that's based on best practices and the prevailing research on exemplary middle schools.

What's unique is our:

* Four-by-four block schedule (where the school year is broken up into four nine-week terms and students take four classes per term).

* The fact that we're looping with our students.

* The fact that our students go to school each day longer than typical middle school students.

* The fact that our kids get a class and a half in both math and language arts.

* And finally that our schedule allows kids to get eight classes instead of six. We have the best elective program in the state.

Q: What is looping and how does it help address the size of the school?

A: Looping is a term we use in which teachers travel with their students from one year to the next. In our case, that's from seventh to eighth grade.

The power of looping is that it produces instructional consistency, and it allows us to customize a child's program. In addition to looping, Toby Johnson is subdivided into seven interdisciplinary teams with each team serving 210 kids.

It is our team of teachers that loop with their students. This consistency breeds a lot of security and confidence in students. They're more able to focus on their studies when they have a strong relationship with their teachers and classmates.

Q: What would it take for other middle schools to adopt those practices?

A: Any school looking to get better needs to take the research that is available seriously and take steps to move your delivery model toward what the research says is best for kids this age.

The second thing that you have to do, if you want to make changes and move, is to build a common set of beliefs and visions that the teachers and staff will buy into, which is based on the unique needs of middle school students.

Q: What are the challenges of educating middle school students?

A: Students 11 to 15 are extremely vulnerable in this culture. It is a time in life when kids stop thinking for themselves and they're so influenced by their peers. They're going through puberty, and that is an upheaval in itself. And they're incredibly influenced by the pop culture.

To keep our staff focused on the needs of this age group, we started the school year by reading the entire Time magazine edition devoted to middle school students. It was a special report titled "Being 13."

I think it's harder to be a kid today than when their parents were kids. School is much more difficult. These kids have much more pressure placed upon them at an earlier age. The pop culture preys on kids this age. And because of all this, their needs when they come to school are much more complex than at any other time in their growth cycle.

Q: Why does middle school matter?

A: Two-thirds of the standards on the (California) High School Exit Exam are first taught in the middle school.

Well, according to the TIMMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) report, we lose ground when kids go to middle school. It appears that academic achievement in America declines in the middle school years as compared to other countries around the world.

Kids make up their minds about school and whether they'll stay in school during their middle-school years. We talk about high school dropouts, but the decision and challenges are made in middle school.

When you do middle school right, you're able to leverage the unique characteristics of these kids in a productive fashion. When you do middle school wrong, you spend all your time fighting the kids to be something they're not.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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