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NEW YORK, NY March 25, 2004 — The controversy surrounding third grade social promotion has gotten a lot of attention lately. But last year about 37 percent of ninth graders weren't promoted to the next grade, largely because they weren't prepared for high school. With that in mind, the city is now looking at ways to restructure its middle schools so more students will be ready for high school. WNYC's Beth Fertig has more.

Parents all over the city know there's a problem with middle schools. Chancellor Joel Klein says HE hears it constantly.

KLEIN: How many parents have told me time and again that they're happy with elementary schools their children go to but not very happy with the middle school options.

More than half the city's fourth graders met the state standards last year for reading and math. But those levels dip tremendously by the middle grades - with just about a third of all eighth graders meeting the standards. And about half of the city's 300 middle schools have been designated as needing improvement.

Intermediate school 220 bordering Sunset Park in Brooklyn is pretty typical. The school has been on the state's corrective action list for the past five years.

CAFETERIA WOMAN: Boys one line, come on.

As hundreds of students file into the lunchroom, they're ushered by staff members holding walkie talkies. The kids have just come out of gym class and they're bursting with energy.

A few of the kids push and shove each other playfully. Principal Jo Rossicone watches over them carefully - paying attention for troublemakers.

ROSSICONE: It's the pecking order so to speak. You know. But they're not, if you look at them they're adolescent children that's it. And they do what adolescent children do.

Middle schools became popular a generation ago because they were seen as a good environment for the surging hormones of adolescence. The kids were too old for elementary school and too young for high school. But around the country, educators are now rethinking that model because middle schools haven't performed so well academically. As New York City considers its own reforms, officials are now planning to eliminate some low performing middle schools.

CAHILL: It's not a plan that's going to abolish the 6-8 structure. We want to have options and choices.

Michele Cahill is senior counselor to the Chancellor. She's developing a plan that would turn some middle schools into K through 8 schools. There will also be a few small schools for grades 6 through 12.

CAHILL: A lot of the problem has been that kids get disconnected in middle school.

Cahill says she's trying to reduce the number of times that kids change schools. She says students also have a difficult transition from elementary classes - where they had the same teacher all day long - to the new environment of middle grades.

CAHILL: You know they have many teachers it's a big change, the old departmentalized model. And the teachers don't get to know them because they have teaching loads of 150-170 students. And these are very young kids and they need more attention than that.

Cahill envisions teams of teachers who can spend more time with their students, and a curriculum that puts more emphasis on reading and writing. These are the skills students will need to get through biology, history and other high school subjects.

Teachers and principals agree the middle grades need help. So do the elementary grades, they say - noting that academic problems begin much earlier. But some say there are still good reasons for keeping the middle school structure.

TEACHER: You don't think your dad is boring? Not all adults are boring to you?

At IS 220 in Brooklyn, seventh grade teacher Ilene Besabe has divided her 30 students into 4 different work stations as they prepare to read the Pigman by Paul Zindel. Some are using a computer to research the author's life; others are holding discussions.

Besabe worked in a K through 8 school before coming here. She says it's easier to deal with adolescents in a middle school.

BESABI: A lot of them don't know who they are, a lot of them are insecure and they act out in different ways because of those insecurities and the attitudes especially with the girls. So I think it's better, I think the three years 6,7,8 that they're together.

One boy disagrees and thinks older kids could set good role models if they're mixed with elementary students. But 12-year old Gladys Sosa says she wouldn't want her little sister going to school with some of her classmates.

SOSA: They disrespect teachers. They talk back. They like write comments, they don't care about the school property. And like my sister they don't do that in their school.

There are 1500 students at IS 220. Principal Jo Rossicone has tried to make the school more manageable by breaking it up into four mini-schools. She's also using pairing teachers in some classrooms to give the kids more individual attention. And she created a special English class for her many immigrant students. Rossicone says she's open to reform.

ROSSICONE: If we keep doing the same thing in the same way and expect to get different results that's the definition of insanity. It isn't going to happen.

But she says the middle school model CAN work. Her 8th grade English scores went up 10 points in the past year. That's why Rossicone says the city should try to strengthen middle schools, by training more teachers to work specifically in the middle grades. She previously worked in a K through 8 school.

ROSSICONE: I found that because the kids are not allowed to experience the adolescent angst as we allow them because they're all together - you know they're still treated with an elementary mentality. I found that sometimes our behaviors in general are better. Because our kids act their age. That's the problem with middle school, they act their age.

There are no conclusive studies showing K through 8 schools perform better academically than middle schools. Nor is there any trend if you look at IS 220 and its neighbors in the 2 regions that include South Brooklyn and Staten Island. WNYC examined eighth grade math and English scores for about 50 middle schools and 12 K through 8 schools. Their English scores were equally dismal. But students at the K through 8 schools were almost twice as likely to meet the math standards.

Of course, schools vary tremendously from one neighborhood to another. But there is one new study finding students in K through 8 schools DO seem more satisfied with their surroundings. Janna Jubonin is a professor of psychology at UCLA who just wrote a book for the Rand Corporation called Focus on the Wonder Years.

JUBONIN: Middle school-age kids' perceptions of their well being, their perceptions of the school environment, other kids in the school - those are rather negative. And we need to keep in mind that kids' well being as well as perceptions of the social climate of the school are related to their achievement. We really need to be thinking about these simultaneously

These are some of the ideas Michele Cahill says she and the chancellor are now considering. Configuration isn't the only answer, she says. Instead, she says it's one of many solutions that also include breaking up middle schools into smaller communities, and coming up with a curriculum that's more appropriate for adolescents. CAHILL: We're not interested in fixing problems that don't exist, right?! We have some very, very poorly functioning middle schools right now and those we may replace with some of these kinds of configurations. It's not wholesale change it's a planned change over multiple years.

TEACHER: Alright get ready to switch, when you switch take your calendars

But as education officials plan their changes, seventh grade teacher Ilene Besabe says there's one simple solution that would improve the quality of middle schools.

BESABI: What I would wish? Smaller classes but I don't know if that's an option, if that's a possibility.

But that, like school reform, depends on money - and it's not clear how much the city will have. More than 30 schools serving grades K through 8 and 6 through 12 are expected to open this fall with the help of grants. A multi-year plan is now underway. For WNYC I'm Beth Fertig.

Research for this report was conducted by Zoe Alsop