THE JOURNAL & TOPICS NEWSPAPERS | WEEK OF APRIL 20, 2008
Dist. 34 Task Force Lays Out Plan
By TOM ROBB
Journal Reporter
The Middle School Task Force (MSTF) of Glenview Elementary School Dist. 34 delivered its first report to the school board laying out its action plan for the creation of a larger report with recommendations expected in December of this year.
The initial report identified four areas on which task force members will concentrate their attention. They were student achievement, student social and emotional development, costs and returns on investment and the overall student population and relevant student sub groups.
The report also described six tasks the MSTF will complete in the creation of their report.
The first task states they will seek to "understand current middle school programs and services compared to best practice for the middle school learner." The second task seeks to compare academic performance with other elementary school districts that feed into Glenbrook South High School. The third task seeks to understand strengths and weaknesses in the transitions from grade to grade looking at each from fifth grade through ninth grade, even seeking to understand how that performance translates to students in their high school junior and senior years.
Task four seeks to address the "perceptions of stakeholders" staff, students and parents, about the middle school programs. The next task sought to understand the relationship between middle school and high school and seeks to understand how best practices at GBS compare with best practices at high schools generally.
MSTF members acknowledged challenges in mining GBS data and suggesting practices at the high school level. School board members discussed that many parents, even some board members themselves, have difficulty understanding the differences in school models.
Board and MSTF members both acknowledged this task might be difficult as it goes beyond Dist. 34's scope of influence.
Also at Monday night's meeting was Dr. Steve Mertens from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD). The CPRD is currently studying Dist. 34 schools. Their results will be used by the MSTF in creating their final report.
Mertens presented academic data considering the differences between models of middle schools and junior high schools. He gave the MSTF a similar presentation earlier in the week.
Mertens had been scheduled to present at past Dist. 34 meetings last winter but was unable to make the trip from southern Illinois during several particularly heavy snowstorms.
Board members peppered him with questions for about an hour trying to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each type of school.
Part of the Middle School Task Force's mandate will also be to consider the best model for teaching sixth through eighth graders in the district.
Mertens made the case that the middle school model, stressing smaller groups of students who stay together with teachers throughout their time in middle school, is preferable to the junior high model that is a smaller version of high school where students go from class to class as one individual without that same sense of a smaller learning community.
Mertens acknowledged the criticism of the middle school model is a possible comparative lack of academic rigor.
The need for the Middle School Task Force was first identified when parents Tom and Cindy Wilkas identified disparities in state testing scores (ISAT) between students at Attea and Springman middle schools. Cindy is a member of the current Middle School Task Force, whose members were chosen with input from the Dist 34 PTA. The Wilkas presented a detailed report using state data at a board meeting in November.
GBS Principal Brian Wegley is also a member of the MSTF.