Boston shifts to K-8 schools to help students in middle

Boston is moving away from the traditional middle school and toward K-8 schools, already popular in some districts, that help cushion the leap out of the elementary years.

Combining the middle and elementary grades in one school makes the transition easier for students, both on class work and social skills, and reduces discipline problems, many educators say. Students already know their teachers and friends. They know where their classes are. And they're familiar with rules and expectations, thus allowing more time to focus on academics at a time when learning gets harder.

The number of K-8 schools is expected to double in the city by 2007, when 25 such schools are projected to outnumber traditional middle schools, for sixth- to eighth-graders. The push is part of an effort to offer parents a sense of community and continuity, much like neighborhood schools.

Now, the school system has 41 schools for Boston's 13,200 sixth- through eighth-graders. Of the 41 schools, 18 are traditional grade 6-8 and 12 are grade K-8.

Within the next three years, Boston plans to add 10 K-8 schools and merge two middle schools with neighboring elementary schools.

By parental demand, that switch is already in place at the Richard J. Murphy School in Dorchester, which completed its three-year transformation from an elementary to a K-8 school in September. Here, tiny tykes grow up to be Murphyites whose moods and interests teachers know well, said principal Mary Russo.

"In most elementaries you don't know where the child is going after Grade 5," Russo said. "Teachers here know exactly where that child is going, and there's a strong sense of accountability. They say, 'I better be sure he's learning, because I'm going to be seeing that student and his teacher from year to year.' "

The three-story school splits among grade levels, with the higher grades on top. Older students are expected to look out for their younger schoolmates. Sixth-graders serve as mentors for first-graders; they meet regularly to plant gardens, read together, and work on art projects.

Shannon Benjamin, a Murphy eighth-grader, said she was relieved to learn three years ago that she didn't have to change schools.

"The Murphy is the only school I've been to since first grade," she said. "When I'll be walking down the hall, the teachers here will ask, 'How are things going?' and say, 'Shannon, if you need help with anything, come into my class after school, and I'll help you understand what you're doing.' "

The care extends beyond the years at Murphy. Last year the school developed a guidebook to more than 50 public, charter, and private high schools in Boston for the parents of the 63 eighth-graders leaving in June. Teachers made three high school recommendations for each student, based on interests and needs.

Many parents at other elementary schools want that personalized attention for their children.

"Our philosophical belief is that our entire school system should be on a K-8 model," said Joseph Impellizeri, chairman of the K-8 exploratory committee at the Joyce Kilmer Elementary School in West Roxbury, where his son is in first grade. The committee plans to ask the school system to convert the Kilmer into a K-8.

He said K-8 schools are a way for Boston schools to keep parents, who would otherwise consider private or parochial schools or move to the suburbs. Parents also feel more invested in volunteering and fund-raising for a school if they know their child will be in it for the long haul, he said.

"If the city's trying to maintain a strong middle class, parents have to have faith in their schools," Impellizeri said.

According to a school system analysis of the most recent MCAS results and federal No Child Left Behind data, students in K-8 schools tended to outperform their peers inmiddle schools. While 15 of Boston's 18 middle schools have been identified as needing improvement under federal law, only two of the dozen K-8 schools fall into that category.

K-8 schools also help ease parents' anxiety about undergoing yet another school lottery. In some cases, students could attend three schools in three years: fifth grade in an elementary school, sixth grade in a middle school, and seventh grade in one of Boston's three 7-12 grade exam schools.

The task force appointed by the school committee to look at student assignment plans also called for more K-8 schools. They retain more students, said Jerry Burrell, director of student assignment.

The system has identified these elementary schools for probable conversion into K-8s: James F. Condon, John Eliot, Thomas Gardner, James A. Garfield, Harvard-Kent, Jackson-Mann, Oliver Hazard Perry, Patrick O'Hearn, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. It may also restructure the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School into a K-8. Starting in September, the Paul A. Dever Elementary School will merge with the John W. McCormack Middle School, and the James Michael Curley Elementary will merge with the Mary E. Curley Middle School. Other schools can submit proposals next month.

Most of the state's 90 K-8 schools are in Cambridge, Brookline, Somerville, Lawrence, and Boston.

Cincinnati began converting its middle schools to K-8 schools in the mid-1990s in response to discipline, attendance, and achievement problems. Milwaukee, New Orleans, and Philadelphia are also expanding K-8 programs.

Incidents of bullying, discipline, and difficult peer interactions rise as students enter traditional middle schools, said Donna San Antonio, a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who has researched the transition to middle school. A study in Milwaukee found that students who advanced to middle school faced a rougher time with self-esteem and academic achievement than those who stayed in K-8 schools, she said.

"Children are really nervous about the transition to middle school -- new teachers, lockers, new peers -- but they're also really excited for exactly those reasons," San Antonio said. "They feel more grown up, more independent. But it's exactly that independence that parents are afraid of."

While other systems are phasing out middle schools, Boston Superintendent Thomas Payzantsaid he does not plan to eliminate them because they offer a wider range of electives and extracurricular activities. Despite demand for more K-8 schools, Payzant said, "we can only go as far as our facilities enable us to."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.