Op-ed: In defense of our sixth graders Moving them to the middle school will only cause problems

By Lisa D. Sanders

Being a 6th grader is hard. Bodies and brains are changing rapidly and at different rates in different kiddos. Children are trying to figure out who they are. A hug or harsh word from a parent still matters, but perhaps for the first time, less than a fist bump or dis from a peer.

Green Mountain Unified School District is preparing to move 6th graders to Green Mountain Union High School. Doing so will decrease performance and increase behavior problems.

Why would sixth graders be sent to GMUHS despite the evidence? There are better alternatives. We haven’t been provided with a rationale for this change. However, I am concerned that administrators who fear losing their jobs under Act 73 are attempting to strengthen their position in reorganized districts, and are willing to do so on the backs of vulnerable 6th graders.

The research indicates that 6th graders who transition to middle school experience sharp drops in reading and math achievement and are 18% more likely to drop out of high school by the 10th grade. Where overall academic performance in a middle school is at least as strong as performance in elementary schools, those losses are typically recovered in two to three years. Where scores in the middle school are lower, recovery is not as complete and not as fast.

The transition to middle school for 6th graders is also marked by sharp increases in disciplinary problems, especially drug-related incidents. Those negative effects persist at least through the 9th grade. At GMUHS, there is the added risk of exposure to PCBs; continued monitoring will be required to determine if it is legal for 6th graders to be in the building.

Moving the 6th grade to GMUHS will be bad for all 6th graders, but worse for those who live farther from the school. For a Cavendish 6th grader, bus transportation would mean pick-up around 6:30 a.m. and more than two hours on the bus each school day. Early starts are linked to poorer academic performance and less ability for a child to keep trying when a task is difficult. Living farther from school is linked to increases in student absences and tardiness and decreases in family involvement. These effects are minimal in elementary school students and increase sharply for middle and high school students and their families.

There are better alternatives. Cavendish Town Elementary School was ranked as No. 2 of 139 Vermont elementary schools for performance “well above expectations.” CTES is currently at 60% of the listed building capacity. Moving some families from Chester-Andover Elementary School to Cavendish would relieve the space crunch and increase the performance of students who move and probably those who don’t.

However, it is understandable that families of elementary school children might not want the added distance even for the trade-off of better performance. Luckily the district allocated more than enough money to place high-quality moveable structures on the Chester-Andover campus that could relieve the space crunch without moving anyone.

I don’t know why GMUSD leadership wants to move 6th grade to GMUHS despite the evidence – neither the public nor the school board has been told those reasons. We do know that the Act 73 mandated redistricting proposals are due on Monday, Nov. 10.

Those proposals are required to reduce the number of districts from 119 to 10 to 25. That could mean at least 94 fewer superintendents and 94 fewer district or supervisory union central offices. The proposed statewide decreases in administrative positions might be particularly scary for those that oversee only one high school, and with that school at 49% of listed building capacity. I continue to hope that GMUSD leadership will choose better outcomes for 6th graders over their own job security. That may be too much to ask.

I can understand Chester and nearby towns wanting to keep a high school through and after Act 73 redistricting. The way to do that is to strengthen the school to the point that fewer families seek other options. Despite multiple requests, I cannot access the data on the number of 12- to 18-year-olds who live in the district but are not educated at GMUHS. It is only my guess that those percentages are higher here than in other districts.

Unknowns are scary and make decision-making hard. However, it is known that moving 6th grade from elementary schools to GMUHS will have negative outcomes. Contact your elected school board members and your superintendent and demand that they do their jobs of making evidence-based, economically sound decisions that support strong educational outcomes for all our children.

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Lisa Sanders is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist and member of the board of the Green Mountain Unified School District. She lives in Cavendish. 

References used in forming the described opinions:

Alspaugh, J. W. (1998). Achievement loss associated with the transition to middle school and high school. The Journal of Educational Research, 92(1), 20-25.

Cook, P. J., MacCoun, R., Muschkin, C., & Vigdor, J. (2008). The negative impacts of starting middle school in sixth grade. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management: The Journal of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, 27(1), 104-121.

Rockoff, J. E., & Lockwood, B. B. (2010). Stuck in the middle: Impacts of grade configuration in public schools. Journal of Public Economics, 94(11-12), 1051-1061.

Rockoff, J. E., & Lockwood, B. B. (2010). Stuck in the middle: How and why middle schools harm student achievement. Education Next, 10(4), 68-76.

West, M., & Schwerdt, G. (2012). The middle school plunge: Achievement tumbles when young students change schools.

Dhuey, E. (2013). Middle school or junior high? How grade‐level configurations affect academic achievement. Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d’économique, 46(2), 469-496.