DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 1

Deptford Township Schools Position Paper

Sixth Grade Transition to Middle School

Spartan Improvement Plan

DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 2

Abstract

This paper outlines a strategic plan for an operational, organizational, and instructional innovation for sixth grade, Monongahela Middle School, and the entire Deptford Township

School District located in Deptford, New Jersey, by moving sixth grade classes from four different elementary school settings to the district’s middle school.

DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 3

A Metamorphosis for Monongahela Middle School

What Grade Levels Constitute Middle School?

Deptford Township School District is a Pre-K through grade twelve public school district in Deptford, New Jersey, serving over 4,000 students in a community of approximately 30,000 residents (Census, 2019). The annual budget is approximately $70,000,000. The district has a central administrative office, Blackwood Terrace Administration Building, and nine schools:

Central Early Childhood Center and Pine Acres Early Childhood Center, both of which house half-day Pre-Kindergarten, full-day Kindergarten, and grade one; Shady Lane Elementary

School, Good Intent Elementary School, Oak Valley Elementary School, and Lake Tract

Elementary School, all housing grades two through six; Monongahela Middle School, housing grades seven and eight; Deptford High School, housing grades nine through twelve; and New

Sharon School, serving special education students from second grade through age 21 as required under New Jersey state law.

Though each individual school district in New Jersey is empowered to make its own determination for which school buildings house which grade levels, and Monongahela Middle

School houses only grades seven and eight, by all measures, middle schools in the state of New

Jersey (and nationally) are preferred to house at least grades six through eight (though they also sometimes include grade five as well). Monongahela Middle School remains only one of two middle schools throughout Gloucester County, New Jersey, that houses only grades seven and eight out of twenty-nine total districts.

First, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the law that governs K-12 public education in the United States, supports the principle of middle school including sixth grade; in the 391 pages of the Act, itself, there are multiple references to elementary education as “the DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 4 grades of kindergarten through grade 5” (ESSA, 2015, p. 138). New Jersey’s state standards, the

New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS), a revision and rebranding of the national

Common Core State Standards (CCSS), outline different practices and procedures among groupings of grades Kindergarten through five, grades six through eight, and grades nine through twelve. New Jersey’s English Language Arts (ELA) standards include grouped “Companion

Standards” in grades six through eight (NJDOE, 2016). These standards are for cross-curricular study between ELA, social studies, and science to meet the needs of 21st century learners, and they exist to supplement the main standards because different teachers teach these subjects, even in grade six. Research linked to grade-span studies shows that “schools with grades six through eight have more interdisciplinary teaming” (Paglin, 1997). Likewise, these same grade groupings are reflected in our state standardized test, the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments

(NJSLA). Grade six is grouped in terms of testing time with middle school. Even the New Jersey

Department of Education (NJDOE) recommends different daily periods of “uninterrupted literacy instruction” for grades five and six, grouping grade six with middle school

(NJDOE, 2016). Finally, teacher certification in the state of New Jersey defines middle school subject matter specializations for grades five through eight (Certification, 2019). Considering all these measures, New Jersey recommends grade six to be included in the middle school setting and this middle school structure would greatly benefit the students and staff of Deptford

Township Schools.

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Needs Assessment

Currently, almost 300 sixth grade students are spread out across four different schools.

This presents a number of challenges for students, teachers, and the administration.

Sixth grade students are currently following a different bell schedule than the rest of their respective buildings for grades two through five. The logistics of changing classes, traveling through the buildings, and moving to and from special area classes present a constant interruption and distraction to the learning process for the students. Frequently, these bell schedules are changed due to events in other grade levels and special events like assemblies, conferences, half-day in-service days, and state testing.

Special area curricular and extra-curricular offerings are extremely limited to sixth grade students housed at the elementary level. Presently, sixth graders move into special area classes without the freedom of choosing their electives. Monongahela Middle School offers a number of elective courses available to seventh and eighth grade students that are not available at the elementary level. Regarding clubs and athletic activities, there are currently little-to-no options for sixth grade students. Education expert Gerald Ubben highlights his beliefs that “the curriculum must be developmentally appropriate to meet the needs of the whole child (physical, social, emotional, and intellectual) while promoting awareness of cultural diversity”

(Ubben, 2017, p. 66). Monongahela Middle School hosts over twenty clubs and sports in which students can participate. These offerings are an opportunity for students to broaden their horizons, explore new interests, and support their educational and social development. Under the existing grade-level structure, excluding these students is also hurtful to the stability of these programs, especially for sports, as they compete against schools with a pool of fewer students limited to grades seven and eight only. DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 6

Teachers and teacher practice is negatively impacted with sixth grade housed in four different buildings. Due to unique, less-than-ideal scheduling which conflicts with the rest of their building, there is little collaboration time among sixth grade teachers within the same building. Teacher collaboration is a key component of teacher development and student achievement. Ubben agrees, explaining, “the quality of work in professional learning communities depends, to a great degree, on the quality of collaboration that is embedded into a school’s culture” (Ubben, 2017, p. 224). In an environment with scheduling limitations that includes limited collaboration, the teachers, and, ultimately, the students suffer. Further, on half- day in-service days, collaboration among buildings is restricted due to the logistics and related geographic travel between four buildings. Of the three full-day in-service trainings during the school year, scheduling a full sixth-grade teacher collaboration presents logistical issues.

Training in any one building places the majority of teachers outside of their respective building and their proximity to their resources. Oftentimes, these entire groups do not meet at all because of this multitude of obstacles. Without collaboration and common planning time, there is very little shared leadership and learning taking place among sixth grade teachers. This is limiting, too, especially for new teacher hires and mentor teachers who would benefit from the support and collegiality of a common planning time, such as the one that currently exists within the middle school schedule.

The location of sixth grade also presents numerous challenges to the administrative team of building principals, curriculum supervisors, and the central administration. Scheduling and sixth grade classroom location is always a concern. Sixth grade students travel around the building at different times than other students in grades two through five since they are the only students changing core classes throughout the day. This problem is amplified when there are new DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 7 mandates from the state of New Jersey regarding curriculum, such as a recent requirement to include financial literacy instruction in grades six through eight for the 2019-2020 school year

(Johnson, 2019). In this instance, educating each grade among five buildings is a challenge.

Since collaboration time is extremely limited, it can be very difficult for the administration to implement new initiatives, programs, or textbooks. The curriculum area supervisors have to do four times the work than what they would have to do with another middle school grade, traveling to each of the four elementary buildings.

With students switching classes, but not for every class period, this presents a significant challenge to the central administration when considering teacher qualifications in relationship to teacher placement and hiring practices. Teachers need to be highly qualified in a specific subject area to teach that course, so shuffling teacher assignments is always a struggle when considering new hires, retirements, and, especially leaves of absence. Due to these concerns, elementary teachers are very transient and are often moved from one building or one grade level to another.

The challenge of finding the right staff and then the harsh reality of moving teachers each year presents a constant disruption and lack of consistency for teachers and students. These teachers cannot focus their efforts on a singular subject-area focus.

Finally, in addition to all the items above, state test scoring data supports the need to move sixth grade to Monongahela Middle School. In the 2017-2018 school year, students took the PARCC exam with the following results in English Language Arts (PARCC, 2018). PARCC scoring ranges from 650 to 850, with a score of 750 considered passing or what PARCC calls

“Level 4 - Meets Expectations.”

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Figure 1: 2017-2018 ELA State Test Scores

2017-2018 State Testing English Language Arts Scores

School Grade

Good Intent Elementary 756

Lake Tract Elementary 754

Oak Valley Elementary 738

Shady Lane Elementary 737

TOTAL Elementary Mean Score 746 Level 3 – Approaching Expectations

Middle School Grade 7 763 Level 4 – Meets Expectations

Middle School Grade 8 768 Level 4 – Meets Expectations

Good Intent Elementary sixth grade students earned a mean scale score of 756;

Lake Tract Elementary sixth grade students earned a mean scale score of 754; Oak Valley

Elementary sixth grade students earned a mean scale score of 738; Shady Lane Elementary sixth grade students earned a mean scale score of 737. The total mean score for all sixth grade students across Deptford’s four elementary schools for English Language Arts was 746 or below passing in what PARCC calls “Level 3 - Approaching Expectations.” Middle school students performed significantly better on this same test. Seventh grade students at Monongahela Middle School earned a mean scale score of 763 while eighth grade students earned a mean scale score of 768.

These scores represent significant improvements which are several standard deviations higher than the sixth grade elementary scores and these scores range well into the “Level 4 – Meets

Expectations” data range. An educational study supports this data, saying sixth graders DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 9 performed “better [when located in] non-elementary settings” (Wihry, 1992). In relationship to all the factors outlined above, one can reasonably expect, over time, that moving sixth grade to

Monongahela Middle School would significantly influence student performance in a positive way and be measurable and reflected in the English Language Arts state test scores of sixth grade students.

Operationally, moving sixth grade to the middle school will increase district enrollment and will result in increased state aid dollars to Deptford Township Schools. With our current middle school configuration of grades seven and eight only, many of our students complete sixth grade and then leave the district to attend other schools as part of the Interdistrict Public School

Choice Program. Our current configuration of elementary school grades supports an out-of- district transition and makes it easy for our students to leave our district, and school state aid funding dollars follow them. State aid allocation in New Jersey is defined under the School

Funding Reform Act (SFRA) of 2008. Under SFRA, funding is largely linked to student enrollment. Addressing the number of outgoing students will benefit the entire school district with increased funding.

Consider, too, the social and emotional learning needs of students. Monongahela Middle

School has a larger support network to assist students and their emotional development. Where each elementary school has only one guidance counselor, Monongahela Middle School has two full-time and one part-time guidance counselors, one full-time and one part-time Student

Assistance Coordinator (SAC) counselors, one school psychologist, and one school social worker. At the middle school, the district’s guidance and Child Study Team (CST) program is more comprehensively staffed to address students’ social and emotional needs.

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Benefits of Relocating Sixth Grade

Deptford Township Schools’ Spartan Improvement Plan will build an expansion on

Monongahela Middle School to relocate and house sixth grade students. Building a new sixth grade wing and migrating sixth grade students to Monongahela Middle School will have many positive impacts on the district and community. First, this effort would alleviate overcrowding at the elementary schools. Currently, every single classroom is occupied in each of the four elementary buildings. Moving sixth grade out of these buildings would open four to five classrooms in each building. This would create a number of improvements to benefit our students. New teachers could be hired, as needed, to reduce class size in these buildings. This would have a direct positive impact on student achievement. Conversely, special area teachers such as art and music who currently travel among the buildings on a cart would now be able to have their own classroom spaces. This would improve their quality of instruction for the students. Another possibility is moving first grade students from the early childhood centers to the elementary schools and then offering full-day Pre-Kindergarten.

As outlined above, moving sixth grade students to Monongahela Middle School will improve their social and emotional learning. The middle school houses a number of Child Study

Team members and school counselors. These additional services available to students in this age group will greatly benefit their development.

Students will now enjoy the ability to select from a number of elective courses. These help build student interest and guide them toward a particular area of study. In the case of our high school academy programs, student can begin to think about a specialization in high school and consider those courses in middle school to support their move. Additionally, now all students will also be able to take part in extra-curricular activities such as clubs and sports. Building the DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 11 strength of these programs benefits students in an exponential way. Sixth graders could now become eligible for the National Junior Honor Society, further encouraging their academic endeavors. With seemingly more students participating in each of the school’s sports teams, the quality of the teams will increase because of the larger pool of participants. All these considerations benefit the students.

With new construction comes state-of-the-art facilities. Students and staff members will enjoy, among other things, new science labs with the latest technologies, housed in improved ways among the other secondary laboratories. This will enable these students to push the barriers of lab research, STEM technology, engineering, and 3D printing, among other efforts.

The current middle school operates on a nine-period bell schedule. Almost all teaching staff members have a department collaboration period either every day or every other day. This is an important time for these teachers of the same grade level and subject to discuss student achievement, teaching strategies, pedagogy, and collaborate on practice. Moving the entire sixth grade teaching staff into this schedule will greatly increase their daily and weekly collaboration time. This move will also increase these teachers’ ability to collaborate on long-term projects such as curriculum development and in their professional learning communities. Building and district-level administrators will also be more well-equipped to meet and work with the sixth grade teachers and manage new initiatives. This collaboration time and proximity will lead to better classroom practice and, ultimately, improved student achievement.

Lastly, a decrease in students leaving the district will result in an increase in student enrollment that would benefit taxpayers (and ultimately, students). Increased student enrollment would lead to increases in state aid. This would allow the district to more strategically allocate funds to improve student programs. DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 12

Conclusion

Moving Deptford Township Schools’ sixth grade students to Monongahela Middle

School will change the district and the community forever. Above all else, it will have a drastic positive impact on student achievement, due to flexible, appropriate scheduling, drastically increased teacher collaboration time, enhanced curricular and extra-curricular offerings, and new, state-of-the-art facilities. This opportunity will also alleviate overcrowding in the district’s four elementary schools, offering further educational opportunity to those students. Tangentially, this effort will lead to increased student enrollment in the district which will result in increased state aid. This plan is an enormous benefit for students and staff and is a responsible effort for the taxpayers and the future of Deptford Township.

DTS Position Paper – 6th Grade Transition 13

References

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). S. S. 1177, 114 Cong., 391 (2015) (enacted). https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-114s1177enr/pdf/BILLS-114s1177enr.pdf

Johnson, B. (2019, January 04). New N.J. law requires middle-school students to learn about managing finances. Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://www.nj.com/politics/2019/01/new-nj-law-requires-middle-school-students-to- learn-about-managing-finances.html

New Jersey Department of Education. (2016). Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/2016/ela/

New Jersey Department of Education - Certification. (2019). Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://www.state.nj.us/cgi-bin/education/license/endorsement.pl?string=Instructional Certificates&maxhits=1000&field=1&type=teach

New Jersey Department of Education - PARCC. (2018). Retrieved August 15, 2019, from https://www.nj.gov/education/schools/achievement/18/parcc/springexcel.htm

Paglin, C., & Fager, J. (1997). Grade Configuration: Who Goes Where? Retrieved August 13, 2019, from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED432033.pdf

Ubben, G., Hughes, L. & Norris, C. (2017). The Principal: Creative Leadership for Excellence in Schools. Boston: Pearson.

U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Deptford township, Gloucester County, New Jersey. (2019, July 1). Retrieved August 16, 2019, from https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/deptfordtownshipgloucestercountynewjerse y/PST045218

Wihry, D. Coladarci T & Meadow, C. (1992). Grade span and eighth grade academic Achievement: Evidence from a predominantly rural state. Journal of Research in Rural Education, 8(2) 58-70.