A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Key Characteristics Creatively developed electives allow teachers and students to pursue topics that interest them Team-taught classes integrate learning across disciplines Cross-grade and mixed-ability grouping allow a wide range of student choice

Number of Students: 350 Grades Served: 6-8 Racial/Ethnic Breakdown: 49% White 34% African American 10% Hispanic 6% Asian Eligible for Public Assistance: 50% Chapter 1 Program: No Major Sources of Outside Funding: Federal Magnet Assistance

Overview

Three times during the school year, Carla and her mother scour through the course roster to decide which courses Carla will take in the coming trimester. Carla's mom used to plead with her to complete her math homework, but now Carla wants to enroll in a course called Finance in addition to her regular math class. This elective course will teach her how to develop budgets and prepare income tax returns. In other subjects as well, Carla has a wide range of options from which to choose. For credit in social studies, Carla chose Coming to America to learn about patterns of immigration, and News, which focused on current events. The roster is different every trimester, and the variety of electives enables Carla and her classmates to take courses that interest them most while meeting district and state curriculum requirements.

Established in 1974, Alternative Middle Years (AMY) at James Martin School features cross-grade and mixed-ability grouping in almost all classes; a trimester system that enables students to choose their own schedules; innovative teachers who design original courses that address both their own and students' interests; and interdisciplinary, team-taught classes that integrate a variety of subjects around a specific theme.

School Context

Major Program Features

Academic Program

• Courses and vertical grouping. The school year at AMY is divided into 60-day trimesters. Three times per year, students select their courses from a catalog, much as college students do. Teachers design these courses--referred to as "mods"--around topics that interest them and their students. Students choose from approximately 120 courses each trimester; the course roster changes each year. With the exception of some math classes and state- or district-required courses on human sexuality and career exploration, the classes are open to all students in all three grades. The result of this system is a natural mixing of sixth to eighth graders with similar interests. It also affords great flexibility in the courses students may select and in the order they take certain required courses.

  The school encourages parents to accompany their children to "registration"--held in lieu of classes over two to three days--where advisors help students design rosters suited to their specific interests. Students receive several kinds of support for selecting courses. First, homeroom teachers guide students through the course roster during an extended advisory session. Second, the school asks parents to review the course catalog at home with their children and come to registration. Finally, on the days of registration, four to five teachers serve as advisors so that parents and students may discuss course options and come up with alternatives if a course the student wants to take has been filled.

• Interdisciplinary coursework. By design, many AMY courses are interdisciplinary. In Future Communities--a science and social studies course--students learn how to make decisions to create a safe, clean, and economically sound future community by drawing on environmental, ecological, political, and economic principles. In the Team Europe mod, 40 students are divided between two teachers--one language arts, one social studies--in learning groups that can change each day. The course integrates writing, research, geography, earth science, social events, architecture, and zoology. Because so many courses are interdisciplinary, teachers often team teach, allowing one teacher to circulate among students and help when assistance is needed. Teachers may also decide to team teach or teach two-credit courses to secure longer blocks of time for classes.

• Hands-on activities. The curriculum at AMY is anything but text-bound. Instead, school staff place a heavy emphasis on labs, writing, and hands-on activities in all subject areas. For example, in a language arts course entitled Great Debates, students research controversial issues throughout American history (e.g., ratification of the Constitution, slavery, welfare, and policies toward Native Americans). They participate in debates and critique the forensic skills of their peers. A two-credit/two-block social studies/language arts course entitled Other People, Other Languages examines the culture, geography, and languages of different areas throughout the world and involves students in writing letters to government agencies in these countries. Family Tales involves students in writing narratives and making ethnographs of family stories. Students practice interviewing techniques; edit audio tapes for clarity; learn the forms of grammar, spelling, and sentence structure appropriate for storywriting; and study Alex Haley's Roots as an example of a well-constructed family story. Teachers make regular and sophisticated use of small cooperative work groups so that all students can have enough time to discuss and work through problems. Because groups are mixed ages--sometimes with a range of 11- to 15-year-olds in the same class--teachers are careful in how they group during cooperative learning activities. One teacher mentioned that she forms groups of multiple ages and spreads leadership responsibilities to members of all ages to encourage cross-age learning.

Accountability

AMY students select seven courses each trimester. Students must enroll in at least one course in math, science, social studies, and language arts; the other three courses are electives. Although students are free to pursue their own interests, some courses are required for graduation, including geometry, pre-algebra, the Animal Kingdom, geology, geography, Presidents, economics, writing, and literature. In addition, students take at least one course in the following areas each year: arts, French or Spanish, computer science, physical/health education, and career education.

Staff use both report cards and portfolios to monitor and assess the progress of AMY students. Developed by teachers, the eight-page report card lists the skills taught in each course. It includes a summary page, a checklist of specific skill ratings that are individually developed for each class, and a narrative assessment that outlines the types of learning experiences covered and the student's participation in and understanding of them. A portfolio of work completed in the class provides evidence of student proficiency. The school has also developed a filing system so that each student has a "credit card" of courses taken and grades earned that is used by parents and counselors. Each course has a list of skills covered, which is used as a cross-check to ensure that all students are exposed to a common core of learning and methodology.

Support for Implementation

Three years ago, teachers in the AMY program negotiated an experimental contract with the teachers' union and the school district that allows them to teach more courses (six versus the district's five per day) and have fewer preparation periods (five versus eight per week); in exchange AMY teachers have smaller classes (an average of 22 versus the district's 33) than other teachers in the district. Candidates are required to review the experimental contract before accepting a position at AMY. Having fewer planning periods during regular school hours means that AMY staff are frequently involved in meetings and course development during lunch period and outside the paid workday. Teachers' investment of unpaid, personal time represents a major in-kind contribution to the program.

In the long run, however, teachers report that the benefits of teaching in a program like AMY outweigh the costs in time. One teacher described an usually positive atmosphere as one factor that kept her at the school:

Success breeds success. The harder you work to make a go at something and the better it goes, the more willing you are to try it again. Teachers in other schools in the district are likely to work as hard as we do--[on issues such as] class management, discipline, and calling parents. But that is stressful work that leaves you drained....I'm overwhelmed at certain times--like during grading--but we like what we see here, and people are committed to seeing the school grow.

Evidence of Success

The rate of acceptance of AMY graduates to magnet high schools with high admission standards continues to be high: 95 percent of eighth-grade graduates in 1993 and 1994 went on to special-selection high schools, a figure significantly higher than other schools in the district. Despite having a higher standard for promotion than other district middle schools, AMY's retention rate is the same as the district's average of 12 percent.

One teacher at AMY believes that numbers don't necessarily tell the school's full story. "The story is in how kids change in the classroom," she said. "I've seen students go from having no responsibility to really caring. [I've seen] kids who came in the sixth grade and didn't do a stitch of work become kids in the eighth grade who complete their work and realize this work is the key to their own success." At the school's traditional end-of-year graduation ceremony, eighth graders are visibly sad to leave. Teachers believe that the school has created "a sense of community that kids become a part of that speaks to their success. We send them on to high schools with healthy self-views and a willingness to take risks." Said one parent of the school, "AMY helps produce more critical thinkers--not just textbook learning, but students who think for themselves.
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[Introduction]

[Strengthened Curriculum and Community Mentors Prepare Middle Schoolers for Future Learning]