What does research say about K-8 schools?
Large peer-reviewed studies in New York City, Florida, and British Columbia find that students who move to a separate middle school lose ground in reading and math, and the losses last for years. The research also finds that the K-8s that work best are established, stable ones, like Laurelhurst or Sunnyside.
Four key studies
Harvard University
Florida’s public school students in grades 3–10, across nine school years
Guido Schwerdt and Martin West, “The Impact of Alternative Grade Configurations on Student Outcomes through Middle and High School,” Journal of Public Economics, 2013
- Students who moved to a middle school in 6th grade dropped in math and reading compared with similar students who stayed in a K-8. Moving in 7th grade hurt even more.
- The losses lasted through 10th grade, with little recovery. The later move into high school caused only a small dip that students recovered from.
- Absences rose after the move to middle school, and kept rising for the next two years.
- Lower-achieving, Black, and Hispanic students lost the most in math. Students who were already behind lost more than twice as much as their classmates (127% more), and losses were larger in cities.
- Florida’s middle schools spent less per student and had bigger grade cohorts, but neither explained the losses. The authors suggest adolescents simply do better with younger students around.
Read the paper (Harvard DASH) ↗
Columbia Business School
New York City students who moved to middle school vs. those who stayed K-8
Jonah Rockoff and Benjamin Lockwood, “Stuck in the Middle: Impacts of Grade Configuration in Public Schools,” Journal of Public Economics, 2010
- Moving to a middle school in 6th or 7th grade caused a significant drop in both math and English in the year of the move.
- The losses lasted through 8th grade, the last year the study followed.
- Attendance fell sharply after the move.
- Students who started out lower-achieving lost the most.
- Spending, class sizes, and course offerings were similar in middle schools and K-8s, and larger grade cohorts explained only about a quarter of the drop. The authors found little evidence that separate middle schools are cost-effective.
Read the abstract ↗
University of Toronto
British Columbia students in middle schools and junior highs vs. K-8s
Elizabeth Dhuey, “Middle School or Junior High? How Grade-Level Configurations Affect Academic Achievement,” Canadian Journal of Economics, 2013
- Students who attended a middle school or junior high made smaller gains in math and reading between 4th and 7th grade than students in K-8 schools.
- The math losses held up under a second, stricter statistical test designed to rule out differences between the families who choose each kind of school.
- The effects reached into high school, with large negative effects on 10th and 12th grade English exams.
Read the paper ↗
New York University
New York City 8th graders, by the path of schools they attended
Amy Ellen Schwartz, Leanna Stiefel, Ross Rubenstein, and Jeffrey Zabel, “The Path Not Taken: How Does School Organization Affect 8th Grade Achievement?” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 2011
- By 8th grade, students who stayed in one K-8 school outperformed students who moved to a middle school in 6th grade.
- The path PPS proposes for Laurelhurst, K-5 and then a 6–8 middle school, was the lowest-performing of the paths compared.
- The likely reasons: fewer school changes, smaller groups of students in each grade, and classmates who stay together.
Read the summary (NYU) ↗
PPS plans to move students at seven K-8s into middle schools in 6th grade. These studies find this transition does lasting harm, especially to the students who are already struggling.
More research pointing the same way
- Across U.S. districts (Bedard and Do, 2005): districts that switched to middle schools saw on-time high school graduation fall by about 1 to 3 percentage points.
- Virginia (Malone, Cornell, and Shukla, 2017; 39,036 students): 7th and 8th graders in middle schools reported weaker discipline, lower engagement, and more bullying than those in K-8s.
What the research doesn’t say
- Not every K-8 works. In Philadelphia (Byrnes and Ruby, 2007), established K-8s did significantly better than middle schools, but newly converted K-8s did not. Researchers suggest a new K-8 needs four or five years to mature. Laurelhurst has been a K-8 for 17 years, and Sunnyside Environmental School for 22.
- Some studies find little difference. Weiss and Kipnes (2006) found few differences between 8th graders in K-8 schools and middle schools once students’ backgrounds were taken into account. What happens inside a school matters, not only its grade span.
- PPS’s own K-8 conversions in 2006–2010 were seen as rushed and under-resourced, but not all of them failed. Laurelhurst became a K-8 in that wave, in 2009, and it worked. That is a reason to keep K-8s that are working, not to undo them.
- Most of this research comes from large urban districts and measures average effects across many schools.
Why this fits Laurelhurst
- Laurelhurst is the kind of K-8 the research says works: established for 17 years, stable, and chosen by 85% of the PPS families in its neighborhood. See the neighborhood numbers →
- Laurelhurst’s middle graders don’t show the attendance drop seen in PPS middle schools: 80.8% of K–5 students and 80.2% of 6th–8th graders are regular attenders. See attendance →
- Its 6th–8th graders have the highest reading scores of any PPS neighborhood school serving those grades. See test scores →
- One school’s numbers can’t prove the research applies here, but they match the pattern it describes.
Sources
- Schwerdt, G., and M. West (2013). The impact of alternative grade configurations on student outcomes through middle and high school. Journal of Public Economics (Harvard DASH).
- Rockoff, J., and B. Lockwood (2010). Stuck in the middle: Impacts of grade configuration in public schools. Journal of Public Economics 94(11–12): 1051–1061.
- Dhuey, E. (2013). Middle school or junior high? How grade-level configurations affect academic achievement. Canadian Journal of Economics 46(2): 469–496.
- Schwartz, A. E., L. Stiefel, R. Rubenstein, and J. Zabel (2011). The path not taken: How does school organization affect 8th grade achievement? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 33(3): 293–317.
- Bedard, K., and C. Do (2005). Are middle schools more effective? Journal of Human Resources.
- Malone, M., D. Cornell, and K. Shukla (2017). Association of grade configuration with school climate for 7th and 8th grade students. School Psychology Quarterly.
- Byrnes, V., and A. Ruby (2007). Comparing achievement between K–8 and middle schools. American Journal of Education.
- Weiss, C., and L. Kipnes (2006). Reexamining middle school effects: A comparison of middle grades students in middle schools and K–8 schools. American Journal of Education 112(2): 239–272.
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