Youngsters entering Sacajawea Middle School in Spokane, Wash., typically come from 6th grade classes of 55 students to join a throng of 7th graders, 450 strong. To help lessen student anxiety over attending their new, large school, principal Herbert Rotchford forged the Alliance of Schools, which brings together principals, teachers, parents, and students from Sacajawea and six elementary feeder schools to take action on problems faced by students in transition.
For three years, the alliance has sought to address what it determined are three major transition issues: fear of the unknown; personalization of the school experience and connection to adults; and alignment of the curriculum between the elementary schools and the middle school. While the group has focused on these issues, it has also furthered its underlying goal to strengthen community input and reduce the isolation felt among different school communities. "We wanted to develop a regional sense of community to develop the students' academic and social experiences," says Rotchford.
Alliance members have sponsored discussion groups and "gone door-to-door" to gain community support, says Rotchford. A recent middle school night at Sacajawea brought out 95 percent of the incoming students and their parents, who—with 8th grade student leaders—cofacilitated team-building activities for the younger students.
To confront the impersonalization often found in large school settings, this year marks the beginning of Sacajawea's Home Base program, in which one teacher meets with 18 students every day for 20 minutes to take part in character and team-building activities. "Teachers are to take absolute care of and be the advocates for their Home Base students. This means getting to know their students' families and helping students when they're failing academically," says Rotchford. In each home base, 7th and 8th graders who entered the middle school from different elementary schools remain together for the two years that they attend Sacajawea. Doing so fosters cohesion across neighborhoods and ages, Rotchford explains.
The alliance has also brought together math and literacy teachers to discuss how to better align curriculum among the elementary schools and with Sacajawea Middle School. Initial meetings revealed that elementary school faculties had found that reading and writing expectations among the various elementary schools were all over the board, confirming the difficulty that middle school teachers were having meeting the needs of students with disparate literacy levels. As a result of this collaboration, the school district plans to hold a summit meeting of 6th and 7th grade teachers to identify and correct differences among the various schools' curriculums—especially in reading and writing—to create parity in literacy levels for incoming students, according to Rotchford.
"The structure of the alliance has given us the ability to have these agreements," says Rotchford. "The satisfying part is the passion and energy that the parents have for the program—that's what's going to contribute to the group's sustainability."
