Re: elementary-->middle school transitions

From: Mike Cole (lchcmike@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Dec 15 2004 - 18:58:17 PST


Well, Peg, you are the only one to get me close. Thanks very much!
mike
PS-- Yes, Beth Miller writes interestingly about afterschool which is
now a mid-cap
industry, hardly the nanocap we started with back in the prior millenium!

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 14:57:10 -0600, Peg Griffin
<Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Hi, Mike and all,
> I dunno the study you mean.
> One thing I do remember though is this: Everything sinks during the year
> after a transition but recovers a year later. (I'm not sure if you can
> conclude that kids, like cats, don't do well with change or that the
> instruments used change too or the pedagogy or the multitude of other
> factors do so the effect is just an epiphenomena.)
> This is a very general story -- not the ethnic/gender/jr-hi vs middle school
> effects you are noting. (Alspaugh found K-8 then hi school with only one
> transition were better off than those who got an extra transition for middle
> or jr hi school -- but his sample was Missouri, I think.)
> There's an OISE review of literature
> www.wrdsb.on.ca/Configuring_Schools_Review.pdf about a broad array of
> systems/factors involved in transitions that confirms your suspicion by
> concluding that "grade span patterns which appear to support improved
> student academic achievement are not necessarily the same as those which
> provide the best social and psychological development of the students."
> (covers US not just Canada info)
>
> Sorry not to have anything more to the point to offer.
> By the way, have you seen Critical Hours: Afterschool Programs and
> Educational Success, May 2003, by Beth M. Miller
> www.nmefdn.org/uimages/documents/Critical_Hours.pdf It's about early
> adolescence.
>
> Peg
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mike Cole" <lchcmike@gmail.com>
> To: "Xmca" <xmca@weber.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, December 12, 2004 7:26 PM
> Subject: elementary-->middle school transitions
>
> > Foolks-- While awaiting the conversation starts from the global
> > dynamic duo, I have a question about a study I cannot retrieve from
> > my aging long term memory.
> >
> > Here is the context.
> >
> > I am interested in the elementary school--middle school transition for
> > kids of different genders and ethnic backgrounds. I recall a study
> > which compared social adjustment and school
> > success for kids who made the transition either early (after 5th) or
> > late (after 6-7th) grade.
> >
> > Does anyone know of this work. What makes it interesting and something
> > to be expanded upon is that the age of transition made a difference
> > in self esteem, social problems, and maybe academic success as well,
> > although I am not sure of the latter. From observations
> > of my local scene where the situation is clearly influenced by gender
> > and ethnicity, I am interested in re-visiting the original study, but
> > where is it??
> >
> > Anyone know?
> >
> > mike
> >
>
>



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