A shift in middle school.

The New York Board of Regents recently approved a plan that would revolutionize the way middle schools administer its curriculum with the ultimate goal of improving student performance. According to the regents' plan, a study determined that no one approach to middle school education would solve the state's woes.

Each school would present a plan, which would be drafted by parents, teachers and school officials, and would need to approval of the state Department of Education. "Many middle schools have students who aren't meeting the learning standards," Regents Chancellor Robert Bennett says. "Other schools are excelling. All of them should have some flexibility so long as they use it to help students and ensure they have high achievement."

Schools have three options: to abide by existing regulations and make no change; to strengthen core academic subjects like English, math, science, history and social studies and lessen the time for "exploratory courses"--technology education, health, library, extra foreign languages and the arts.

The final option, only available to a select group of 30 successful and high-scoring schools, would be to reconstitute the entire curriculum. They would do away with time requirements altogether and develop their own curriculum.

Thomas Donahue, president of the New York State Association for Career and Technical Education, believe the damage to career and technical education could have been worse had his organization not lobbied on their behalf. "We are strongly in favor of not changing the requirements."

While the changes might benefit some, Donahue says, many students need practical application to understand more esoteric ideas. "We have seen kids who can't do math in an academic setting, but get them into a career and technical path, give them another approach, and they can do it," Donahue says.

Recommendations

The report lists 43 recommendations to improve education for every student and close achievement gaps. Some suggestions:

* Remove obstacles on state innovations and programs that were working before the law was passed. Federal waivers should be granted and publicized for innovative programs;

* Fully fund the act and provide states financial flexibility to meet the goals. The federal government funds less than 8 percent of the nation's education program. States should ask for a Government Accountability Office review to determine whether it violates the Unfunded Mandate Reform Act;

* Recognize some districts face challenges, such as adequately teaching students with disabilities or English-language learners, recognize there are differences in rural, suburban and urban regions;

* And remove the one-size-fits-all approach and encourage more sophisticated and accurate systems that gauge the growth of individual students.

Steven Scarpa

www.regents.nysed.gov