Middle Schools Reconsidered Challenging misconceptions or myths about middle school systems

1. Middle Schools Reconsidered Challenging misconceptions or myths about middle school systems NMSF Conference October 2012 NIGEL WYATT Executive Officer

2. Misconceptions or myths about middle school systems Plans to reorganise middle school systems have been supported by a number educational arguments that often obscure the real motivations of those proposing change. The purpose of this presentation is to challenge some of the myths about middle school systems that have become common place in some of the debates surrounding consultations over reorganisation. Through frequent repetition these myths have become common currency. We will examine current evidence that challenges these assumptions.

3. Some of the assertions 1) That middle schools and three tier systems cannot be successful 2) That middle school pupils do not achieve well at the end of KS2 3) That two points of transfer in three tier systems mean lower outcomes for pupils 4) That reorganisation will lead to higher standards • Parents find middle schools confusing Examining these issues provides an opportunity to consider the merits and advantages that middle school systems have to offer

4. 1) That middle schools and three tier systems cannot be successful There has been an attempt to portray middle school systems as somehow inherently deficient in such a way that they cannot deliver the best outcomes for their pupils. This is completely unfounded. i) Evidence from successful three their systems There are a number of very successful and high performing three tier pyramids in the country that are popular with parents and delivering good outcomes for their pupils.

5. Three Examples of Successful Pyramids

6. Indeed within Suffolk, County Upper School in Bury St Edmunds was among the top five maintained secondary schools in the 2011 secondary results tables, and was judged by Ofsted to be outstanding when last inspected. There is nothing inherent in the structure of three tier systems that means that they cannot be successful.

7. ii) Outcomes of Ofsted Inspections Ofsted provides the most rigorous system for judging the effectiveness and quality of education provided in our schools and has consistently judged a proportion of middle schools to be good and outstanding. Monitoring of the outcomes of inspections shows that the proportion of middle schools being judged to be good and outstanding is in line with, or slightly above, the proportion achieving these categories for all schools. So, to take a typical year, in the academic year 2009 to 2010 the proportion of middle schools judged to be good and outstanding by Ofsted was slightly above that for all schools inspected in that year.

8. Middle school data – September 2009 to July 2010 Ofsted teams regularly judge that middle schools, together with first and upper schools, provide good and outstanding quality of education for their pupils.

9. 2) That middle school pupil do not achieve well at the end of KS2. i) The results of Key Stage 2 assessments It is frequently asserted that middle schools do not perform as well as two tier schools at the end of KS2 assessments. The results from three middle school areas in the table below show that in each case the middle schools achieve at or above the level of the results for all schools within their local authority area. KS2 2011 - Percentage of pupils achieve Level 4 and above in English and Maths *includes the results of the remaining middle schools in Bury St Edmunds, Stowmarket and Stowupland areas. The figures come from three Local Authority areas with a substantial minority of middle schools where such comparisons would be meaningful.

10. ii) Ofsted inspectors do not judge the effectiveness of middle schools on the basis of the results in Year 6 alone. Judging the effectiveness of a middle school by the results in Year 6, half way through its planned course of education, is like trying to judge the quality of a cake when it has been mixed – but has not yet been cooked. Imagine carefully weighing and mixing all the ingredients for a chocolate cake, and taking this mixture to the village show to be judged in the cake making competition. A fair judgement of the finished cake is of course impossible.

11. Ofsted have accepted that middle schools should be judged on the progress of pupils between the age of entry and the end of the final year – and that while Key Stage 2 data will be considered, it should not be given undue prominence – it cannot show the full story of the progress achieved over the full four years in the school.

12. Subsidiary guidancE 2012 - Middle schools 35. Key Stage 1 assessment results may not provide an accurate picture of pupils’ attainment on entry to a middle school because this will depend on the progress they have made in the intervening years. It is important, therefore, that inspectors carefully examine any data provided by the middle school about the attainment of its pupils on entry. The rigour and accuracy of the school’s assessment procedures and the efforts made to moderate them will be an important contributory factor to inspectors’ views about attainment on entry. 36. Inspectors will need to adopt a similar approach to considering pupils’ attainment when they leave the middle school. This is important as it will help to determine whether attainment is sufficiently high and may contribute to the evidence on how much progress pupils have made. Again, Key Stage 2 test results may not reflect pupils’ attainment when they leave the middle school.

13. This is made clear in the new Inspection Framework that came into effect in September 2012: Inspection Framework – September 2012 • Inspectors should also note the following: - In school settings where attainment is not benchmarked nationally, for example in the final year group of a middle school, inspectors should draw on all the available evidence to decide whether attainment is above average, broadly average or low

14. iii) Progress by end of Year 8 In fact the evidence suggests that pupils in middle schools make greater progress during KS3 than pupils in any other type of schooling, even though it includes the transition from middle to upper school in Year 9. Recently compiled data on the achievement of about 6,000 pupils leaving Year 8 in middle school in 2011 shows that these pupils are already achieving at a level above that achieved nationally at the end of Year 9 in other schools - shown in the last of the nationally set KS3 SATs in 2007.

15. Comparison of Year 8 results from 2011 with the last national SATS for Year 9 Source for National data: http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000776/sfr06-2008.pdf National Ave Point Score =APS for all maintained schools Year 9 KS3 in 2007 Many middle schools were involved in the pilot of the two year Key Stage 3 and continue to teach the Key Stage 3 programme over the final two years of middle school, taking advantage of the opportunity to build on Key Stage 2 without the regressive effect of transfer at age eleven.

16. These results from Year 8 in 2011 confirm the continuing relevance of a study by Professor David Jesson, of York University, in 1999 which compared the achievements of pupils who transfer between schools at different ages. It showed that pupils from middle schools consistently made better average progress between Key Stage 2 and 3 at the end of Year 9, as the following table shows: Table showing average progress from KS2 to KS3 by type of school in levels of progress Source : Performance and Progress of pupils in Secondary Schools of Differing Types.Professor David Jesson, University of York, 1999

17. 3) That two points of transfer in three tier systems mean lower outcomes for pupils • Evidence of dip in progress when transfer is at age 11 The suggestion that there is evidence of lowered achievement at the end of Key Stage 2 would be more telling if it was not for the considerable evidence of regression in development on transfer from primary to secondary school at age 11. This reversal of progress in two tier systems is well documented and it has been termed a national scandal by Ofsted and by successive education secretaries. “Continuity in the curriculum and progression in learning as pupils move from primary to secondary schools are long standing weaknesses of the education system.” – (Changing Schools, HMI 2002 p.2)

18. Work by Professor Maurice Galton of Cambridge University suggests that: … around half the pupils in English and Science (49% and 49% respectively) made no gain in their level score one year after moving from primary to secondary school. For mathematics, however, the corresponding figure was 33%. … the relatively high proportion of the sample failing to make progress suggest that transfer to secondary school is still associated with subsequent underperformance in the case of certain pupils. (Source: Transfer and Transitions in the Middle Years of Schooling (7-14): Continuities and Discontinuities in Learning, Maurice Galton, John Gray and Jean Ruddock, 2003, p. 58)

19. ii) Evidence that transfers in three tier systems are better managed There has been an assumption that transfers at age 9 and 13 must lead to similar regression in progress. There is less research on the effects of transfer in three tier systems. However as the paper on transfer written by Maurice Galton for Suffolk’s own reorganisation research points out: “…the evidence supports the view that delaying the move from the elementary school helps to reduce dips in transfer. There is less of a case for arguing that the dips are cumulative so that pupils attending a three-tier system of schooling are permanently disadvantaged” (Suffolk County Council, School Organisation Review, 2006 p. 45).

20. What evidence there is, then, points to the fact that in middle schools systems the transfer is better managed and is more in line with what we know about child development. As the Cambridge Primary Review research points out, middle school systems - ... avoided the developmental double whammy of school transfer coinciding with the onset of puberty. (Community Soundings: the Primary Review regional witness sessions, Cambridge Primary Review, 200, Page 38)

21. iii) Why two points of transfer might offer advantages The advantage of a system with two points of transfer is that it results in schools which are better able to focus on the needs of children at different stages of their education. The change of school at age 11 came about by historical accident, and has resulted in schools catering for a wide span of ages. The introduction of middle school systems was, in part, an attempt to introduce a form of schooling better matched to the developmental needs of children. One where schools catered for about four age groups, and so were not over large and one where schools could be developed that were better focused on the needs of pupils at each stage of their education.

22. 4) That reorganisation will lead to higher standards i) Systems in place to support failing schools All local authorities have systems in place to support weak or failing schools. So in Essex, say, the authority will have a series of steps and interventions in place to help turn a failing school round. Where there are weak or failing schools in three tier systems this is the approach that should be adopted. It makes little or no sense to close good and successful schools under the guise of seeking to raise standards.

23. ii) Looking closely at the argument that reorganisation raises standards Let us consider the logical form of the argument underpinning the assumption that reorganisation is required in order to raise standards in three tier areas. We can represent it in the familiar form of the following syllogism: Premise one: This middle school is underperforming Premise two: Reorganisation is required to raise standards Conclusion: This middle school should be reorganised to raise standards. Substituting the word ‘middle’ with ‘primary’, ‘secondary’ or any other type of school reveals how inconsistently this argument is being applied. If premise two is true then it should be applied consistently to other forms of schooling -but it is not. Middle schools are being singled out here, and treated inconsistently.

24. iii) Evidence that reorganisation raises standards • There is no reliable evidence that reorganisation raises standards from experience around the country. In some areas already rising standards of achievement have continued. • In others reorganisation has led to difficulties. For example in Wiltshire reorganisation led to two first schools going into special measures shortly after attaining primary school status. In Oxford the rising results in a middle school coming out of special measures during the period of reorganisation masked falling results elsewhere, while at Peers School in Oxford the reorganisation was a major factor in its later difficulties: When Oxford's middle-school system was abandoned in 2003, Peers faced the upheaval of reverting to an 11-18 school. It was one whammy too many. (continued on next slide)

25. Chris Dark, who succeeded Clarke in 1998, recalls how nearly 700 children joined the school in three days, of whom nearly a third had acute levels of need. The school's approach had been based on giving autonomy and responsibility to an older age group, and it wasn't prepared for the challenge of dealing with less mature pupils. In his moving and honest contribution to Roberts's book, Dark says: "For me, at that time, the demands outstripped the capability and I have not felt at ease about it since." (And so farewell, to a school that was once the future,Guardian, 24th June 2008 and Peers School: A Comprehensive With a Difference, 1968-2008, by Martin Roberts) What needs to be considered carefully is the harm done to three tier systems through the blight cast by the threat of reorganisation proposals, often over long periods of time, preventing development and making it difficult to recruit and retain high quality staff.

26. 5) Parents find middle schools confusing It has sometimes been claimed that middle school systems are confusing for parents and that when parents move to a middle school area they will not understand them. i) The education system is becoming more, not less, diverse The assumption that underpins these statements is that middle schools are an aberration in an otherwise uniform education system in England. In a system in which there are more middle schools than grammar schools, to pick just one obvious comparison, this assumption is clearly unfounded. The truth is that we are in a period when government policy is leading to the development of an increasingly diverse education system with the development of all through schools, academy chains and free schools. The ability of a Local Authority’s to plan for school places is breaking down in the face of changes which are beyond their control.

27. ii) Parents clearly articulate the advantages of their three tier education The evidence gathered by the Cambridge Primary Review demonstrated that parents have a very clear understanding of the advantages of the middle schools systems: “Interestingly, parents in a number of other soundings commended a return to the middle school system to reduce the trauma of primary–secondary transfer and segregate younger children from the influence of teenagers. Contemporary anxieties are in this case prompting a desire to reinstate a pattern of schooling with which an earlier generation had decided to dispense. The middle schools may have disappeared but the anxieties have not, and for this reason we suggest that the issue is of much more than local interest.” Cambridge Primary Review - Community Soundings, 2007

28. These views, expressed so clearly by parents, inform some of the important recommendations of the final report: No 94. Like the class teacher system and the structure of the school year, the ages and stages of primary education have historical provenance rather than, necessarily, contemporary currency. The old infant/junior structure persists largely unchallenged, but the more recent experiment in 8–12 and 9–13 middle schools seems already to be in terminal decline. However, we heard strong arguments in favour of the latter arrangement from teachers, and from parents who were worried about their children growing up too soon. (Cambridge Primary Review, Page 501) No 107. Local authorities responsible for England’s remaining first and middle schools should not lightly dismiss the case for their retention based on the developmental benefits for their pupils. (Cambridge Primary Review, Page 503)

29. The real story behind the rise and fall of middle schools The rise and fall of middle schools nationally has little to do with educational arguments about the merits of the system. The real story, rather, is revealed in this graph showing the number of middle schools in the country since 1970. The curve matches the rise and fall in the size of the school population over this period demonstrated in the graph below. Number of middle schools by type since 1969

30. Full time equivalent pupils by type of school 1970 to 2010 (Source: DfE statistical release NATIONAL PUPIL PROJECTIONS: OSR 15/2010)

31. The rapid expansion and then slow decline in the number of middle schools has been driven by economic forces. • These forces have not been affecting middle schools alone. There has been a corresponding decline in the number of primary schools, from 18,500 in 1996 to 16,800 in 2011. (1700 primary schools have closed over this period, a fall of 9%). • After a period of declining pupil numbers, however, we are now at the start of a rapid expansion in the school population, reminiscent of the early 1970s which gave birth to middle schools. Between the school year 2010/11 and 2014 primary pupil numbers will grow by 400,000 or 12%. • In the 1970s middle schools were introduced in part to cater for the rapid rise in pupil numbers and increase in the school leaving age, together with the introduction of comprehensive education. They have declined as the number of pupils has declined, as local authorities were pressed to remove surplus places from their systems. • In each local authority area the prime motivation for reorganisation has been financial, although this has been carefully presented with a clothing of educational arguments.

32. A system fit for the 21st Century There are many examples of successful primary and secondary schools around the country. So what is the distinctive contribution that a successful middle school system can offer? This presentation has made reference to a number of these features in the discussion above – to summarise: i) A system better suited to child development As we have seen above in the discussion of transfer, the middle school system provides for schools which span over 4 or 5 age groups - schools which are better able to focus on the needs of children at their different stages of development. The system avoids the problems associated with transfer at age 11 when children are at their most vulnerable through changes associated with puberty.

33. A system fit for the 21st Century This is not a small point. Upper Schools within three tier systems, for example, are institutions with a more adult climate and ethos, one appropriate to the delivery of the 14 to 19 curriculum. First schools can create the nurturing environment appropriate to the needs of young children, while middle schools are able to offer wider opportunities to pupils from the age of 9.

34. ii) Access to specialist teaching • The Cambridge Primary Review echoes other research in identifying the role of the general class teacher as a weakness in the present primary school system for older pupils. • The model of the generalist teacher in primary schools has been in place since the 19th century when it was introduced to cut costs. This system should now be revised with the introduction of more specialist teachers, some of whom could be shared between schools. It acknowledges that this would be expensive. (Cambridge Primary Review Booklet, page 36)

35. The report argues that this generalist teaching role is no longer sufficient and that the subject knowledge of primary teachers is one of the often cited weaknesses of primary schools in Ofsted reports. The report concludes: Recommendation no 128 …a fully generalist approach may be maintained for the early primary years with a generalist/specialist mixture in upper primary. (Cambridge Primary Review, Page 506) If you have once seen children aged 9 and 10 working with specialist technology teachers in a workshop, or seen them training with specialist PE teachers, you see that they are ready for wider experiences than a single teacher can offer. THE CONTENTS OF THIS PRESENTATION WERE COMPILED BY NIGEL WYATT, OCTOBER 2012