The Children's Aid Society

What Works in Middle Schools

April 17, 2007

Testimony of C. Warren Moses, Chief Executive Officer, The Children's Aid Society
Prepared for the New York City Council's Middle School Task Force Community Forum: What Works in Middle Schools

Good Evening. My name is C. Warren Moses and I am the Chief Executive Officer at The Children's Aid Society. The Children's Aid Society, founded in 1853, provides comprehensive services for 150,000 of New York City's neediest children and families each year. Our goal is to ensure the physical and emotional well-being of children and families, and to provide every child with the support and opportunities needed to become a happy, healthy and successful adult. The services we provide address every aspect of a child's life, from infancy through adolescence, and include education, health, counseling, adoption and foster care, career readiness, arts and recreation, and emergency assistance.

The Children's Aid Society became a partner with the New York City Department of Education (DOE) during the late 1980s around a research-based strategy called Community Schools. This strategy brings together community-based organizations, the school system, and families to make the school a center of community life and a perfect place to serve the whole child.

Without a doubt, the quality of school leadership, teachers, curriculum and pedagogy makes a huge difference in the lives of children. But, from our experience, we know that children face myriad struggles that affect how prepared they are to learn and often preclude them from engaging successfully in school. Community-based organizations, which have significant expertise and marshal considerable resources in the fields of mental and physical health, parental involvement, after-school programs and youth development, can and should partner with schools to locate essential student support services in or close to schools. This is the premise behind our work in schools and the Community School movement – that the school system, community-based organizations and parents can work together in partnership to transform schools.

It is no coincidence that our first community school was a middle school – IS 218 in Washington Heights. Children's Aid now works in eight middle school buildings in New York City.

As we know, early adolescence is characterized by significant growth and change. It is a period of development more rapid than in any other phase of life except for infancy.[i] And we know that because of this growth and change, we cannot just pay attention to middle school children's cognitive domain. We must pay attention to other domains that are critical in contributing to the healthy development of youth: social, emotional, physical and moral. And we must understand the developmental needs, strengths and tasks of youth in this age group and integrate this knowledge into our work with them.

For example, we know that:

• Many middle school students resent authority and appear rebellious toward adults and oblivious of adult criticism, and that they also feel hurt because they believe that adults cannot understand them.
• They long for independence, but are uncertain how to handle responsibility when they get it.
• Many seek attention, sometimes inappropriately, and yet do not want to stand out in a crowd. They often rapidly move from one mood to another and display strong emotions for each mood swing.
• They crave acceptance and approval by peers and judge themselves and estimate their value in comparison to them.

So what does this tell us and how can this help us inform our practice with middle school youth?

• We need to provide them opportunities to engage in non-academic enrichment activities that address all of the developmental domains (both during the day and in out-of-school time hours) such as:
• Dance, music and art
• Youth Councils
• Addressing social justice issues through service-learning projects
• Exploring the topic of forming and maintaining healthy relationships with peers, especially as they try to integrate and understand their changing bodies and minds.

• We need to incorporate positive youth development in all schools serving middle school youth. This does not mean more security guards, or crisis management teams. This does mean including youth in discussions about school climate, providing opportunities for them to take leadership roles, and ensuring that there is at least one adult in the school building (be it a teacher, youth worker, guidance counselor, or social worker) who knows each student well. Small learning communities are one way of doing this: whether they be academies in large middle schools or new small schools. However just because a learning community is small, doesn't necessarily mean that it will effectively serve children. The adults in these communities must change their practice and must have access to the resources that will help them do so.
• The middle school years are often the time when parents think they can "let up" on being involved in their children's education. From our experience, middle school is the time when parents can and need to be most involved. We need to help parents understand the development of their children and provide them with opportunities to support their healthy development.
• We need to employ adequate numbers of high quality social workers and other mental health professionals in schools who understand the particular assets and needs of middle school youth and can work effectively with them, and who can also work with the teaching staff and other school professionals.
• Youth need and want a change of environment and structure after spending the day in the classroom. They need the opportunity to have relationships with adults that do not only involve authority and approval. School/community-based youth-serving organization partnerships that offer programs after-school, and during the weekends and summers can help provide this. And we know this does have a positive effect on academic achievement. For example, middle school youth were significantly more likely to achieve proficiency on standardized test scores if they participated regularly in the Children's Aid after-school programs.[ii]

As Dr. James Comer cites in his preface to The Carnegie Corporation's report "A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours," the importance of reinventing community, both within our schools and within our neighborhoods. "This sense of place, of belonging," says Comer, "is a crucial building block for the healthy development of children and adolescents."[iii]
[i] Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21^st Century. The Carnegie Corporation of New York: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, June 1989.
[ii] 21^st Century Community Learning Centers at Six New York City Middle Schools Year One Findings, prepared by Kira Krenichyn, Helene Clark, Nicole Schaefer-McDaniel and Lymari Benitez of ActKnowledge, September 2005.
[iii] A Matter of Time: Risk and Opportunity in the Nonschool Hours. The Carnegie Corporation of New York, December 1992.