Junior High Schools

The idea for a special school organizational arrangement for young adolescents began in the 1890s, but it was not until 1909, with the establishment of the first junior high schools in Columbus, Ohio, and Berkeley, California, that the idea became a reality. The junior high school movement represented an initial effort to focus school reform on meeting the unique developmental needs of young adolescents, who undergo significant physical, cognitive, social, and emotional changes during the middle grades years. The call for a separate organizational setting for this group of learners was predicated on educators' concerns regarding perceived failures of the elementary school (Grades 1–8) and secondary school (Grades 9–12) levels to effectively address students' needs, particularly in the seventh and eighth grades. As a result, the rationale for establishing junior high schools included providing a more rigorous curriculum at an earlier age (economy of time), reducing the number of dropouts and students retained in the same grade for 2 or more years, hiring teachers who were content specialists, addressing the specific needs of young adolescents, and providing for individual differences to address wide variations in learners' cognitive abilities.

The junior high movement rapidly progressed from these beginnings, drawing support from reports of the Committee on Economy of Time in Education (in 1913) and the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education of the National Education Association (in 1918). Both of these groups had endorsed the junior high school organization and its programmatic components. By 1925, approximately 2,000 junior high schools were in place, a number that expanded to 10,000 by 1947.

At midcentury, school systems across the United States had restructured into the 6-3-3 grade-level organization, and the 7-8-9 junior high school had become the dominant educational structure for this age group. This reorganization was fueled in part by the responses of local school boards and educators calling for reform at the middle-grades level and also as a means of relieving overcrowding that was occurring in the elementary and high schools as a result of rapid enrollment increases. Gradually, educators and scholars reached consensus on the identity and purpose of junior high schools, including an emphasis on student exploration and guidance, socialization, and provisions for individual differences, and they were introduced to the concept of curriculum integration as an instructional strategy for facilitating learners' cognitive connections across the disciplines.

The organizational reforms and programs advocated by the early reformers had been successfully implemented and were becoming entrenched practices in the nation's junior high schools. Typical junior high schools of the 1950s featured departmentalization of instruction, course offerings similar to high school courses, and instructors trained as specialists in their disciplines. Ability grouping (tracking) typically was employed in the core classes of language arts, social studies, mathematics, and science, and guidance counselors and homeroom periods were common features.

In the late 1950s, however, concerns began to grow that some accepted organizational practices were not [Page 536]fully achieving the original vision of the junior high school and that the implementation of some practices was being carried to the extreme. In fact, many changes that originally were promoted as developmentally responsive for young adolescents now were being challenged as inappropriate for this age group. Among the criticisms were that junior high schools were becoming miniature versions of high schools, through excessive use of departmentalization, specialization, and ability grouping, and that many student activities (such as interscholastic athletics competition and formal dances) simply replicated the senior high school offerings. In addition, many junior high school teachers, who were typically prepared for high school teaching, were expressing tremendous dissatisfaction with their assignments to these schools.

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