Middle School

The Evolution, Definition, and Purpose of Middle Schools

During the 1800s, the eight-four (elementary school-high school) pattern dominated education. It provided basic skills and vocational training to large numbers of students, and college preparation for some. During the late 1800s psychologists, such as G. Stanley Hall, began to identify the unique biological, social, and cognitive changes underlying early adolescent development, which then were seen as requiring educational curricula and methods different from the existing elementary and secondary forms. For example, in contrast to the high school emphasis on subject mastery, early adolescents were viewed as needing a more exploratory curriculum presented in a more nurturing atmosphere that fostered personal growth.

At the same time, many educators felt that starting secondary education sooner might help stem the very high dropout rate following sixth grade. In response to these emphases, the National Education Association (NEA) recommended restructuring education programs to better prepare students for high school and to better meet the developmental needs of early adolescents. The first junior high schools, established in Columbus, Ohio, in 1909, incorporated grades seven through nine. Although purportedly focused specifically on the needs of middle-level students, the early junior high schools provided little by way of a unique curriculum focused on the needs of developing adolescents. Nor were teachers specifically trained to deal with the issues and concerns of those leaving childhood and entering the adolescent years. A major criticism of junior high schools, then and now, is that they largely represent administrative reorganizations dividing the secondary school into different units but lacking a unique curricular approach tuned to emerging adolescents. Of note, criticisms of current middle schools are very similar.

By the late 1950s, these criticisms—along with increases in school enrollment and pressures on school enrollments because of school desegregation—fostered the development of middle schools. In 1982 and again in 1995 the NMSA published This We Believe, a statement of practice and philosophy of middle school education that attempted to distinguish it from junior high education. In 1989 the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development published Turning Points, urging reform in middle-level education. The confluence of these events resulted in the growth of middle schools presumably based on a philosophy of education distinguishing it from junior high schools (Table 1).

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