School Improvement # 20 Middle School Vs Junior High

This episode helps people to understand the difference between a Middle School and a Junior High. There is no research that says one is better than the other. A middle school focuses on the whole student and most commonly has an SEL program like Character Counts in a homeroom, and core classes run for longer times than electives and students get lots of elective choices. A junior high is a high school preparation program that focuses on preparing students for high school as its primary goal. Often students are moved up a grade level based on performance and high school credit classes are offered in 8th grade using a schedule which the same as the high school.

The grade configuration of the building plays a role in this decision. In a 7-8 building most people use a junior high concept. When a building is 6-8 you can be either with a transition program for 6th grade as a junior high but as a middle school 6th grade would be the same as 7-8. When a building has 5th grade involved a middle school is almost always the choice based on high school readiness is to soon in 5th grade. However, very effective building who are big enough can and should run a 5-6 middle school and a 7-8 junior high in the same building. In this case the 5-6 teachers use the elementary contract rules and the 7-8 use the high school rules.

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