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Warwick10,your position to keep things the way they are is just not sustainable.. Don't buy all the negatives about middle school and I'd suggest you do a bit more research. Just about every other city/town in the state has middle schools and just about every district that does better than us in NECAP scores - and there are many - are middle school models. Massachusetts, consistently among the top public school systems in the country as measured by the NAEP scores, is predominantly middle school. Middle schools can, and do, work. The data on K-8 is not conclusive because most current K-8 schools have small student populations (because most of them are private/parochial schools) so they don't make a good statistical sample. Plus, there's research that shows that when those 8th graders get to high school their performance drops in part because of the change to a larger high school. Warwick has been weighting special Ed students since 1978 and, originally, junior high special Ed kids counted as two so 25 years ago when we had 2 or 3 thousand more kids in the system those buildings were not overcrowded then. Overcrowding the buildings is just not a concern for me, and I have one in junior high and another one coming up. And class size is governed by the teacher contract so admin can't arbitrarily change that. The best use for the thee buildings is as middle schools because that model leaves you flexibility to deal with all day K and consolidation.

From: Raucous crowd out to save Gorton Jr. High

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