Rep seeks statewide middle school study

REVERE – State Rep. Robert DeLeo wants state educators to study middle school education across the state at a time when it is undergoing significant transformation in his legislative district.DeLeo’s proposal for an “investigation and study of middle level education” builds on legislation introduced in 2004. He wants educators to report to the Legislature with their findings in December.His recommendation parallels School Superintendent Paul Dakin’s September warning to the School Committee about “real concerns” he has with local middle school education.Dakin plans as early as next Tuesday to give the committee a detailed report about middle school performance in the wake of the most recent round of state comprehensive assessment tests.Results from the three middle schools were mixed with 13 percent of Susan Anthony seventh graders demonstrating advanced English proficiency compared to 10 percent in 2007.Math proficiency scores were nearly reversed with 10 percent of Anthony seventh graders scoring advanced proficient compared to 16 percent in 2007.Rumney and Garfield seventh grade scores were even lower while the range of seventh graders needing improvement ranged from 24 percent for Rumney students to 43 percent for Garfield seventh graders.Dakin told committee members he is “confident that next year we will see improvement in the middle schools.”Part of that improvement will be a byproduct of new technology and other learning aides available to middle school students in the two year-old Anthony and brand-new Rumney Marsh Academy.Rumney students who attended school at Beachmont last year moved into their new American Legion Highway building in August. Garfield Middle School students joined Whelan students in pioneering extended day learning in the public schools this year.The state has given local schools $1.5 million to conduct extended day with most of the money going to pay teachers to help students with homework and tutoring and to offer arts, music and other extracurricular learning.Dakin said Whelan and Rumney’s construction gives Revere parents a chance to enroll their child in the middle school of their choice and ensures that public school students across the city attend middle school with kids from different backgrounds and different races and ethnicities.Even as local and state educators focus on improving middle school education, the city is turning its attention to building new elementary schools, beginning with Paul Revere this winter.Paul Revere students started school in August at Beachmont, taking the seats vacated by the Rumney middle schoolers.