27 Feb 2007
A return to neighborhood school concept, reduction in overcrowding among benefits
DALLAS—Six more Dallas Independent School District middle schools will add sixth grade at the start of the school year in August 2007 as part of the district's Sixth Grade Transition Plan.
Robert T. Hill, Fred Florence, W. H. Gaston, W. E. Greiner, John B. Hood and Thomas J. Rusk will join other schools in the district where changes have occurred due to the opening in the fall of Lang and Garcia middle school. About 88 percent of the middle schools in the district will be 6-8 sites in 2007-08, including the new campuses.
"Under the district's sixth-grade transition plan, most sixth-graders are to attend middle schools in their neighborhoods. The plan seeks to relieve overcrowding and provide sixth-graders with more academic and extracurricular options," said Cecilia Oakeley, associate superintendent—Evaluation and Accountability. At present, 23 middle schools are set up to serve sixth- through eighth-grade students. Letters will go out in March to students affected by feeder, zone or transition changes.
The six-eight middle school concept fosters, among other things, the development of relationships between students and adults and students and peers; the transition from a "sheltered" middle school environment to a more departmentalized academic program in seventh and eighth grade, and the development of lifelong learning habits.