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But many educators believe that ideology was not the problem. "There were some very good middle schools out there, but middle school reform never got fully implemented," says Jacquelynne Eccles, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan and a member of a task force that issued Turning Points, a landmark 1989 report on middle schools funded by the nonprofit Carnegie Corporation. Many districts created big warehouse-like middle schools to address crowding and court-ordered busing but without embracing the pedagogy of the movement. "They ended up looking very much like the junior high schools they were designed to replace," says Eccles.
In urban areas, middle schools often became the antithesis of what reformers had intended. Instead of warm incubators of independence and judgment, they became impersonal, oppressive institutions. "In many urban schools," says Juvonen, "you can't help but notice that there are security guards around. There's someone expecting you to misbehave." That's especially destructive, she says, because young adolescents need their independence to be guided and nurtured, not squashed. "This is when kids start challenging social conventions. They say things like 'Why do I have to make my bed?' It's proof of their cognitive maturity, and it's all good." Sadly, this cognitive development isn't well supported by the middle school curriculum either, according to several studies. "It doesn't help students see the bigger picture or to understand abstract concepts," says Juvonen.
Ironically, K-8 schools are in some ways better positioned to implement the ideas of the middle school movement. Not only do these more intimate schools tend to foster strong teacher-student relationships, but they often put their older students in positions where they can exercise judgment and leadership. At Humboldt Park, for instance, seventh-graders have worked with the third-graders to write letters to U.S. soldiers in Iraq. "The older grades become mentors and tutors to the younger kids, giving them a sense of responsibility that may not happen in middle school," says Milwaukee parent Tina Johnson, who has two kids in a K-8 school. "All these raging hormones are kind of directed in a positive way." Some administrators believe there are fewer behavior problems in K-8s, where your old first-grade teacher--and her current pupils--are watching. Says Humboldt Park student Savannah Bracero, 14: "You have to be much more careful here so the little kids don't pick up bad behavior."
Along with grownup responsibilities, K-8s tend to offer the occasional--and still wanted--hug from a teacher, says Dr. Lottie Smith, a K-8 principal in Milwaukee. "In middle and high school, that's a no-no. We don't touch," says Smith. Middle schools were originally intended to be nurturing places, but it hasn't been easy to pull that off, says Harry Finks, a veteran middle school teacher and principal, who wrote one of the first handbooks for middle school staff: "You want to create a dialogue, so that an eighth-grade boy can come up to you and say, 'Man, my guinea pig died and I'm really upset.' Most schools don't have that atmosphere."