Cedar Rapids eighth-graders get head start on high school

CEDAR RAPIDS - For three periods each day, Emmanuel Hidalgo-Wohlleben doesn't have to act his age. He gets to be “older.”

“You have more responsibility, but the freedom, it's definitely something I enjoy,” said the McKinley Middle School student.

He is part of the Cedar Rapids Community School District's Expanding Opportunities Program, in which eighth-graders can take math, science and world language courses at Washington, Jefferson and Kennedy high schools.

“We know that some of our middle-school students need to be challenged in a variety of ways, and we consider this to be an investment in our program when we look less at chronological age and look more at aptitude and attitude,” said Deputy Superintendent Gary O'Malley. “We've tried to rethink programs more on student outcomes and less on the traditional methods of grouping kids simply by their age.”

To qualify for the program, students must earn math and reading standardized test scores in the 90th percentile, but middle-school principals also are allowed to extend invitations to students who do not clear that benchmark.

A version of the opportunity was available to select middle-school students in the past, but this year is the first for a more structured framework that extended the option to learners at all the district's comprehensive secondary buildings.

For O'Malley, the decision to expand the program was fueled by a desire for equity across racial and economic lines.

“We're not going to do this program if it continues to be a small select group,” O'Malley recalled telling building principals in the past. “We did not want to perpetuate the myth that some kids are smarter than others.”

The optional program has ballooned from about 25 students to 166 at the start of the 2012-13 school year. Participants are required to take classes in at least two of the three subject areas. Responsibility for getting the students to the high schools falls to the families, but the district transports the eighth-graders back to their middle schools each day, at an annual cost of $44,564.

‘Period of adjustment'

The classes are a mixture of middle- and high-school students, all expected to adhere to the same rules and learn the same material, though the eighth-graders cannot participate in high school activities. The transition hasn't been seamless.

“I would say there's definitely a period of adjustment for the eighth-graders,” said Kiley Boesenberg, who teaches advanced first-year algebra at Washington High. “That's definitely a different environment for them, but also the expectation of work completion and attendance and time spent on learning material in class is definitely more vigorous.”

District data from the first term show that 163 of the 166 participating students completed their high school courses, through which they earn high-school credits. Of the 156 in world language courses, 96 percent earned grades of “A” or “B.” That rate was 86 percent for the 148 students in math courses and 82 percent for the 147 biology students.

“We have definitely worked really hard with a select group of kids, but with the help of their parents and them still deciding that they'd like to be in the program, we have gotten them to a point where … they are capable of not only doing the actual math but keeping up with the rigor of a high-school class,” said Boesenberg, who had eighth-graders in her classes before this year.

The success isn't limited to students in the program.

“The eighth-graders push the ninth-graders to work really hard,” said Traci Mooney, a Spanish teacher at Washington whose classes include eighth-graders through juniors within the same section. “At first I thought (the eighth-graders) might need some extra help, but they don't.”

The program has fostered bonding between participants and friendships among the eighth-graders and their ninth-grade peers, but new ties can come at the expense of the old.

“I miss a lot of time hanging out with my (full-time McKinley) friends in class,” said Alanna Arrington, a McKinley eighth-grader who takes Spanish, geometry and pre-Advanced Placement biology at Washington. “We're kind of divided between both (grades).”

Expanding further

Shannon Bucknell, principal at Franklin Middle School, said the program also has had benefits for learners who aren't even participants.

“We have a new group of students who are becoming leaders in the classroom and setting the bar,” he said of Franklin's full-time eighth-graders.

Administrators maintain that the high schools offer enough courses to make sure students won't run out of challenging classes as they move through high school.

Hidalgo-Wohlleben isn't worried about exhausting the school's curriculum.

“I'll just fill (my schedule) with more advanced classes,” said the student, who is taking Spanish, pre-AP biology and advanced first-year algebra at Washington.

Principal Ralph Plagman said program participants will still be expected to earn the 300 credits necessary to earn a diploma during their four full-time years in the building.

“The point is not early graduation,” he said. “The point is a more rigorous education.”