Class numbers must be reduced

Re “Reformers cite middle-school needs,” Dec. 26

I agree with those who want to reform our efforts in middle schools, but I worry about the direction reforms might take. Will they include the return of electives so students can enjoy learning recreational skills as well as core academic subjects? Will they include dropping class size from 40 or more to below 30, so teachers can develop the supportive relationships our middle schoolers often miss? Will we incorporate ways to keep our students connected to school?

In my role as a middle-school literacy coach, I have run an incentives program for the last four years for students in our struggling-readers program. Sometimes this means informally counseling students with three or more fails. I ask them point blank when they “turned off” to school. Some stopped trying in sixth grade when the organizational and academic demands were too much for them. Most, however, turned off as long ago as third and fourth grade, when they realized they weren’t learning like other students. Middle-school students are painfully self-conscious and socially unsure of themselves. So we cannot forget the need to focus on more engaging classes, instructional strategies and counseling that positively affect disengaged students who long ago discovered the classroom is a place only for failure and shame.

KATHIE MARSHALL

Northridge

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Your article on the challenges facing middle schools failed to note the crux of the solution: the need to make school meaningful for students. There is little evidence that simply scolding or pressuring kids will lead to improved results. Instead, we need to examine the mind-numbing reality that characterizes the school day for too many low-performing students. The curriculum for the least-motivated students has been narrowed to focus on remedial math and reading courses. Middle-school elective course offerings have been reduced, if not eliminated. Sadly, the students who could benefit the most from an engaging experience in art or music are denied this opportunity.

It is time to end the practice that denies access to the arts for the middle-school kids most in need of a reason to want to come to school.

MARK SLAVKIN

Los Angeles

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The comment from Robert Collins, the Los Angeles Unified School District’s chief of secondary instruction, that “reform around the edges” isn’t going to turn around the district’s failing students is perceptive. When teachers bring their 40-plus-size classes into the middle-school library where I teach, it’s not difficult to spot the future dropouts. But the district will continue to implement the reform de jour, be it more testing or a longer school day. And, in the end, progress will be minimal.

The solution? Ask any teacher. Lower class size substantially. Most problems will go away, and more kids will graduate.

ROZA BESSER

Calabasas