H&C Ch. 3 How Schools Change Reforms

As I was reading through this chapter, I kept thinking about all the changes and the grouping of schools since I was in school. I graduated from high school in 1997 so it hasn't even been all that long since I was in school. This is how schools were set up for me. K-5 was elementary school and then for 6th grade we were bussed to a school in which they called a 6th grade center. The same was for a 7th grade center. Then we went back to our neighborhood schools for 8th and 9th grade that was considered junior high school. Then was high school, which was only grades 10-12. What I thought was so normal then, now seems so strange. I have been teaching for 3 years now and the way the schools are set up now seems to be what is normal. As I look back, I don't really see the reasons as to why thirngs were the way they were. FCAT didn't yet exist and there wasn't so much pressure on students to pass a standardized test. We had to take the High School Competency Test but I can't remember so much emphasis being placed on it.

I think that so many changes has been made over the last 8 years that it might be difficult to determine if any changes or reforms have made a difference on student success. I believe that new ideas take time to implement and to discover the results of those changes.