Student numbers dip at Asheville Middle School

ASHEVILLE – asheville city schools officials are trying to figure out why students are leaving the school district after elementary school.

According to enrollment data, some of the school system’s elementary students are leaving after fifth-grade and opting to go to charter, private or home school rather than continuing on to Asheville Middle. However, the district’s high school enrollment numbers remain stable.
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During the 2005-06 school year, there were 280 fifth-graders in asheville city schools. At least 24 of those students did not continue on to Asheville Middle the following school year. After the 2006-07 school year, at least 30 students left the school system between fifth and sixth-grade.

“This is part of a bigger picture,” said Superintendent Allen Johnson. “We have focused on the high school with the innovation task force. We spent a lot of time working with the elementary schools. We’ve got a new program at Randolph Learning Center. Now, it’s time to look at how can we take what I believe is a good middle school and make it even better.”

It’s not just Asheville Middle that is seeing lower numbers. At least nine Western North Carolina school districts, including Asheville City and buncombe county, have seen fewer children enter their schools this school year. In February, an outside accreditation team recommended that the school system manage its declining enrollment.
parental concerns

“My concern for my children was first that I really wanted them to learn how to be good students,” said stephanie robinson, who took her daughters out of the city school system to attend Hanger Hall for middle school. “Here the classes are smaller. It’s single-sex education. Everyone dresses the same and the focus is more on academics.”

The private all-girls middle school may be one of the places Asheville City fifth-graders are going instead of Asheville Middle. The school’s founder, Howard Hanger, opened Hanger Hall in 1999 because he wanted something different for his daughters.

The school has only 64 students compared to Asheville Middle’s 660. It has an all-female faculty and all the students wear uniforms. It also has a strong focus on academics, experiential learning and community service with the goal of having students leave with a strong sense of identity.

“The ones who come to us, they specifically want their daughter in a situation where they can develop a sense of identity, where they can find themselves. And small classes, single-gender is huge at letting them do that,” Hanger said.

Hanger Hall’s small classes, single-sex education and uniforms helped ease Robinson’s fears about her daughters entering adolescence and puberty and made the $8,000-a-year tuition worth it, she said.
Time of transition

Wanting a more controlled environment with smaller classes and more individualized attention during those important and often tumultuous adolescent years is one reason officials believe students aren’t coming to the middle school. Fewer students often means less peer pressure, bullying and behavioral problems, some parents said.

“I’ve heard all sorts of things,” said Precious Folston, a school board member who has a daughter at Asheville Middle. “As a whole, it is a school of transition. The kids are going through peer pressure. They are not in elementary, yet they are not in high school. They are right in the middle of figuring out who they are and what they like.”

Officials also believe that the community has a negative perception of the middle school that stems from trouble it experienced during its first few years.

Administration turnover, a student walkout, overcrowding and teacher and parent complaints after the school opened in 1992 gave the community a negative impression of the school that lasts into today, officials said.

“When we started we had that troubled Asheville Middle logo, and I don’t think in some people’s minds we ever shed that, and that’s just not the case,” said Judy Garrison, who has been teaching at the school since it opened.
Improving environment

School officials said that the school is completely different now than when it first opened. Strong programs, including athletics, fine arts, foreign language, extracurricular clubs and the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, ensure that there is something for every student. AVID helps motivate and prepare students who would be first-generation college graduates.

Individual teams, hallways and counselors for each grade also make sure that students don’t get lost in the shuffle. Instead of being one big school, Asheville Middle is more like three mini-schools, officials said.

Teachers and staff also spend a lot of time making sure the transition from elementary to middle school is a smooth one. Visits are made to the elementary school to talk to parents and students about what Asheville Middle is like. Fifth-graders can also shadow a sixth-grader at the school for a portion of the day.

“I have just exemplary teachers,” said Pam Cocke, principal of Asheville Middle. “I have wonderful programs to address the needs of all students. Our vision is one of equity and excellence, and we try to fulfill that vision every day.”

While Cocke is confident about her school, she admits that it needs to do better marketing. In the fall, officials will organize a study group of parents, students, teachers, board members and others involved with the middle school.

Garrison said she hopes to make a video so people can see all of the things the middle school is doing. Cocke also said that attention needs to be paid to the school’s facility, especially its athletic fields.

The best way to dispel fears and find out what’s really going on at Asheville Middle is to arrange a visit and a tour of the school, officials said.

“I think they are forgetting that it’s still a community,” said Namurah Blakely, who had two sons attend Asheville Middle. “Really, the kids in the community should be going to the school around them. I think we just need to get out into the community and let them know Asheville Middle School is not a scary place.”

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Sunday, July 20, 2008 |

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