Possible Solutions

Yesterday I interviewed Ronald Rivera, the principal at Public School 89 in the Bronx, which serves students in kindergarten through eighth grade. Rivera said that when he first arrived at the school six years ago, students were failing miserably and the school was in bad shape. Two years ago, he, and an entire new staff, came up with a plan to focus their attention on middle school grades.

The program, called the "Seven-Plus Program," was designed specifically for sixth- and seventh-graders who were most at-risk for failing -- such as gang members, special education students and students who have trouble reading. By taking high school credits at Truman High School throughout the year and during summer school, students are expected to complete seventh grade by the beginning of spring and eighth grade by the end of the summer of that school year, Rivera said.

The other component of the program is called "Spring Forward," which provides Saturday math and engineering classes for high school credit for overage seventh-graders who are not as at-risk of failing. The idea was to combine classes of two completely different levels -- one farther ahead academically than the other -- so they can work together and help each other. So far, Rivera said, the program has been extremely successful in helping students make it to high school early enough and with enough confidence that they will hopefully not drop out of the system.

See more information about the Seven-Plus program in the Advocates for Children of New York City report, "Stuck in the Middle: The Problem of Overage Middle School Students in New York City."