Adolescent Lives in Transition: How Social Class Influences the Adjustment to Middle School

Chapter 12. Success and Struggle in the Transition to Middle School

249 C H A P T E R 12 Success and Struggle in the Transition to Middle School Successful or unsuccessful adjustment over the transition from elementary to middle school was a result of interconnected dynamics in several arenas: community and family cultures and educational and social values; the environments and resources of sending and receiving schools; the social, cognitive, emotional, and physical needs and resources of students ; and the economic conditions of their lives. The thirty students in this study faced the transition with cautious enthusiasm. As elementary school students they had experienced a secure connection to their schools, homes, and communities. They had reason to be hopeful about continued success but worried that things beyond their control might compromise this success. The challenge of transitioning to a new school, combined with the biological, emotional, and social stresses of early adolescence, produce significant strain in early adolescent lives, even when they face new tasks in the context of responsive schools and supportive families. At this critical developmental juncture, new academic and social roles and responsibilities require complex organizational and interpersonal skills. Most adolescents have the capacity and the drive to have deeper, more meaningful relationships with their peers and with the significant adults in their lives. Academic and social accomplishments or perceived failures are all the more significant to adolescents in the context of increased autonomy and self-determination. How well they do, and how well others treat them over the transition year, become benchmarks in self-evaluation that may boost or bruise their sense of efficacy, self-esteem, and future possibilities. Several factors contributed to successful transition for most research participants in this study. Their communities and families valued and encouraged active involvement, academic achievement, and a positive sense of self. Hillside and Lakeview Elementary Schools and Mountainview Middle School joined families to intentionally prepare students for the transition, and offered classroom and after-school activities that provided opportunities for competition and cooperation, autonomy and intimacy, social and cognitive development, individual development and a sense of community. Some teachers held all their students to high standards and provided sufficient support to help them meet high expectations. A very significant factor was the hopeful adaptive strategies of the students themselves, such as the resilient way some students recovered from disappointing outcomes and their ability to shape their microenvironments to be familiar and friendly. Students in this study sought out and benefited from adult role models at school and in their communities and, importantly, school staff and community adults were willing to be enlisted in this way. Finally, most of the students in this study had good health, enough rest, physical safety, a place and time to study, and technical resources like a calculator, a computer at home, pencils and notebooks —things that not all children have. The work of this project has been to understand as Lewin (1951) suggested, that any event is a result of a “multitude of factors,” (p. 44) and to find ways to integrate realities that, at first glance, seem contradictory . Along with stories of successful adjustment to middle school, there was also evidence of struggle that placed some children at greater risk during the transition year. For example, I found distinct town cultures that were each rich with historic and social resources, but the Hillside-Two Rivers community is unknown to most outsiders. Superficial characterizations of poverty in Hillside-Two Rivers and wealth in Lakeview continue to result in a polarization of these communities , mask the deeper structure of everyday life in each community, and threaten clear analysis of problems and strengths by the citizenry of each town. During this vital period of identity development, students may be especially subject to damaging societal messages. Commercialism exploits the vulnerabilities of early adolescents—there are material, status, and appearance expectations that are confusing, unrealistic, and often damaging to evolving self-concepts. Rigid gender roles are problematic for both girls and boys and cultural stereotypes place low and highincome children at risk. These issues pose serious challenges to children in the formation of positive self-identity. Successful school adjustment is also threatened by structures that limit opportunities to middle school students, such as competitive and exclusive inter-scholastic sports teams, homogenous grouping, and lack of access to school leadership roles. The harmful results of these factors are perhaps represented in a decline in self-esteem in boys from Hillside250 Adolescent Lives in Transition Two Rivers...