Articulating Junior and Senior High Schools

Abstract

It is but natural that, during the work of introducing into our educational system a new unit like the junior high school, attention should be directed almost singly to the grades included by it, rather than to the grades immediately above and below from which those of the new institution are being detached, However, as genuine reorganization in these junior high school grades comes nearer realization, with its attendant modifications in course content and other respects, we become increasingly aware of failures to articulate with grades that precede and follow. The sheer fact of the appearance of new problems of articulation is evidence that real changes are being made, and we can be almost certain on the other hand that in systems claiming to operate junior high schools and not also during these early stages admitting the existence of such problems, the extent of reorganization is not far from negligible. Such problems of articulation cannot, of course, be ignored. It is high time that they be attacked systematically and earnestly, with the purpose of helping to bring not only the junior high school, but the entire school system to as satisfactory a state of coordinated efficiency as possible. Articulation is essential at both ends of the new unit. If anything, however, the problems at the upper end are the more acute and usually the first to prdsent themselves. As this article can give attention to only one of these aspects and as the treatment must be brief at all events, the writer will content himself with setting forth what seem to him the fundamental criteria of coordination of the junior and senior high schools. II