Milton's Lower Grades Are Now K–8
Some things new; some things tried and true

The Academy has always educated young learners. Few people realize, however, how fluid the constructs were, over the years, that put faculty and students together. Factors from economics to trends in pedagogy affected decision-making. Students as young as ten were among the 23 girls and boys in the original Academy. Children in grades 4, 5 and 6 were among the 40 students in the Academy when it reopened after reincorporation in 1885 (Visions and Revisions, A Pictorial History of Milton Academy). The early history included a number of mergers and acquisitions. In the 1930s, Milton’s Lower School took over control of the Milton Preparatory School, and it merged with the Brush Hill School. For a period, three facilities served young children in three separate locations. At one time, three distinct seventh- and eighth-grade programs existed simultaneously on campus.

After 18 months of concentrated research and discussion—led by faculty and administration, and including parents—Milton Academy decided on a new organizational structure. The Academy formally launched one K–8 division this fall.

A K–8 Committee of faculty and administration began work on the K–8 idea in January 2007. They researched best practices, visited other K–8 schools, and developed their recommendations. These were accepted by the board in January 2008. The plan integrates the nine grades under a single leadership structure. What will the children, educators and parents gain?

The most important answer is curriculum continuity. Faculty and parents agree that providing excellent preparation for the Upper School and smooth, carefully developed transitions from grade to grade is a priority. When the structure itself helps the administration and the faculty focus on the continuum from K–8, the optimal level of collective oversight on that issue, year in and year out, is more likely.

Equally important to a well-articulated curriculum is the context for teaching and learning. Faculty and administration believe that a K–8 structure will strengthen faculty awareness of and support for the growth of each child, because it implements a nine-year continuum of faculty-child relationships. In every grade, the Milton Academy experience is rooted in rich relationships between faculty and students.

Organizing children’s experiences in developmentally appropriate groupings is logical, and provides settings for children to do their best learning. In the day-to-day world of K–8, faculty meet, formally and informally, with colleagues closest to their work. Operationally, Milton students and parents still have Lower School and Middle School experiences. An overarching K–8 structure, however, helps ensure that a full range of opportunities is available to respond to “diverse developmental needs,” while at the same time “preserving the experience of childhood,” as the K–8 Committee findings state. Children need not and should not grow up any faster than is healthy, but options for challenge and inspiration should be within reach, at all grade levels.

Milton has always honored traditions that provide leadership experiences for children. A K–8 structure only enhances the options, making both serving and leading other children part of growing up. Cross-grade collaboration becomes easier as well. Right now fifth graders work with their kindergarten buddies once each week, and sixth graders read with “literacy buddies” in the first and second grades. Over the past year, seventh-grade science students have worked with third graders, planting bulbs, and with second graders, who study the ocean all year, on a marine biology project. The new K–8 structure will foster even more cross-age connections.

Organizing as a K–8 entity can help Milton, now and in the future, achieve maximum efficiency and effectiveness from the resources focused on our younger learners. For instance, with unity of purpose and a consensus on themes we’d like to explore, we can extend the impact of a professional development fund. In addition, we can be more effective in identifying and achieving important development opportunities.

Recruiting a first-rate administrative team to lead the division was a top priority. During the late spring, Rick Hardy, interim head of school, happily made three successive announcements—results of concurrent searches—that introduced three outstanding professionals to the School community. (Faculty and many parents had already met the candidates and provided their feedback.)

Marshall W. Carter assumed the role of K–8 principal this past July. He came from the Rashi School in Newton, Massachusetts, where he was the middle school director, managing the 6–8 grade division within a K–8 setting. Mr. Carter helped make Rashi’s middle school program a vibrant, stable and thriving academic, social and emotional culture. He chaired the technology committee and taught seventh-grade language arts and eighth-grade social studies classes.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Milton community,” Mr. Carter said. “It was apparent to me throughout the hiring process that among Milton’s faculty and families is uncommon strength, commitment and dedication. As an educator, I have long been committed to the K–8 model, and this is the leadership role that I have been working toward for many years. I look forward to connecting with students, faculty, fellow administrators and parents, listening to their ideas and hopes, and leading a collaborative vision for the new K–8 division.”

Mr. Carter’s teaching experience spans more than 15 years. Before the Rashi School, he was a faculty member at Shady Hill School in Cambridge for seven years. He taught fifth- and eighth-grade classes, and served as assistant director of Shady Hill’s well-known Teacher Training Course, working closely with apprentice teachers as they honed their craft. Prior to that, Mr. Carter taught at Campbell Hall Episcopal in North Hollywood, California, and at Kent Denver School in Englewood, Colorado. Marshall Carter has led wilderness education programs, coached boys’ and girls’ soccer, directed and produced student theater productions, and advised student newspapers.

Following on Marshall Carter’s appointment, Rick Hardy introduced Rosalie Tashjian, K–8 assistant principal, to faculty, students and parents. Mrs. Tashjian came to Milton from the Francis J. Muraco School, a K–5 school with 380 students in the Winchester Public School system where she served as principal since 1993. “Mrs. T,” as she has been known by children and parents, has had 20 years’ experience in regular and special education, in both independent and public schools, in all grades K–6, including a bilingual independent school, a bilingual-centered public school, and special-education classrooms.

“Mrs. T” was the Massachusetts Outstanding Principal of the Year in 2007; was named National Distinguished Principal in October 2007; and is a National Principal Mentor. “Coming to Milton,” Mrs. Tashjian said, “will allow me to return to my first love, working closely with teachers and children on teaching and learning, on a day-to-day basis.”

Among other activities, Mrs. Tashjian chaired the full-day kindergarten study for the Winchester Public Schools, and was a member of the Compass Schools Panel Review Team, Exemplary Schools Program (Massachusetts Department of Education). She chaired the Math Committee for the Winchester elementary schools for six years, and was a member of the Steering Committee for Systemic Change in the Teaching of Math and Science (Massachusetts Department of Education).

Joining these two to form the administrative team is curriculum coordinator Gretchen Larkin. Ms. Larkin comes to Milton from the Fay School, where she has been since 2006. Prior to that, she worked as the educational coordinator at Dedham Country Day School and as the K–6 learning specialist at the Advent School.

“Since May we have met regularly,” Marshall Carter says, “and I am thrilled at the synergy we have already developed. Because of the range and depth of our very diverse professional backgrounds, our discussion is rich and varied. Our common vision for children, however, is clear and unified. We’ve all been so impressed and invigorated as we discover, each day, aspects of the curriculum, program and teaching that have made Milton’s K–8 experience so excellent.”

Planning for more than a full year to integrate these two strong programs has allowed the two faculties to connect, discuss shared reading, reflect, and set priorities. Many of the outstanding features that distinguish the 6–8 program were developed by faculty and former principal Mark Stanek over the last five years. During that period, Milton devoted time and energy to shaping an academic and social experience truly focused on preadolescent children. Key features of the 6–8 grade life include “focus days” on major contemporary issues, a carefully attuned life skills curriculum, an emphasis on experiential learning, and opportunities for students to experience finding their own voices and their leadership styles. Likewise, the Lower School faculty can point to valuable highlights of young children’s school experience that have been refined over many years. These include individual attention to students and their best learning modes, writing across the curriculum, cultivating a love of reading, and teaching skills through the window of major subject areas.

These distinctive elements of a developmentally sensitive program continue. The faculty have already set to work, figuring out how the proximity of other grades and the wealth of interesting ideas can evolve into new traditions, new projects, and opportunities for innovations that would not have been possible before. Vision is not in short supply.

“Nevertheless,” as Mr. Carter points out, “on the ground, in the classrooms, Milton is Milton. A K–12 school is able to shape, over time, so much of a young person’s intellect, ethical depth, cocurricular strengths and sense of identity. We believe in certain things at Milton Academy, and we teach in certain ways. When enlivened, these central values may look different at different ages, but each manifestation is distinctly Milton, appropriate to the age of the child. Whether in a kindergarten science exploration, a sixth-grade literature study, or Class I and II multivariable calculus, the hallmarks are clear: critical and original thinking, a collaborative spirit of inquiry, and individual responsibility.”

CDE

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