We're moving away from the kind of school system that shuffles students from grade to grade and school to school before educators really get to know families and can determine the right strategies to meet students' needs. In Team-based Schools, teams of teachers stay with groups of students for multiple years, until each student meets the promotion standards and is ready to move on to the next level.
Kids have enough disruption in their lives today.
The last thing they need is a school system that shuffles them from grade to grade and school to school before teachers really get a chance to know them and their families. Students First was adopted in December 1996, more than half of all CPS elementary schools have become K-8 schools. District research suggests that adolescents have better discipline, attendance and perform better academically in K-8 schools than in traditional CPS middle schools. K-8 schools also provide children with consistency and stability, and an opportunity to forge tighter relations between school and family in a comfortable, familiar learning environment. Most K-8 school parents like the idea that young children are able to stay in the same school from the time they enter preschool or kindergarten until the time they go on to high school.