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2) Accessibility of after school programs: Although OCS, like CHCCS, runs after - <br />school programs that offer tutoring as well as enrichment programs, OCS does not <br />supply (through the district) or have access (through city bus routes) to free bus <br />transportation for students who attend the program. Thus access for students who <br />may need after - school programs the most is limited. <br />3) Focused and programmatic professional development: OCS teacher and <br />administrative access to professional development opportunities is an ongoing need <br />cited by school principals in our conversations with them. This finding emerges at <br />the elementary school level and continues through middle and high schools. <br />4) Leadership and support from OCS curriculum specialists at the central office: <br />Establishing alignment and continuity in curriculum are significant factors in easing <br />the transitions between K -5 and middle school, and then again between middle <br />school and high school, but require considerable organization and follow through <br />from the district to be developed and sustained. Development of curriculum and <br />instruction in subject specialty areas flourishes if guided by program specialists at <br />the district level. <br />Analysis of Middle School Findings <br />While SES is significant in the early grades as children arrive at school with diverse <br />experiences of language - conversation, vocabulary, print literacy - transition to middle <br />school raises SES issues once again, with more affluent, academically focused families <br />providing greater support and attention to their children's academic responsibilities than <br />families less attached to academic achievement and cosmopolitan identification and <br />ambitions. <br />While the socio- economic status of families is a significant predictor of their <br />children's class aspirations, school success at the middle school level is also facilitated by <br />close student teacher relationships. The middle school focus on teaming has been a national <br />effort to recognize these needs and to provide a community of instruction that will balance <br />the trend to autonomy that middle school culture and curriculum initiate. Although the <br />middle schools of both districts are using instructional teams in the middle schools, the <br />degree of collaboration in planning and instruction varies widely. We would have to study the <br />instructional setting more intensely to judge whether the degree of team collaboration is a <br />factor in the achievement differences of the middle school children in the two districts. <br />Although personnel differences between the two districts also are marked at the <br />elementary level, as noted above, OCS elementary students' achievement is not significantly <br />different than their peers in CHCC5 on end of grade tests. The staff student ratios in <br />Table 33 indicate more instructional support staff for middle school students in CHCC5. <br />Differences in staffing and numbers of support personnel and specialists may be significant <br />in addressing the achievement differences that begin to appear between the middle <br />schoolers of these two school districts. <br />CHCC5 /OCS Final Report 53 <br />