Letter: Addressing the middle grades issue

CAMBRIDGE — Last week’s Chronicle article on middle grades in Cambridge highlighted very important questions that need to be resolved as we move toward excellent educational opportunities for all students in Cambridge, and we agree with Dr. Young’s assertion that these grades need our attention in the coming months. We believe it is also important to point out that there are many initiatives going on right now to address the needs of our 11- to 14-year-olds both in and out of school.

When we were appointed the co-chairmen of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Middle School Youth, we viewed it as an opportunity to make a positive contribution to this important work, and we realized that we needed to look at all the resources that Cambridge can bring to bear on this question, both in the classroom and after school.

Since its inception, the commission — comprised of school department staff, human service providers, community partners, police, elected officials and families — has worked hard both to assess where we are today and also to outline a plan for the future. Only by bringing together city agencies, schools and community partners will we greatly enhance out-of-school-time opportunities for middle school youth and families across the city.

The resulting report, Shared Youth, Shared Strategies, states clearly that middle school youth in Cambridge must have quality out-of-school-time experiences to foster both their present and future learning and life success. Now that the School Committee and City Council have endorsed the citywide goal we are ready to move ahead.

Shared Youth, Shared Strategies is an innovative next step in meeting the needs of 21st Century youth and families. It is our hope that this will provide Dr. Young, the School Committee and the CPS administration and teachers with a valuable resource to help us further understand the strengths and challenges of our current K-8 system, as well as help us figure out how to improve CPS programming for this age group.

No system can do it alone. It is important that the School Committee and City Council continue to collaborate on this important work, and we will be reaching out to families as well.

We are extremely proud of this initiative — which we believe is unprecedented — however, it is only a start. Only by working together will we accomplish our goal of providing quality education to all our young people.

SAM SEIDEL, Candidate for City Council
NANCY TAUBER, Candidate for School Committee