Alvin Chang, for the Pudding, highlights education research on the awkwardness of middle school (or junior high as they used to call it (or intermediate where I’m from)).
What they found across the country was that 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who attend middle schools learn less, while feeling lower levels of belonging and self esteem, when compared to kids who attend K-8 schools. One 2010 study of New York City students found that, when kids transition to middle school, their parents feel like the quality of education and safety of the schools is worse compared to the parents of students who still attend K-8 schools.
I would have assumed that the transition year from being the oldest in elementary school to the youngest at a new school was when the sense of belonging was lowest. Instead, in the study, belonging also decreased in 7th and 8th grades and leveled out in high school.
Although, as we exit elementary school, I can see how a transition from collective to distinct identities would shift the sentiment.
Chang frames the story as a conversation between adult and students. He shows individual data points as the top half of student faces (with blinking eyes). They organize as you scroll and highlight the aggregates with a background color change to yellow.
There is also a video version with music and narration by Chang. I think it nudges past the interactive.
