Since Saint Ambrose School first opened its doors over fifty years ago, in 1957, we have proudly served the Latham community and beyond, as an elementary school that educates children through the eighth grade level. We have always believed that having a student educated in an environment that provides continuity and familiarity, from the time they enter Pre-Kindergarten through eighth grade, is the best educational setting for every child. It appears that our everlasting philosophy on this issue has been quite accurate! To substantiate our position, we would like to provide here some compelling evidence from recent, independent, studies done on our country’s educational system.

For the past two decades, across our nation and even locally, middle schools have been the educational setting for nearly two thirds of students in Grades 6-8. However, many of these districts, with separate middle schools, are finding that once young adolescents reach 6^th grade their achievement level begins to decline and disruptive behavior increases. It has become quite apparent that smaller learning communities, where a child is educated through the eighth grade level, such as Saint Ambrose School, are better suited to make a positive difference both academically and behaviorally in their students.

A surprising number of cities across the United States are reversing the trend that created thousands of middle schools in the 1970’s and 1980s. These cities are spending millions of dollars reconfiguring these existing middle schools to the traditional K-8 setting that many, current parents and grandparents, successfully experienced as children. Some of these cities include: Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Cincinnati and Cleveland Ohio; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Memphis, Tennessee. This trend in not only an urban phenomenon , but is also affecting suburban school districts, such as the affluent Capistrano School District, in Orange County, California. These districts have learned, through documented evidence, what we at Saint Ambrose School have always known…that a time-honored Pre-Kindergarten through 8^th grade setting truly works best for successfully educating their students.

According to a recent article in "Time" magazine, it states that this change is driven largely by a series of studies that depicts U.S. middle schools as the "Bermuda Triangle of Education". Although many middle schools are equipped to offer an array of electives and other programs, they are failing to provide the learning environment that a student truly needs to succeed. Middle schools have become a place where kids lose their way academically and socially, in many cases never to resurface.

The most comprehensive report, which is a review of 20 years of educational research, was released in 2004 by a non-profit research group in California, called the Rand Corporation. Their report entitled "Focus on the Wonder Years: Challenges Facing the American Middle School", offers a harsh critique of the middle school record. Among its middle school findings are:

Why are these results occurring? This question has led to the production of many national reports on the subject of middle school failure. Most significantly, the Rand report, which includes studies from UCLA psychologists, suggests that expecting preteens to enter a separate school for their 6^th through 8^th grade years is quite difficult because it is such a very fragile time period in their development. This age group is already going through so many changes, some which are physical, in nature. In addition, there are cognitive developments also occurring and new reasoning abilities taking place. Sadly, this cognitive development is not well supported by the middle school curriculum. Also, the expectations that are placed on a student to change schools during this complex period of development, creates a tremendous amount of pressure that often leads to unfavorable behavioral and academic consequences.

These reports also show that these unfavorable behavioral and academic consequences are not occurring in a Pre-K through 8^th grade school, such as Saint Ambrose because in this type of setting, a student’s gradual development can occur with more positive results. There are specific "key factors", outlined in these reports that must be present to create a successful Pre-K through 8 school environment. We are pleased to report that our school possesses every one of these key success factors. We have highlighted, below, these factors as they apply to our school:

When you choose Saint Ambrose School, for your child’s educational needs through 8^th grade, you are making an outstanding choice when it comes to the successful academic and behavioral development of your child. Why change something that has proven unbeaten for over fifty years? Our experience and expertise has always and will continue to deliver exceptional results when educating your child! The successes that we achieve on our 8^th grade N.Y.S. standardized test scores speak volumes for our strong academic curriculum. The majority of our graduates enter high school as freshman, already taking tenth grade courses because of their scholastic achievements from Saint Ambrose. We are consistently getting positive reports back from various high school administrators with success stories about our students. We are always so proud of their accomplishments! We truly feel this way because we have watched them grow from a small child into the successful young adults that they have become! For more information on our wonderful middle school curriculum and the honors program available at this level, we invite you to go to the specifically labeled informational sections on our web-site. We are honored that you have chosen our experienced and caring learning environment for your child. We promise that you will be very pleased with the end result!