Elementary school hopes K-8 program will raise grades

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Last year, most of the students who passed sixth grade at Nibley Park Elementary didn't go on to junior high schools.

Since 2006, Nibley has been part of a growing trend in which students can continue taking classes at their elementary schools through the seventh and eighth grades. Officials say the hope is that doing so will make kids more comfortable and raise test scores.

A study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute of schools in Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Baltimore indicates that when schools switched to the K-8 program, test scores rose and office referrals dropped.

A $4 million expansion for eighth grade at Nibley is due to open later this month.

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Information from: The Salt Lake Tribune

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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