At a time when 11- to 14-year-old children are undergoing many physical changes and are easily influenced, experts say a middle school provides the best environment to keep them interested in school.

Between the sixth and eighth grades, students are making the change from the neighborhood elementary school to the central high school, while also undergoing the changes of adolescence.

Students in some districts, like the State College Area School District, enter a junior high school, which does not address the physical changes well, said a recent report by the members of the Citizens Advisory Committee on Demographics and Building Utilization.

To focus on the student's changes, many districts throughout the country have been adopting a 'middle learner philosophy,' where students enter a middle school which provides a smoother transition in a more close-knit environment.

"It's hard for kids at early adolescence to go from elementary school to high school," said Anne Petersen, dean of the University's College of Health and Human Development.

At a work session tonight, the State College Area School District's school board will look at the possibility of adopting a middle-school system as it begins to review a recently submitted report detailing the changes needed to handle a growing school population.

Members of the advisory committee, the group which compiled the report, are strongly recommending further investigation into new construction and the adoption of the middle-school environment to replace the existing junior high, said Elliot Abrams, committee chairman and vice president of Accu-Weather Inc., 619 W. College Ave.

"We feel that children in sixth through eighth grade do better in a middle sort of environment," said Debra Latta, a member of the committee.

Latta is also a seventh grade teacher at State College Area Junior High School, 2180 School Drive, and president of the State College Area Education Association.

A middle-school environment allows educators to capture both the social changes of school and the biological changes of the students and implement them into the educational process, said Petersen, also a member of the committee.

"We can design a curriculum to capture kids' interest," she said.

The Lower Moreland School District, a suburban Philadelphia area, has developed various programs to guide middle-school students in areas of sex, drugs and alcohol, said Thomas Wittkamp, district science and computer curriculum coordinator.

The middle school provides educators with the opportunity to conduct programs on sex, drugs and alcohol when children are in the early-adolescent stages -- a time when they can be easily influenced, he said.

Studies show that a grouping of grades six, seven and eight is the optimal arrangement because the students' education can be paralleled with the physical changes that the children are undergoing, said Latta.

As the board begins to review its options and plans for the 1990s, the possibility of a middle school raises some questions which will have to be addressed.

In a district that has recently undergone six years of updating its curriculum, many teachers are concerned that a middle school would necessitate more changes, she said.

She added that some elementary school teachers have a reservation about being relocated to a facility with secondary school teachers, citing the different philosophies of teaching and techniques used.

Abrams said more concerns may be raised throughout the restructuring process and now is the time for school board members, administrators, teachers, parents and students to identify and solve them.