Educators focus attention on ninth-graders' transition to high school

09.16.08

Los Angeles Times

Ninth grade is crucial to a student's eventual academic success, so secondary schools across the nation, including Pasadena's Muir High, are increasingly sheltering their freshmen in small learning communities or sometimes on separate campuses.

"We really wanted to make sure our freshmen have a strong, solid foundation and are able to bond with the school," said Edwin Diaz, superintendent of the Pasadena Unified School District. "If they don't connect well in ninth grade, they tend to disappear in 10th. A high percentage drop out."

In recent years, taking a cue from universities, high schools have tried various strategies for first-year students, including assigning them mentors, creating summer programs to ease their transitions and giving them extra time to acclimate to life on campus. But now, educators are going further, giving the newcomers their own learning environments.

Freshman year can be a trying time. Teens are at a difficult age, on the bridge between childhood and young adulthood. Relationships are changing, bodies are maturing, and hormones are in overdrive. Parents sometimes become less involved in overseeing homework just as teens are being given greater responsibility in school. And they are leaving middle schools for high schools that can be as large as colleges and include students old enough to vote.

All this creates turmoil. Freshmen are more likely than upperclassmen to fail a class or be suspended. More than 30% of high school students quit before graduation, and in most states the greatest share of that loss occurs in ninth grade, according to a 2006 study by the nonprofit Editorial Projects in Education Research Center in Bethesda, Md.

Top News

11.24.08

Schools feel pinch from economic woes

School districts across the United States are tightening their belts in anticipation of a meager fiscal diet that could carry into 2011.

As state and local revenue declines, officials are looking for the trims least likely to harm the quality of education. Although some districts have rainy-day funds to tap, concern is growing that students, particularly those who are struggling to learn or who are homeless, are going to feel the pinch.

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Toolkit: Importance of Advanced Math

This toolkit by Achieve highlights the connection between higher-lever math courses and student readiness for college, work and life. Resources include fact sheets, presentations, policy papers and brochures.

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