Students must leave high school with a diploma in order to compete in the global economy. However, many students enter high school lacking the academic skills needed to be successful and are not engaged in the educational process. Ninth grade represents one of the last opportunities that educators have to address these problems. The purpose of…

Across the country, high schools have found that their ninth-grade students have the highest rates of truancy, discipline referrals, failures, and retentions. A school's worst data points are usually found among freshmen. For this reason, proactive schools seek strategies for transitioning freshmen into high school. An effective freshman…

The transition to high school can be problematic for many ninth graders. Researchers and administrators have sought ways to improve academic performance and promotion rates while reducing dropout rates. A quantitative causal-comparative (ex post facto) and correlation study using a two-group design compared two freshman classes at separate…

Concerns over the academic success of first-time ninth-grade students transitioning into the high school setting continue to stimulate substantial interest in identifying the various factors that cause the ninth-grade bottleneck. Extensive research shows that when ninth-grade students transition into the high school setting, students have a…

The authors investigated the impact of a manualized high school transition program, the Peer Group Connection (PGC) program, on the graduation rate at a low-income, Mid-Atlantic high school. The program utilized 12th-grade student peer leaders to create a supportive environment for incoming ninth-grade students. Results of a randomized control…

This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of a combined tutoring and mentoring intervention for urban, low-income Black youth during the transition to high school. Participants were 118 ninth-grade students (experimental n = 69; comparison n = 49). After 7 months in the intervention program, students in the experimental group showed…

Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs)--also called Freshman Academies--have attracted national attention as a particularly intensive and promising approach for supporting a successful transition for high school freshmen. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school within a school. NGAs have four core structural…

The middle-to-high-school transition and the first year of high school are critical periods in students' lives. According to the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), "The passage of students from the middle grades to high school is the most difficult transition point in education" (2002, p. 24). Although there are many different…

This yearlong qualitative multisite case study investigated ways middle and high school transition supports foster a developmentally responsive transition for students. A total of 23 participants engaged in this study, including 4 students, 4 middle school teachers, 13 high school teachers, 1 middle school principal, and 1 high school principal.…

The transition from middle into high school can be perilous for some students. High school freshmen fail at an alarming rate. In a general sense, the environment, expectations, structure, and culture of high schools are different from middle schools. However, school leaders can implement transition programs that may promote success of 9th graders.…

Learning difficulties have been found to dilute the possibilities that young adults have in their educational careers. However, during the last few decades, education has become increasingly important for employment and overall life satisfaction. In the present study, we were interested in the effects of mathematical and reading difficulties and…

This study investigated the impact of one large suburban high school's ninth grade transition program, the freshman academy, on students' cognitive and affective engagement in high school. Participants of the study embodied tenth grade students who had completed their freshmen year in the academy and freshmen academy staff who also…

College Readiness for Rural Youth is an innovative, postsecondary education bridge program that gives youth the opportunity to explore college attainability, admissions, financial aid, and application processes. The initiative aims to support academic success and transition to college for rural youth.

This study investigated data from 5 high schools in West Tennessee. The study examined whether a ninth-grade transition program (i.e., the Ninth-grade Academy) had an effect on student achievement and engagement, which was measured by English I End-of-Course Test Scores, attendance rates, and dropout rates. All of the schools were treatment…

The importance of a smooth transition from eighth grade to ninth grade is critical as this transition can have a lasting impact on a student's success or failures beyond high school. Studies in this body of research suggest that ninth grade students lead the list of high school grade students when it comes to tardiness, the number of discipline…