In this practice brief, we explore feedback from a group of eighth and ninth grade students, families, and educators on what has been challenging, what has been missing, and what is needed during the transition from middle to high school for students with emotional and behavioral disorders. We also discuss the process for gathering stakeholder…

Large numbers of qualified students do not apply to and enroll in college. Yet, earning a college degree is one of the primary pathways for economic success and is increasingly required for good jobs and high wages. A number of programs and practices aim to improve college readiness and enrollment, including "Take Stock in Children's®…

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 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.…

The transition from eighth grade to high school results in a substantial drop in course performance for many students. These declines in performance lead students to fall off-track for obtaining high school and college degrees. By using data on students' middle grade performance, high school staff can set goals for their students to help them meet…

In 2007, spurred by University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research (UChicago CCSR) research reports, leadership at the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) began a new targeted approach to reducing course failure in the ninth grade. The research suggested that the transition between eighth and ninth grade played a critical role in shaping…

Public/Private Ventures' (P/PV's) "GroundWork" series summarizes available evidence on a variety of social policy topics, providing a firm foundation for future work. This second brief in the series presents an overview of issues surrounding the ninth grade transition: why it is so important; why many middle school students find it so difficult;…

Various school transitions provide both challenges and opportunities for pupils. The ways in which pupils cope with these transitions can have a significant impact on their everyday lives and futures. This study focuses on exploring the kinds of transitions pupils face during their comprehensive school path. The aim is to gain a better…

This report offers lessons from the last in a series of three high school reform conferences sponsored by MDRC, the Council of the Great City Schools, and the National High School Alliance. The conference brought together leaders from 22 midsize urban school districts on June 25-26, 2007, provided a forum for practitioners to share research and…

This study examines high school expectancies in a sample of at-risk, rural youth, and how these expectancies relate to 8th grade functioning, 9th grade functioning, and 9th grade experiences of high school. A total of 76 eighth-graders and their parents, drawn from a larger study of the transition to high school, participated in interviews the…

The purpose of this study was to describe the transition implementation experienced by rural elementary school district students entering the ninth grade at an independent school district, and to describe the ties to the school that exist among these same ninth grade students. This qualitative research involved interviewing 11 ninth grade…

Respondents to a questionnaire about the elementary-middle and middle-high school transition experience respectively were 173 sixth grade students, 83 parents, and 12 teachers, and 320 ninth grade students, 61 parents and 17 teachers. Results revealed that school transitions posed both challenges and opportunities for students. Parents and…

The authors examined the effectiveness of a support model to instruct five youth with EBD to self-direct the problem-solving processes and promote self-determination skills by enabling them to: (a) set employment/career related goals, (b) develop and implement a plan toward goal attainment; and (c) adjust and evaluate progress toward meeting their…

The Baltimore City Public School System's (BCPSS) Grade 9 Transition Program was implemented in 2001-02. It is designed to increase student achievement in an era of No Child Left Behind federal legislation by providing additional time and learning opportunities for eighth-grade students who have not met all promotion standards established by the…