In a West Texas oilfield school district of 33,000 students, many freshmen high school students continue to fail their English standardized test, the State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness English I End of Course exam (STAAR EOC), at astounding rates. One cause of this unfortunate trend is that students choose not to bolster their reading…

For students entering Grade 9 in the 2014-15 school year and later, Texas modified its public high school graduation requirements by enacting House Bill 5 (HB 5) during the 83rd Texas Legislature. These changes provided students with greater flexibility in the courses required for graduation (including eliminating Algebra II as a required course)…

At The Hockaday School, a private, single-sex school in Texas, many students struggle as they make the transition from eighth to ninth grade. Students feed into the ninth grade from within the school, or from other public and private schools, and come from either boarding or day-school backgrounds. Students may be local, domestic, or…

This study examined the effects of extracurricular absences on final grades and State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness (STAAR) End-of-Course (EOC) scores. A multiple regression test was run to determine whether there was a significant relationship between the grades of students with extracurricular absences and their STAAR EOC scores.…

The entrance into ninth grade is a critical time for urban high school students. A successful transition is needed to ensure that students do not fall behind and graduate on time with their cohort. There was a need to study the perceptions of teachers to better understand specific issues surrounding the transition to high school. The purpose of…

English learners with learning disabilities (LD) have well-documented difficulties comprehending text. This study examined the effects of an intensive reading intervention (Reading Intervention for Adolescents [RIA]) on reading outcomes (word reading, vocabulary, and comprehension) for ninth-grade ELs with LD (n = 85). In the RIA, students…

Through the lens of the researcher, this autoethnographic study gleaned insights into teachers' perceptions of their Mexican American students. In Texas, more than 50% of students enrolled in K--12 are Hispanic. While the population continues to grow, students continue to fall behind academically. Cultural misconceptions do impact student success.…

This is the final report of a large-scale independent evaluation of the Building Assets and Reducing Risks (BARR) model in ninth grade in eleven high schools in Maine, California, Minnesota, Kentucky, and Texas. This sample of schools included large and small schools in urban, suburban, and rural areas, serving students from a wide range of…

This study examines the issues surrounding middle school students' transitions to high school and the degree to which freshman orientation models can help them. The attendance, discipline, report card grades, and end-of-course exams of 60 students who participated in a freshman orientation were compared to those of 150 students who were invited to…

The purpose of this study was to show how instructor use of nonverbal immediacy behaviors influence Hispanic students' affective learning in ninth-grade writing conferences, regardless of the level of feedback sensitivity provided. According to Kluger and DeNisi's (1996) feedback intervention theory, when feedback is direct and targeted on the…

In 2010, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) convened an advisory panel of state leaders to study college completion, answer key questions and make policy recommendations to guide states toward improvement. The commitment of these leaders and philanthropic groups to address the problems of college completion--both nationwide and in SREB…

Since 1986, Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) has conducted an annual attrition study to track the number and percent of students in Texas who are lost from public secondary school enrollment prior to graduation. The study builds on the series of studies that began when IDRA conducted the first comprehensive study of school…

Too many freshmen students remain mired in the ninth grade, presenting a growing problem for America's secondary schools as they struggle to improve high school completion rates. In an effort to stem the tide of high school dropouts, a southeast Texas suburban school district with five comprehensive high schools engaged in a systemic reform effort…

This study assessed the attitudes of three groups that participated in Upward Bound, a newly instituted academic advisory program at Tomball High School in Texas. It also provided a baseline of data to measure students' academic performance. The three groups, 300 high school freshmen, 115 of their parents, and 33 full time faculty, responded to…

Ninth graders in a six-week reading improvement class at San Marcos High School (Texas) acted as tutors in an elementary school. The ninth graders' self-confidence, attitude, and attendance improved dramatically, but their own progress in reading did not, because of the short duration of the project. (DM)