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…

Regardless of where they live, incoming freshmen face the same problems nationwide, such as anxiety about entering a new school, social pressure, and increased academic pressure and responsibility. Freshman academies have been introduced in many larger schools to offset these issues. A typical freshman academy isolates freshmen from the rest of…

In this article, the author discusses a transition program called "For Freshmen Only." This program serves as a worthwhile service that juniors and seniors can offer incoming freshmen; it offers opportunities for ninth graders to develop positive relationships with upperclassmen; it gives participants a leg up as they entered the more competitive,…