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…

There are those in the school community who believe that the anxious feelings and heightened sense of anxiety experienced by sixth graders as they transition from elementary to junior high school constitute a rite of passage. Teachers and school administrators in the Indiana Area Junior High School in Pennsylvania believed differently. During the…

This manual is a guide for facilitating a 3-hour community interagency planning workshop on the transition of young children with disabilities and is comprised of a facilitator's manual, a participant's manual, and a preconference packet. The facilitator's manual provides a listing of necessary materials, a general workshop process checklist, a…

Many colleges and universities have designed summer transition programs for students entering their schools. The goal of these programs is to ease the transitional processes students encounter, and to enable the student to feel more acclimated to campus life. Summer transitional programs have been particularly important because they operate at a…

A program was developed in the Norwalk, Connecticut schools to smooth student transition between elementary, intermediate, and high schools. It includes spring orientation activities and staggered opening of school in September to give each new class full staff attention on the first day of school. (SJL)

This booklet contains questions that are intended to serve as a starting point for asking meaningful questions about the quality of the first year of college so that a two-year college campus can enhance the learning, satisfaction, and retention of new college students. The previous edition considered the first-year experience for both two-year…

Interviewed parents and staff of Stepping Stones, a project to transition severely disabled children from home-based intervention program to preschool, to identify concerns and information needs. Found that parents were unsure about educational objectives for non-disabled children at the preschool and were therefore uncertain about what to expect…

Explores the period between the end of high school and the beginning of college. Focuses on transition programs for undergraduate students of traditional age with disabilities and examines legislative impetus; state activities; model transition programs; transition results; and implications for campus student services staff, such as campus…

The director of a high school gifted education program discusses the transition from high school to college and reports on a survey of 97 gifted students four years after high school graduation. The survey addressed challenges and adjustments in the transition to college, whether students' high abilities were perceived as assets or liabilities,…

This "snapshot" illustrates how one school is managing to make a positive difference for ninth graders. It describes the Ninth Grade Success Academy, a school-within-a-school at Thomas A. Edison High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has a number of features specifically designed to help ninth-graders make successful…

The experiment of a "conceptual" middle school raised the possibility of separating the program from the building. The school district in which this innovation has been carried out consists of five elementary schools and one comprehensive high school which service a 400 square mile area. The district includes nine separate towns in western…

This document was developed to provide principals and teachers with an understanding of the concept and process of student transition to secondary school and to suggest creative ways which teachers have found that will enable educators to facilitate students' transition into and through some of the early secondary grades. The monograph is…

This paper focuses on effective transition-to-school programs. Using a framework of 10 guidelines developed through the Starting School Research Project, the paper provides examples of effective strategies and transition programs. In this context, the nature of some current transition programs is questioned, and the curriculum of transition is…

The transition to formal schooling is a landmark event for millions of children, but transition practices commonly used may not be well-suited to the needs of children and families. This research and policy brief, a quarterly synthesis of issues addressed by investigators and affiliates of the National Center for Early Development and Learning,…

Emphasizes the need to accommodate growing cultural and educational diversity among first-year college students. Describes several programs designed to address freshmen needs including a two-day orientation program; a mentoring scheme; and a course unit to improve teamwork and communication skills, increase awareness of university facilities, and…