Supporting Young Adolescents’ Middle-to-High-School Transition by Creating a Ninth Grade Community of Care: Implications for Middle Grades Educators

Abstract

Authors discuss the importance of middle-to-high school transitions and highlight the importance of collaboration between middle and high school teachers as essential for healthy adolescent development beyond the middle grades.Difficulties associated with the middle-to-high-school transitionThe 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), 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 types of grade configurations, most students make the transition into high school between eighth and ninth grade. Regardless of grade configuration, many incoming high school students are deciding whether to stay or leave school during the first weeks of the school year (Hertzog & Morgan, 1999). Ninth grade failure rates are as high as 40% in many lower-performing, high-poverty urban schools throughout the United States (Balfanz & Letgers, 2004). Nationwide, 30% of all freshmen do not graduate high school with a diploma (EPE Research Center, 2006), and 6% of all dropouts leave school by the beginning of their 10th grade year (Mizelle, 1999). One possible reason this period of schooling is so difficult is a potential developmental mismatch between students' needs and their new, often larger, and traditionally organized high school environment (Eccles, 2004; Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Eccles et al., 1993; National Association of Secondary School Principals, 2006). It is vitally important that high schools implement structures and programs that ease the transition and allow school personnel to get to know incoming students; meet their developmental needs, including their social and academic needs (Eccles et al., 1993); and encourage them to become valued, integrated members of a caring community at school (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Schussler & Collins, 2006). A community of care can be defined as a school culture in which students and teachers care about and support each other, individuals' needs are satisfied within a group setting, and members feel a sense of belonging and identification with the group (Ellerbrock & Kiefer, 2010).National Middle School Association's This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents (2010) highlights 16 characteristics of successful schools for young adolescents, including educators that understand the uniqueness of young adolescents, schools that organize into structures that help to promote meaningful relationships, and school environments that are established to promote emotional well-being. In recent years, high schools around the nation have recognized the importance of supporting their younger adolescent students' needs during the middle-to-high-school transition. High schools have begun implementing developmentally responsive school structures and programs (e.g., small learning communities) for ninthgrade students to help foster a personalized environment that meets the unique needs of adolescents, promotes a sense of community and care, and bolsters academic success. Middle grades educators can help students with this transition by gaining insight into how high schools are identifying the needs of young adolescents and by considering ways they can help meet those needs in collaboration with their high school colleagues (Hertzog & Morgan, 1999).Middle grades educators can teach foundational skills and ensure a sense of continuity to help young adolescents successfully navigate the middle-to-highschool transition. The purpose of this article is to share with middle level educators how one high school attempted to meet the needs of young adolescents by offering a transition program as part of a ninth grade small learning community. This article also highlights ways middle grades educators can help support students during this important period of transition. …