The ninth-grade bottleneck: an enrollment bulge in a transition year that demands careful attention and action

School Administrator, March, 2005 by Anne Wheelock, Jing Miao

* Revise district and school policies and practices that may undermine school engagement.

No Child Left Behind legislation has generated considerable worry that pressure on districts and schools to look good on statistical measures contributes to fiddling with enrollments. However, many state- and district-based accountability policies that penalize or reward high schools for gains on 10th-grade tests already may be incentive enough to retain larger numbers of students in 9th grade to prop up test scores or to overuse certain discharge codes to enhance graduation rates. As we note, educators must begin to address problems by reporting data in transparent ways.

We suggest that education leaders consider alternatives to grade retention in every grade across each district to reduce the number of students who arrive in 9th grade already overage for their grade. Like retention in 9th grade, retention in kindergarten, elementary or middle school undermines both achievement and motivation and contributes to truancy and discipline problems.

Compared with retention, providing services when students need them in a school climate organized around the principle that "everyone has to get it" will produce more positive results. At the same time, accountability reporting of test scores, along with retention, attendance and graduation rates, should not trigger high-stakes rewards or penalties. Instead, a press for school improvement should come from school quality reviews that focus on assessing the quality of student work in the context of trends in other indicators.

School leaders also should reconsider attendance and discipline policies that may undermine student progress. Policies that trigger mandatory grade failure after a stated number of absences may discourage students who exceed the allowed number from persisting in school for the remainder of the quarter, semester or year, further eroding their commitment to school.

Instead, consider buy-back policies that allow students to erase absences from their records in exchange for a certain number of days of perfect attendance. Suspending students for tardiness, truancy or minor rules infraction represents a lost opportunity to teach students positive behavior and strengthen their commitment to school. Consider negotiating individual attendance contracts with students, using conflict resolution to mediate disputes and establishing restitution programs.

* Consider comprehensive high school reform based on talent development principles, beginning in the 9th grade.

Although the growing 9th-grade bulge is a national problem, data show that the problem is especially acute in urban districts where sometimes only about half the students starting 9th grade graduate four years later. In these districts, school leaders should consider planning for and implementing school-wide approaches designed to strengthen 9th grade for all students, especially the most vulnerable.

One such approach is the Talent Development High School model, which the independent research group MDRC has found can improve rates of 9th graders completing core curriculum and attendance requirements in low-graduation high schools.