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

Talent Development High Schools roll many reforms into a comprehensive strategy that is improving 9th-grade course completion, attendance and promotion rates in schools where student engagement is tenuous and where poor prior preparation challenges teachers. This strategy involves setting up small learning communities organized around interdisciplinary teacher teams that share the same students and have common daily planning time. Other features include curriculum leading to advanced English and mathematics course work, academic extra-help sessions, parent and community involvement in activities that foster students' career and college development, and ongoing staff professional development. A team of facilitators and coaches helps teachers implement changes at the school level.

Central Mission

Nationwide, declining graduation rates result in high costs for individual students, families and entire communities. Research and examples of effective practice together point to policy-wise and service-rich approaches that can reverse this trend. As schools with low graduation rates are deemed "schools in need of improvement" or "failing schools," state, district and school leaders alike must avoid the temptation to manipulate the numbers for short-term gains.

School leaders instead can take steps in a long-term plan to make school completion central to the mission of schools and reform conditions that contribute to student attrition from school before graduation.

Additional Resources

The authors suggest these resources for those interested in more on the subject of 9th-graders' performance:

"Making School Completion Integral to School Purpose and Design" by Jacqueline Ancess and Suzanna Ort Wichterle. Paper presented at the Conference on Dropouts in America: How Severe Is the Problem? What Do We Know About Intervention and Prevention? Retrievable from www. civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/ dropouts/ancess.pdf.

"Reducing the Risk: Connections That Make a Difference in the Lives of Youth" by Robert Blum and Peggy Mann Rinehart. Retrievable from allaboutkids.umn.edu/cfahad/Reducing _the_risk.pdf

"The Education Pipeline in the United States, 1970-2000," by Walt Haney, George Madaus, Lisa Abrams, Anne Wheelock, Jing Miao and Ileana Gruia. Retrievable from www.bc.edu/research/nbetpp/statements/ nbr3.pdf

"The Talent Development High School Model: Context, Components, and Initial Impacts on NinthGrade Students' Engagement and Performance" by James Kemple and Corinne Herlihy. Retrievable from www.mdrc.org/publications/388/full.pdf

"Not So Easy Going: The Policy Environments of Small Urban Schools and Schools Within Schools" by Mary Anne Raywid and Gil Schmerler. Available from AEL, Box 1348, Charleston, WV 25325; 800-624-9120; aelinfo@ael.org

Flunking Grades: Research and Policies on Retention by Lorrie Shepard and Mary Lee Smith, Falmer Press, London

Anne Wheelock and Jing Miao are researchers with the Progress Through the Education Pipeline Project at the Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation and Education Policy, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467. E-mail: wheelock @shore.net and miaoji@bc.edu