Isolating 9th graders: Separate schools ease the academic and social transition for high school-bound students

School Administrator, March, 2002 by Jennifer Newton Reents

"Advanced students have the opportunity to participate in classes only offered on the main campus, thus reducing replication and cost," Smith says. "Students in marching band, drill team and JV/varsity athletics can participate in the activity on the main campus. If the programs were duplicated on the 9th-grade campus, the cost would be greater."

Graham says the Rush-Henrietta district faces logistical issues in shuttling students between the Ninth Grade Academy and the high school for electives and music lessons.

Operating an isolated grade site is more costly than simply sending all 9th graders to high school.

For example, Alief's 9th-grade center operates on a $4 million budget and the Downingtown Area School District's 9th-grade center spends $4.8 million a year. Some districts, like Rush-Henrietta, do not budget their schools individually.

"There are additional personnel costs for principal, librarian, nurse [and] duplicate materials that may be able to be shared if housed in the same building," Rush-Herietta's Graham says.

The Right Staff

The most challenging issue is to find faculty members interested in teaching only 9th-grade students.

"Faculty tend to develop a belief that longevity in the school means fewer 9th-grade classes," Hertzog says.

When it comes to hiring teachers for an isolated center, others recommend seeking out staff who want to work with 9th graders and to hire counselors and assistant principals well versed in the unique characteristics of this age group. Staff also must be able to encourage parental support and involvement, which sometimes fades after the elementary and middle school years.

"Just developing a 9th-grade center isn't the answer," cautions Hertzog. "There must be a combination of the center plus the establishment of a well-designed transition program based on the needs of the students, not the adults."

The transition to high school is a process, not an event, he adds, and the need for a 9th-grade center "more than screams for acceptance and development along with a well-designed, student-centered transition program."

Jennifer Reents is a free-lance writer and editor in Wichita, Kan. E-mail: jreents@kscable.com

RELATED ARTICLE: Districts Isolate Other Grade Levels Too

While the effort to isolate the 9th grade is a growing phenomenon, many districts single-grade are choosing to run centers at other levels for a variety of reasons.

The U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics reported the following number of single-grade schools for the 1999-2000 school year: kindergarten, 264; 1st grade, 24; 2nd grade, 14; 3rd grade, 14; 4th grade, 20; 5th grade, 45; 6th grade, 122; 7th grade, 32; 8th grade, 39; 9th grade, 128; 10th grade, 34; 11th grade, 15; and 12th grade, 98. A substantial number of the schools clustered under grade 12 are vocational and technical schools, adult education schools, alternative schools or schools in correctional institutions.

In the rural city of Centralia, Ill., the school district operates discrete centers for kindergarten (200 students), 4th grade (175 students) and 5th grade (175 students). Federally ordered racial desegregation in the mid-1970s forced some of these changes, says Dan Griffin, Centralia's superintendent.