Middle and high school transitions as viewed by students, parents, and teachers

Professional School Counseling, April, 2004 by Patrick Akos, John P. Galassi

METHOD

Participants

For the middle school transition, the participants included 173 sixth-grade students (72% of the sixth grade students), 83 of their parents, and 12 of their teachers. The student sample consisted of 83 boys (48%), 86 (49.7%) girls, and 4 students (2.3%) who neglected to provide information about gender. By race, the student sample was composed as follows: 57.2% (n = 99) Caucasian, 19.7% (n = 34) African American, 8.7% (n = 15) Asian, 8.1% (n = 14) Hispanic, 4% (n = 7) multiracial, and 2.3% (n = 4) who did not specify race.

The high school transition participants included 320 ninth-grade students (approximately 71% of the ninth grade class) in a single high school, 61 parents, and 17 teachers. The student sample consisted of 47.8% boys (n = 153), 50.3% (n = 161) girls, and 1.9% (n = 6) who did not specify gender. The racial composition of the student sample was 76.3% (n = 244) Caucasian, 10.3% (n = 33) African American, 5.6% (n = 18) Asian, 3.4% (n = 11) Hispanic, 2.2% (n = 7) multiracial, and 1.9% (n = 6) that did not specify race.

Both the middle school and the high school are part of a medium size southern school district that includes eight elementary schools, four middle schools, and two high schools. The middle school was newly constructed and in its first year of operation. The middle school draws students primarily from two of the elementary schools, while the high school draws its students primarily from two of the middle schools. The schools are located in a university, community. Overall the school district can be characterized as high performing, with over 90% of the students attending post secondary education on a regular basis.

Instruments

Student questionnaires. The items for the student questionnaires were developed based on previous transition research (e.g., Akos, 2002), local transition programming, and stakeholder feedback. Using the high school questionnaire as an example, students were asked in a checklist format what things they looked forward to and were concerned about when they were in middle school regarding the move to high school. The checklist choices were drawn from previous transition research and students could add items unique to their situation. The middle school student transition questionnaire was similar in content to the high school transition questionnaire, but was tailored to specifics of the elementary-middle school transition (e.g., 15 middle school transition concerns versus 14 high school concerns and 18 positive middle school aspects versus 17 for the high school transition). Another question asked students to rate the difficulty of the move to the high school (four-point Likert scale from difficult to easy).

Finally, we requested that the students respond to a series of open-ended, short-answer questions. These questions asked: (a) what teachers, parents, and friends in middle school had told them about high school; (b) what the best and most difficult aspects of being in high school were; (c) what they had done to feel comfortable in high school; (d) what can be done in middle school to help eighth graders with the move to high school; and (e) what can be done in high school to help ninth graders with their move from the middle school. A copy of the questionnaires is available from the first author.