The transition from middle school to high school is a big one, perhaps bigger than appears at first blush: Not only do students’ academic workloads increase, but simultaneously, so does their independence and responsibility.
For some kids, the leap to the responsibilities of high school from what they were doing just a few months before — lining up for the cafeteria, or having parents sign their report cards — is overwhelming, especially when factoring in added freedoms and new opportunities to be social.
In the case of many Chicago 14-year-olds leaving their small, familiar K-8 schools, moving up to high school can feel like entering “the Wild, Wild West,” according to University of Chicago Urban Education Institute researcher Camille Farrington.
“The Chicago K-8 schools tend to be little-kid places,” she said. “Everyone knows you and your family, all the kids are lined up, the schools tend to be small. Then they move into high school, and it’s totally different: Doors open to the outside all over the place, boys and girls interested in each other.”
“All the systems put in place were to weed out kids that struggle.”For some students, disproportionately poor and minority, the transition to ninth grade is difficult, and fraught with implications for whether or not they will graduate. And even though, according to the latest data released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, American students are graduating at a higher rate than ever before — 81 percent of high school seniors received their diploma in 2012-2013 — for those who didn’t make it to graduation, their troubles most likely began long before senior year, in ninth grade.
