Student Transition Paper

For the rising freshman class, the transition between middle school could be difficult.There are currently over two thousand students attending Pinecrest High School, making it a crowded and diverse campus. High school is the chance to prepare for the future, whether it be college, joining the workforce, or serving in our nation’s armed forces. More responsibilities are given with higher expectations from family members and teachers, as adolescents will soon enter adulthood. Stress escalates with graduation not being right around the corner. However, high school students can increase their likelihood of success by following general guidelines.

Whenever I first began middle school, I was well aware of the new and divergent obstacles I would come across. The classes would become more advanced, teachers more strict, and lunches more disgusting. During my 6th-grade year, this change became clear. As my homework was piling up, so was my stress. Balancing school, sports, and family time had never been an unchallenging task, but I never have and never will let that be the reason for my grades to drop. The immense amount of effort I put into school is one consistent quality I possess that will never disintegrate, as opposed to what one teacher said.

The framework for the proposed study is based on the educational research related to middle school transition. The literature review is divided into four sections. The first section analyzes the research literature on the psycho-social effects of middle school. The second section highlights the environmental effects of the middle school. The third section describes the achievement of students as they transition into the middle school configurations, and the final section lays out a conceptual framework that the researcher has developed to examine the factors to consider in choosing the best configuration for sixth graders in the county.

Middle school learners are perhaps the most diverse group of students in education today. The differences that exist in every classroom, including gender, socio-economic class, linguistic and cultural background, learning style, and intellectual capacity, is increased by individual differences in developmental level. While all middle school students will progress through different developmental levels and display the characteristics inherent in each, they will reach and conquer these developmental milestones at difference times. Because of this difference in developmental maturity, students may also be at their most vulnerable, as they progress through stages they don’t understand and can’t control.

The transition from life in high school can be problematic for the majority of students.

When Jayden is asked to complete a task independently, he will frequently look at his neighbors work. When he is asked to independently write his numbers, he needs frequent reminders to do his own work. A folder as a divider has been used to help Jayden keep his eyes on his paper. If he does not automatically know the answer to a question, he will instantly look at his partner’s work. When he is transitioning in the hallway or in the classroom, Jayden will look behind him numerous times each transition to see what the adult or his peers in the room are doing. Jayden is frequently reminded to keep his eyes facing forward and watching where he is walking. When Jayden is asked to make on topic comments in Math, he is able to do so 95% of the time. When he was working on identifying numbers, when the teacher held up

Based off sheer size of my classes, prior to looking at the data, I determined that I wanted my student intervention to take place with a group in my sixth period B-day class. My sixth period is one of my largest (if not the largest) class that I have, and with that being said, many of the students are unable to get the individualized attention that they need. The students I targeted were specifically chosen because they are some of the lowest students in my class. The Intensive Reading course has twenty-eight students, on a good day, and every student struggles with the fundamentals of reading. A majority of the students are 10th graders and a few of the students are repeating either the grade level or just the class itself. In my specific student intervention group, I will have five students, four of which are classified as 10th grade and one of which is classified as 9th grade. Three of the students are African-American, one of the students is Caucasian, and one of the students is Multi-Racial. One of the students in the small group does have a 504 plan and another student has an IEP both of which request for accommodations such as extra time, copies of notes, peer assistance, and encouragement throughout all lessons. All of the students chosen are also suppose to work with a reading interventionist, but considering that is not always an option, my student intervention plan is to act in substitution of, and in addition to, the help they are already receiving.

Middle school is a big turning point in most students’ maturity, I believe. Especially 8th Grade, as you are finally leaving the Middle School building, and going on to High School with the mindset that you are almost an adult. Along the way, you learn to cope with many things, whether they be accomplishments or losses. In this entry, I am going to discuss what I did, as well as some thoughts on leaving 8th Grade.

Thousands of students drop out of high school every year. This change in student’s academic career path can affect not only the lives of youth who drop out, but can have a ripple effect on the lives of others as well. A student who drops out is more likely to be unemployed, become dependent on government assistance, or being convicted of serious crimes. Clearly, a student who drops out has barriers that prevent them from meeting their full potential. Some adolescents are more vulnerable to dropping out than others. This information is not new and the education system does not accurately identify the root causes behind individual drop outs. This has caused schools to provide support to students that is misdirected and allows for some students to slip through the cracks of the education system. Therefore, the current system for preventing school dropouts is not effective because current attendance and truancy interventions do not target the root causes in the best manner. This can only mean that there are more effective ways to support

A successful transition to school involves children, families, early childhood and school professionals to build strong, positive, collaborative and supportive relationships through regular and meaningful exchange of information of different perspectives from various stakeholders. During the preschool to primary school transition, children potentially will encounter physical, social and pedagogical discontinuities in their experiences of starting school. Although the transition practices exercised in the school sought to nurture and maintain relationships among key stakeholders, the management team and other members of staff need to work further to establish practices which assess and address the needs of individual children more accurately.

A critical educational shift occurs in ninth grade from a primary school focus of learning skills to a high school focus of attaining credit and meeting state and local school

The transition from middle to high school is an important time socially and academically for adolescents. As stated by Wheelock and Miao (2005), the bottleneck of student enrolled in ninth grade is concerning. This mixed methods study focused on academic, procedural, and social components of the transition activities in one Connecticut suburban town from middle to high school. Included are the completion of a ninth grade student survey (N = 154), a ninth grade parent/guardian survey (N = 128), and three focus groups, two of ninth grade students (N = 12) and one of ninth grade teachers (N = 12). The academic outcomes included academic preparedness and student achievement. Stakeholders believe that students are not prepare students for the academic

High school students’ opportunities for academic growth lessen over their high school years. During their junior and senior year their academic standing are usually been set down and are fairly difficult to change. These two years are a crucial period for developing the grades, activities, and other accolades necessary to achieve college acceptance. Transferring high school is an event that can disrupt this development (Sutton, et al., 2012). Often times, transfer students have other challenges prior to their transfer in their social and family background that can also complicate their academic success and interrupt their transition to college (Sutton, et al., 2012).

In this study, there will be a focus on two groups of students: those graduating high school and those entering high school in the 2017-18 school year. A quantitative study will examine the on-track status of these students over the course of their years in high school. Given these on-track rates and consistency among the rates, the cohort graduation rate will be assessed for numbers of students who graduate, are accepted to post-secondary education, those who enroll and over time persist toward completion of a college degree. Data will be collected from historic data that is available to the school in regard to grades, attendance and overall GPA throughout semesters and over time. Acceptance rate information will be collected through surveys and interviews, and persistence rates will be collected through the use of interviews and evaluation of student transcripts. The second group of students will be the recipients of targeted strategies and interventions to support their remaining on-track given their status at the end of their eighth grade year. Qualitative data above will be supported by survey and interview results of teachers and individual students’ experiences with each intervention.

The study followed a total of 2453 sixth grade students from Boston, Massachusetts for three years as they completed middle school. The students were selected from 24 middle schools, consisting of 13 public schools, 9 charter schools, and 2 private schools. The study started off with