Falling off track during the transition to high school: What we know and what can be done

Future of Children

Volumn 19, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 53-76

  Neild, Ruth Curran ^a  

^a JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT; ACADEMIC FAILURE; EDUCATION PROGRAM; HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE; HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT; REVIEW; RURAL AREA; SKILL; UNITED STATES; URBAN AREA;

ADOLESCENT; COHORT STUDIES; CURRICULUM; EDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT; EDUCATIONAL STATUS; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; MATHEMATICS; MODELS, EDUCATIONAL; NEEDS ASSESSMENT; PARENTING; READING; SCHOOLS; SOCIAL CHANGE; STUDENT DROPOUTS; UNITED STATES; URBAN POPULATION;

EID: 66849128254     PISSN: 10548289     EISSN: 15501558     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/foc.0.0020     Document Type: Review

References (77)

1. An additional 5 percent attend a junior high school or middle school for ninth grade and make the transition to high school as tenth graders. The rest of the students attend schools that span the middle and high school years or are K-12 schools. Data are from the Common Core of Data, 2005-2006 school year.
2. For example, of the forty states with statewide minimum high school graduation requirements, thirty-six require four years of high school English. A reasonable inference from this fact is that students are expected to take English - and earn English credits - each year from ninth grade through twelfth grade. See Jennifer Dounay, Alignment of High School Graduation Requirements and State-Set College Admissions Requirements (Denver, Colo.: Education Commission of the States, 2006).
3. Kathryn Schiller, "Effects of Feeder Patterns on Students' Transitions to High School," Sociology of Education 72, no. 4 (1999): 216-233
4. C. Jay Hertzog and P. Lena Morgan, "Breaking the Barriers between Middle School and High School: Developing a Transition Team for Student Success," NASSP Bulletin 82, no. 597 (1998): 94-98;
5. Patrick Akos and John Galassi, "Middle and High School Transitions as Viewed by Students, Parents, and Teachers," Professional School Counseling 7, no. 4 (2004): 212-21;
6. Kristen Isakson and Patricia Jarvis, "The Adjustment of Adolescents during the Transition into High School: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study," Journal of Youth and Adolescence 28, no. 1 (1999): 1-26.
7. Schiller, "Effects of Feeder Patterns" (see note 3);
8. James Catterall, "Risk and Resilience in Student Transitions to High School," American Journal of Education 106, no. 2 (1998): 302-33;
9. David Kinney, "From Nerds to Normals: The Recovery of Identity among Adolescents from Middle School to High School," Sociology of Education 66, no. 1 (1993): 21-40.
10. Elaine Allensworth and John Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research, 2005). Allensworth and Easton were the first to use the "on-track/off- track" nomenclature to describe students' progress toward graduation - terms that have now entered common parlance among dropout researchers, policy makers, and advocates.
11. Melissa Roderick and Eric Camburn, "Risk and Recovery from Course Failure in the Early Years of High School," American Educational Research Journal 36, no. 2 (1999);
12. Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (see note 6);
13. Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Balfanz, Unfulfilled Promise: The Causes and Consequences of High School Dropout in Philadelphia, 2000-2005 (Philadelphia: The Philadelphia Youth Network, 2006).
14. Editorial Projects in Education, "The Freshman Blues," Diplomas Count 25, no. 41S (2006): 16.
15. More sophisticated, empirically derived indicators of being off track for graduation have been developed in specific locales. For example, Allensworth and Easton define students as off track after their first year in high school if they have accumulated fewer than five course credits or earned an F in a core academic course during either semester. See Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (see note 6).
16. Students who have been enrolled as ninth graders for more than one year because of failure to accumulate credits for promotion to tenth grade are sometimes referred to as "ninth grade repeaters."
17. Chicago Public Schools, Chicago Public Schools Policy Manual, http://policy.cps.k12.il.us/documents/605.1.pdf;
18. Miami-Dade E-Handbook, http://ehandbooks.dadeschools.net/policies/93/ secIV.pdf;
19. District of Columbia Public Schools graduation requirements can be found at www.k12.dc.us/offices/ocao/Graduation-Requirements-2007.pdf.
20. Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (see note 6).
21. Ruth Curran Neild, Scott Stoner-Eby, and Frank Furstenberg, "Connecting Entrance and Departure: The Transition to Ninth Grade and High School Dropout," Education and Urban Society 40, no. 5 (2008): 543-569
22. Neild and Balfanz, Unfulfilled Promise (see note 7).
23. New York City Department of Education, Office of Multiple Pathways to Graduation, Multiple Pathways Research and Development: Summary Findings and Strategic Solutions for Overage, Undercredited Youth, http://schools.nyc.gov/NR/ rdonlyres/119CD965-BC52-4579-A37A-5E33C1364D2A/31611/Findingsofthe OfficeofMultiplePathwaystoGraduation.pdf.
24. Data are from the Common Core of Data, 2002-2003 and 2003-2004
25. Walt Haney and others, The Education Pipeline in the United States: 1970-2000 (Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Center for the Study of Testing, Evaluation, and Education Policy, 2004).
26. Robert Hauser, Carl Frederick, and Megan Andrew, "Grade Retention in the Age of Accountability," in Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap, edited by Adam Gamoran (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2007), pp. 120-153
27. Robert Hauser, Carl Frederick, and Megan Andrew, "Grade Retention in the Age of Accountability," in Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap, 2007, 120-153. Ibid.
28. Robert Hauser, Carl Frederick, and Megan Andrew, "Grade Retention in the Age of Accountability," in Standards-Based Reform and the Poverty Gap, 2007, 120-153. Ibid.
29. Schiller, "Effects of Feeder Patterns" (see note 3);
30. Toni Falbo, Laura Lein, and Nicole Amador, "Parental Involvement during the Transition to High School," Journal of Adolescent Research 16, no. 5 (2001): 511-529 (Pubitemid 33317437)
31. Bradford Brown and others, "Parenting Practices and Peer Group Affiliation in Adolescence," Child Development 64, no. 2 (1993): 467-482
32. Christopher Weiss and Peter Bearman, "Fresh Starts: Reinvestigating the Effects of the Transition to High School on Student Outcomes," American Journal of Education 113, no. 3 (2007): 395-421.
33. Robert Felner and Angela Adan, "The School Transitional Environment Project: An Ecological Intervention and Evaluation," in 14 Ounces of Prevention: A Casebook for Practitioners, edited by Richard Price and others (Washington: American Psychological Association, 1988), pp. 111-122
34. Schiller, "Effect of Feeder Patterns" (see note 3).
35. Weiss and Bearman, "Fresh Starts" (see note 23).
36. Neild and Balfanz, Unfulfilled Promise (see note 7).
37. Robert Balfanz, Liza Herzog, and Douglas MacIver, "Preventing Student Disengagement and Keeping Students on the Graduation Track in High-Poverty Middle-Grades Schools: Early Identification and Effective Interventions," Educational Psychologist 42, no. 4 (2007): 223-236
38. Ruth Curran Neild and Robert Balfanz, "An Extreme Degree of Difficulty: The Educational Demographics of Urban Neighborhood High Schools," Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk 11, no. 2 (2006): 123-141
39. Melissa Roderick and Eric Camburn, "Academic Difficulty during the High School Transition," in Charting Reform in Chicago: The Students Speak (Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research, 1996).
40. Balfanz, Herzog, and MacIver, "Preventing Student Disengagement and Keeping Students on the Graduation Track in High-Poverty Middle-Grades Schools" (see note 28);
41. Neild and Balfanz, Unfulfilled Promise (see note 7).
42. National Mathematics Advisory Panel, Foundations for Success: The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (Washington: U.S. Department of Education, 2008).
43. Jeremy Kilpatrick, Jane Swafford, and Bradford Findell, Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (Washington: National Research Council, 2001).
44. National Reading Panel, Teaching Children to Read (Washington: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000);
45. Ruth Schoenbach and others, Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999).
46. Michelle Fine, Chartering Urban School Reform (Teachers College Press, 1994);
47. Valerie Lee and Julia Smith, Restructuring High Schools for Equity and Excellence: What Works (Teachers College Press, 1990);
48. Nettie Legters and others, Reforming Urban High Schools: A Talent Development Approach (Teachers College Press, 2002).
49. Roderick and Camburn, "Academic Difficulty during the High School Transition" (see note 30).
50. Neild and Balfanz, Unfulfilled Promise (see note 7).
51. Roderick and Camburn, "Academic Difficulty during the High School Transition" (see note 30).
52. Anthony Bryk, Valerie Lee, and Peter Holland, Catholic Schools and the Common Good (Harvard University Press, 2003).
53. Lee and Smith, Restructuring High Schools for Equity and Excellence (see note 35).
54. Valerie Lee and Julia Smith, "High School Size: Which Works Best and for Whom?" Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 19, no. 3 (1997): 205-27;
55. Linda Darling-Hammond, Peter Ross, and Michael Milliken, "High School Size, Organization, and Content: What Matters for Student Success?" in Brookings Papers on Education Policy: 2006-2007, edited by Tom Loveless and Frederick Hess (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2007): 163-203.
56. Ruth Curran Neild and Elizabeth Farley, "Within-School Variation in Teacher Quality: The Case of Ninth Grade," American Journal of Education 114, no. 3 (2008): 271-306.
57. Christopher Weiss, "Difficult Starts: Turbulence in the School Year and Its Impact on Urban Students' Achievement," American Journal of Education 109, no. 2 (2001): 196-227. (Pubitemid 33388427)
58. Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (see note 6).
59. Janet Quint and others, Project Transition: Testing an Intervention to Help High School Freshmen Succeed (New York: MDRC, 1999).
60. Legters and others, Reforming Urban High Schools (see note 35).
61. James Kemple, Corinne Herlihy, and Thomas Smith, Making Progress toward Graduation: Evidence from the Talent Development High School Model (New York: MDRC, 2005).
62. Schoenbach and others, Reading for Understanding (see note 34).
63. James Kemple and others, The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study: Early Impact and Implementation Findings (New York: MDRC, 2008).
64. Robert Balfanz, Nettie Legters, and Will Jordan, "Catching Up: Effect of the Talent Development Ninth Grade Instructional Interventions in Reading and Mathematics in High-Poverty High Schools," NASSP Bulletin 88, no. 641 (2004): 3-30.
65. Chicago High School Scorecards can be found at http://research.cps.k12. il.us/cps/accountweb/Reports/allschools.html.
66. Allensworth and Easton, The On-Track Indicator as a Predictor of High School Graduation (see note 6).
67. Balfanz, Herzog, and MacIver, "Preventing Student Disengagement and Keeping Students on the Graduation Track in High-Poverty Middle-Grades Schools" (see note 28).
68. For example, see Douglas MacIver and Joyce Epstein, "Responsive Practices in the Middle Grades: Teacher Teams, Advisory Groups, Remedial Instruction, and School Transition Programs," American Journal of Education 99, no. 4 (1991): 587-622.
69. The research report can be found at: http://research.cps.k12.il.us/ export/sites/default/accountweb/Evaluation/Evaluation-Reports-2006/ Step-Up-2005-Full-Year-Evaluation.pdf.
70. Olga Reyes, Karen Gillock, and Kimberly Kobus, "A Longitudinal Study of School Adjustment in Urban, Minority Adolescents: Effects of a High School Transition Program," American Journal of Community Psychology 22, no. 3 (1994): 341-369
71. John Robert Warren and Amelia Corl, "State High School Exit Examinations, Retention in Grade 9, and High School Completion," paper presented at the Annual Meetings of the Population Association of America (2007).
72. James Grissom and Lorrie Shepard, "Repeating and Dropping Out of School," in Flunking Grades: Research and Policies on Retention, edited by Lorrie Shepard and Mary Lee Smith (London: Falmer Press 1989), pp. 34-63;
73. Shane Jimerson, "Meta-Analysis of Grade Retention Research: Implications for Practice in the 21st Century," School Psychology Review 30, no. 3 (2001): 420-437 (Pubitemid 33361547)
74. Warren and Corl, "State High School Exit Examinations, Retention in Grade 9, and High School Completion" (see note 57).
75. Julian Vazquez Heilig and Linda Darling-Hammond, "Accountability Texas Style: The Progress and Learning of Urban Minority Students in a High-Stakes Testing Context," Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 30, no. 2 (2008): 75-110.
76. Editorial Projects in Education, "Diplomas Count: An Essential Guide to Graduation Policy and Rates," www.edweek.org/ew/toc/2006/06/22/index. html;
77. Lawrence Mishel and Joydeep Roy, Rethinking High School Graduation Rates and Trends (Washington: Economic Policy Institute, 2006).