Why Mountain Home Schools Should Not Move the 9th Grade to the High School
Decades of data and research are now revealing the detrimental impact to ninth graders’ performance when they are added into a 9-12 grade configuration
There is a millage election coming up in just a few weeks on May 9th. Mountain Home School District is asking the community to increase their taxes to tear down much of the current high school, including some good structures, and to build a new 160,000 square foot building by issuing a $54 million dollar bond. The millage that failed last August was for a 180,000 sq. ft. building and a $47 million bond.
Part of the justification for such a large project is the school’s intention to move the ninth grade down from the junior high building to a new, larger high school. On March 13, 2023, I submitted a request to the school for all feasibility studies and any research performed by the school to support this decision to move the ninth graders. Here is the request I sent to Dr. Long:
2. Provide all studies and/or reports used in determining the feasibility of integrating the 9th grade into the high school campus. Include any reports or studies used to evaluate student success, student social integration both negative and positive, and issues specific to the Mountain Home Public Schools current and proposed situation.
In the response, Superintendent Long admitted the school has never performed any research or studies on this proposed move.
N/A: While no feasibility study exists, the number of ninth grade students who want or need to take courses on the high school campus has grown over the years. When planning for additional classroom space, we looked at the number of classrooms needed for ninth grade students on the junior high campus and incorporated those classroom numbers into our new plans.
Here is the request and Dr. Long’s response in blue:
The school district’s decision to move the ninth graders, without performing any research or studies, is alarming. The available information on integrating freshmen with upper classes indicates this would be very detrimental to these students.
The freshman year is a very pivotal, critical year for a student. It is the first year they begin to earn credits and their GPA really starts to matter. It is also a time in a child’s life when they are in a very volatile state of growth and development in every aspect - physically, emotionally, mentally, and socially. An article abstract, entitled The Importance of the Ninth Grade on High School Graduation Rates and Student Success, summarizes the importance of ninth grade on students’ overall academic success:
Researchers target 9th grade as the make or break year for completing high school. During the 9th-grade year, many students for the first time have to earn passing grades in core courses, and these core courses are typically some of the toughest and most rigorous academic classes a student must take in high school. Furthermore, the rising use of standardized tests to measure school performance, and exit exams required to earn a diploma add to the difficulty and importance of doing well in high school. Statistics generated from freshman year are concerning. Ninth graders have the lowest grade point average, the most missed classes, the majority of failing grades, and more misbehavior referrals than any other high school grade level. The 9th grade also has the highest enrollment rate in high schools, mainly due to the fact that approximately 22% of students repeat 9th-grade classes. This number can be even higher in large urban high schools. While the transition from middle school to high school can represent an important milestone, it can also be a time of loneliness, isolation, and disconnection for some students. This transition period is frequently marked by declining academic performance, increased absences, and increased behavior disturbances. These factors put freshmen more at risk than any other school-aged group. The differences, both academically and socially, between middle school and high school make the transition difficult. The authors contend that it is important to consider what can be done in middle school to better prepare students for new challenges and also important to not drop the ball on students after 9th grade, but to continue support during their remaining high school years. This article discusses some solutions to ease transition.
This abstract can be viewed here and additional information on the importance of the freshman year can be found here. The research on how important the ninth grade is for young adults is vast and easily searchable.
Grade configuration strategies in public schools have changed over time, based on studies and research regarding the impact of adolescent development on educational and social outcomes. During the 1960’s, the 10-12 grade configuration for high schools was most popular. During the 1970’s, schools were broadly adopting the 9-12 grade configuration, which is now the most common grade configuration in high schools.
Decades of data and research are now revealing the detrimental impact to ninth graders’ performance when they are added into a 9-12 grade configuration, and that their overall success has been negatively impacted. Schools across the nation are working to implement strategies to address this by restructuring their high schools to segregate ninth grade into separate wings of their buildings, or the creation of ninth grade academies with intensive interventions to help improve ninth grade performance, or when possible, building separate buildings to move the ninth grade into their own school.
In a study by the National High School Center, entitled Easing the Transition to High School: Research and Best Practices Designed to Support High School Learning, the first suggested strategy for addressing the decline in ninth grade performance is the creation of ninth grade academies that are apart from the rest of the high school or the creation of separate stand alone schools.
This full study can be found here.
Another article entitled, Should 9th Graders Be Separate from High School? discusses the results from a Boston College study and research from the National Middle School Association:
To improve the issues among 9th graders, many schools are restructuring their programs so that 9th graders are in a separate setting, apart from the larger high school community . . . . . . Ninth-grade programs and separate buildings for ninth graders have grown over the last ten years to meet their distinct needs.”
This full article, published by Public School Review, can be viewed here.
The University of Arkansas, Education Policy Department, performs studies and research on the impact of education policy to Arkansas students. They have published a policy brief regarding a comparative review of course failure rates among Arkansas ninth graders embedded in a 9-12 grade configuration versus those ninth graders separated from 10-12 grades. Here are the summary points in the policy brief:
- Ninth graders attending schools that terminate at 9th grade are 29.1 percentage points less likely to fail a course than their peers attending schools that serve other high school grades. - Controlling for prior achievement and student characteristics, students attending buildings terminating at 9th grade are 9.2 percentage points less likely to fail a course in 9th grade than those in traditional 9- 12 high schools.
The authors of the University of Arkansas brief also reference a 2021 study which stated,
“One way to ameliorate the environmental disturbance and transition many students face is to serve 9th grade students at junior high schools or in a school of their own. Buildings dedicated to 9th grade students allow faculty to focus on 9th graders, giving them the guidance and support they need for success" (Elam, 2021)
The U of A policy brief can be viewed here, and a recently published blog from the University of Arkansas Education Policy Department regarding these findings can be viewed here.
Another article entitled Caught in the Middle and Left Out. Where Do 9th Graders Belong? discusses how schools that had previously embraced the 9-12 configuration are realizing the need to transition back toward a model where ninth grade is separated from grades 10-12.
“The establishment of semi-autonomous freshman academies is a step in the right direction for addressing the unique qualities of ninth graders. They provide a safety net, which supports transition to high school. Essentially, freshman academies remove ninth graders from the high-school mainstream; therefore, one can readily correlate them with the ninth-grade component of the once-prevalent junior high school concept. What I do know is that ninth graders need more than what we have given them in recent decades. The traditional 9-12 high school model does not adequately meet their needs. Educational practitioners should take this to heart and look at alternatives for supporting ninth graders, which may include freshman academies or even junior high schools inclusive of grade nine—anything but the status quo.”
This full article can be found here.
Moving ninth grade out of the 9-12 grade configuration is not easy for schools that have invested heavily in buildings, staffing and programs to support this approach, only to realize the harm that has been done to freshman success. Thankfully, previous administrators in Mountain Home School District did not attempt to follow the nation-wide trend of reconfiguring grades by moving the ninth grade into the high school. So far, our students have largely been protected from the detrimental effects this move could cause. Mountain Home ninth graders’ current transition to high school allows them to ease into the educational and cultural climate of the high school without exposing them to all the downsides of being placed directly into the high school. Unfortunately, the current administration and school board are now considering this move at a time when many other schools are attempting to undo what they did years ago, because it’s not working and it does not serve the students’ educational needs.
Why has Mountain Home School administration not performed a feasibility study and a review of the research to analyze the impact this could have on the ninth-grade students? I cannot answer that question. However, I can say that this appears to be a haphazard decision used to justify a request for more money to build an excessively large high school that will do nothing to improve actual educational outcomes. The absence of research and data-based decisions from the district decision-makers are possible indicators of mismanagement and incompetence by those leading our school district.
Our children, our schools, and our community deserve to have school leadership that is deliberative and actively seeking information regarding the best practices for the students’ success. Instead, they have demonstrated reckless disregard for the students, the quality of their education, and their social and mental health, all in favor of the shallow status afforded by a prestigious, visually impressive building.
Our school leaders have become players in the Baxter County Forward initiative to help attract people to our area by building impressive facilities and expensive infrastructure. They are losing sight of the school’s mission with this proposed high school project. They are not contributing anything meaningful to advance the mission and purpose of education and student proficiency, which is their primary charge and responsibility. It is not the school’s responsibility to construct buildings to help recruit business and industry and to grow our community. The school exists to provide proficient, educated graduates and informed citizens who can then serve the community and provide the workforce needed by business and industry. Those are two separate missions and purposes, but somehow, they are being conflated and confused, perhaps deliberately. Buildings do not educate students - good teachers do.
MK
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Wynne High School
I had planned to share details from an Arkansas school closer to home that has been through the journey of transitioning their ninth grade into their high school, seeing the negative consequences to their freshmen students, and then developing a strategy to move them back out of the high school. Wynne School District has been reviewing the data on their ninth-grade performance and has determined their ninth grade needs to be separated from the high school. They have been planning a restructure of their grade configuration and a millage election this coming August to help replace their oldest district building, with the intention of changing their district’s grade configuration to move their ninth grade out of the high school building. I had requested a copy of the presentation outlining the data and the research used to guide their decision on grade re-configuration just two days prior to the catastrophic tornado destruction to the Wynne High School on March 31st. The news coming out of Wynne following the tornado is heartbreaking and tragic. My heart goes out to their entire community and their school for what they are going through. As Wynne works to recover, rebuild, and move forward, their research will most likely guide them well in finding ways to further benefit their students in the future.
Sources:
Easing the Transition to High School: Research and Best Practices Designed to Support High School Learning. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED501073.pdf
Should 9th Grade Be Separate from High School? https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/should-9th-grade-be-separate-from-high-school
Caught in and left out of the middle: Where do ninth graders belong?. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/caught-left-out-middle-where-do-ninth-graders-belong-frioni-ed-d-
Ninth-graders’ failure rate varies by school grade configuration. https://oep.uark.edu/ninth-graders-failure-rate-varies-by-school-grade-configuration/
The Importance of Ninth Grade on High School Graduation Rates and Student Success https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ903523
Age Appropriate Schools: How Should Schools be Organized? https://www.vbsd.us/assets/uploads/2016/04/20160406151852-ageappropriateschoolspdf.pdf
Best Practices for Grade 9 Transition https://www.wasa-oly.org/WASA/images/WASA/1.0%20Who%20We%20Are/1.4.1.6%20SIRS/Download_Files/LI%202018/Jan-Best%20Practices%20for%20Grade%209%20Transitions.pdf
Ninth Grade: The Most Important Year in High School https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2013/11/ninth-grade-the-most-important-year-in-high-school/281056/