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Ninth Grade
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| Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 | | CWK Producer |
“You think at the beginning of the year, 'It's just high school. It's just a different grade.' But it's not. It's a big difference.”
– Devin, 9th grader
How do you know if your child will graduate from high school? Studies show that one of the surest predictors is who does well in 9th grade versus who flunks their freshman year. Experts say 9th is a "make it or break year" for American kids.
Fifteen-year old Devin started high school on a bad note. "I got a fifty [on the first quiz] and I was just shocked by my grades," she remembers.
After her first failing grade, things continued to go downhill. By the end of her first semester, she had failed two classes.
"My social life was a big part of everything," she says. "I had to meet new people, had to find new friends."
Experts say many students get off track their freshman year. "[It happens] because of poor choices as far as who their friends are or choosing not to study, not to do homework," explains Dr. Bobby Macris, a high school curriculum director.
Ninth grade is a pivotal year. According to recent studies, up to 80 percent of students who flunk freshman year will never graduate.
"The ninth grade sets the foundation for the academic career of the student through high school and possibly through college," says Dr. Macris. "But a child cannot wait until they get to ninth grade to start.
Students need to focus on good study habits, time management skills and how to take notes, Dr. Macris says.
Once in ninth grade, parents need to stay connected – keep in touch with teachers and counselors, keep track of assignments and grades and, above all, teach your kids that in high school, more than ever, they are responsible for themselves.
"You realize that this isn't middle school anymore," says Devin. "They're not gonna baby you. You have to be independent about certain things."
She will have to go to summer school to make-up the classes she failed. But she says next year things will be different.
"I'm gonna try to go in with a different attitude toward school – be more organized, be more prepared," she says. "I want to look back on my high school career and know that I did well."
Ninth grade is a time of great change in many students' lives. They are either the "big men on campus" or else they are on the bottom of the totem pole. As the debate rages on as to whether ninth graders should be in middle or high school, experts have developed advantages and disadvantages to keeping ninth graders in the same school with the sixth, seventh and eight grades.
Advantages:
- Ninth graders can have a leadership role that they would not enjoy in a senior high school setting.
- The difference in age between age 14 (ninth grade) and age 18 (twelfth grade) is so great that it can be difficult for some ninth graders to adjust.
- Some ninth graders are too young and immature to be placed with senior high school students.
- The four-year stay in one school facilitates better relationships for students, staff and parents than a shorter stay.
Disadvantages:
- Ninth graders are more like tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders because most have gone through puberty.
- Separating ninth graders from tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders limits curriculum and extracurricular offerings for them.
- The younger children, especially the sixth graders, may want to imitate the ninth graders and grow up too fast.
Tips for Parents
Ninth graders will experience a variety of new skills and milestones. It is always good for parents to have some idea of what their student is going through, and the following list should help.
- Intellectual Skills – Higher expectations coincide with his/her own increasing abilities. He/she will have interests that span farther and wider than ever, in addition to a greater awareness and curiosity about the world around him/her. An example of your teenager's expanding intellect is his/her newfound skill of deductive reasoning.
- Social Skills – Your adolescent is becoming less egocentric in his/her views, and that gives a greater ability to compromise, to stay composed when he/she's in disagreement with someone and to be generally more tolerant and even-tempered. His/her view of the world will settle first on the friends he/she has around him/her.
- Emotional changes – While your ninth-grader is less self-conscious than he/she has been in the past couple of years, he/she is most likely still uncertain about how he/she measures up. Physical appearance matters greatly to him/her, as well as how they're developing.
- Challenges – Your student will encounter many challenges throughout the ninth grade year, and the most common ones are academic failure, eating too much or too little, struggling with abstinence versus teenage sex and adjusting to a bigger school.
References
- U.S. Department of Education http://www.ed.gov/
- Family Education Network http://fen.com/
- Parent Soup http://www.parentsoup.com/
