Concerns about Ninth-Grade Students' Poor Academic Performance: One School's Action Plan

ABSTRACT This paper describes how one Midwestern high school addressed concerns about the academic performance of incoming 9th grade students through a three phase project. In phases one and two, teachers and students were surveyed in order to gather their perceptions of students' academic skills. In phase three, information from the surveys was used to develop interventions to improve students' study strategies. Survey results showed that teachers' greatest areas of concern were time management, motivation, and homework. Students rated themselves lowest on study habits, self-regulation, and test anxiety. These perceived weaknesses were addressed during Phase Three by a number of school-wide interventions including opportunities to interact with successful upper classmen, smaller homerooms, and a Freshman Academy where students who were identified as at-risk for failure could receive instruction in study skills and strategies for organization. One of six objectives identified by the president and nation's governors in Goals 2000 Educate America Act was to increase the highschool graduation rate to 90% (Goals 2000). Unfortunately, although the year 2000 has come and gone, the goal has not been met, and the problem of students failing to successfully complete secondary school remains unsolved. Some researchers have argued that concerns about the academic performance of American secondary school students have resulted in too many reforms focusing on high standards, accountability, and high-stakes assessments with too little attention focused on the academic skills required for success in today's schools (Stanley, Slate & Jones, 1999). Literature exists to support academic study skills instruction for all students, including those with identified disabilities (Boyle & Weishaar, 2001; Deshler et al., 2001), those at-risk for failure (Burke, 2002), and even those considered to be above average to high achievers (Stanley, Slate & Jones, 1999). Zigmond's (1990) argument that ninth grade was the crucial year for students with learning disabilities has relevance to all students at-risk for failure in high school. In ninth grade, for the first time, students must earn passing grades in core courses (i.e., English, biology, social studies, and math) that carry credits required for graduation. At the same time, 9th-grade students are faced with increased demands both in terms of independent study skills (Reith & Polsgrove, 1994) and in the amount of content covered in each class. Some students who are at-risk for failure may have advanced through earlier grades due to individual teacher attention and vigilant monitoring that may not be possible or desirable within the larger secondary school culture. Ninth grade is clearly the or break year in terms of secondary school success or failure (Reinhard, 1997). Students who fail their classes are likely to: (a) begin questioning their ability to make graduation requirements, (b) lose interest in school, and (c) consequently drop out of high school (Wagner, 1989). Catterall (1998) listed the three most common reasons students give for dropping out as: (a) not liking school, (b) not getting along with teachers and others, and (c) failing. The ramifications of dropping out for subsequent employment opportunities and earning potential underscore the importance of this issue. Youth who fail to complete high school have twice the unemployment rate of graduates in addition to diminished opportunities for post-secondary school or continued training (Lerner, 1997). FACTORS RELATED TO SCHOOL FAILURE Certainly the drop-out problem is a complex issue influenced by many individual, familial, social, economic, and school policy variables that are already evident during middle school (Rumberger, 1995). Nevertheless, the relationship between students' perceptions that they lack the skills and strategies needed for success in high school and the likelihood of dropping out is compelling. …