Transitioning Students to High School

Middle school students in a suburb of Pittsburgh this month received visits from current students at the high school they’ll be attending in the fall, TribLIVE reports.

Here’s one quote that reporter Jennifer R. Vertullo got from a Founders’ Hall Middle School eighth-grader after the mentoring program: “It helped me a lot to know what I need to do throughout high school. The mentors showed me what is more and less important, how to focus and to be prepared.”

In the northern Louisiana city of Monroe, a new intiative that sees especially driven seventh-graders apply to a special program for eighth grade last week held its “graduation”—designed in part to help its participating students accelerate into high school.

Research shows that a successful transition to high school and a productive ninth-grade year increases the rate of graduation.

The data holds no less true in states such as Connecticut, where new test score results show that high school students themselves are high achievers in math and reading.

Yet it’s a very difficult transition for many, and educators themselves often do not address head-on the hurdles that students face, experts say.

According to the venerable ACSD—a 71-year-old organization that once was known as the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development—educators often “underestimate the nature, duration, and intensity of school transitions.” In an April 2011 article titled “Navigating High School,” ACSD writers say: “Although one of the fundamental goals of middle school is to help students make a successful transition into high school (Mizelle & Irvin, 2000), the evidence shows that this goal is often not achieved.”

So what can students do to navigate the process?

This week, as part of its regular “Thursday Tips” series, Southport-based Successful Study Skills 4 Students is issuing four tips around “self-advocacy.” They include quick must-do’s as well as tips that will serve students on a continual basis.

S4 Study Skills publishes Thursday Tips, a free, original and engaging story for families, students, school administrators and teachers, featuring study tips, advice, and other helpful information in support of students’ study practice.