CAPSTONE SUMMARY

The transition from middle school to high school can be difficult for many students. This is
evident in the number of ninth grade students failing one or more classes in their first semester of high
school. This study focused on one high school and one counselor’s caseload to increase ninth grade
academic success rates and ultimately improve their high school academic experience. Prior years of
ninth grader class failure rates were looked at to gain insight into how students were either successful or
unsuccessful. The planning, implementation, program design, inhibiting factors, facilitative factors, and
criteria used to determine success/failure were explored and findings explained. Findings from this
study suggest that ninth grade transition programs can positively impact ninth grade promotion rates.

The problem area that the administration and counselors requested this paper be about is
looking into the class failure rate of freshmen in their first semester, which has continued to be higher
than other grade levels. Showing an example of this being a long-standing problem, a thesis
presentation from Ella Gemmell in 1927 looked at ten prior research articles in the 1920s and found
similarities between the students that were used in each of them. She summarized up her research
stating the main causes included ‘the lack of preparedness of the student, attendance rates, health,
personality, interests (or lack of) and social reasons.’

The data has identified 19 ninth grade students assigned to one school counselor that have 1st
quarter grades at or below 59% and work with them through various methods, theories, and
communications in an effort to bring their 1st semester grades up to 70% or higher (those students that
have scores under 25% will have a minimum goal of 60%), which ends January 31st, 2019.

A breakdown of the gender and culture for the nineteen students are: 11 males/nine females,
six are Hispanic, six are White, three are Black, one is Asian, one is Pakistani, and one is Egyptian. Of the
nineteen students, four are English Language Learners (ELL).

With 19 interested in help, baseline class percentages were entered. Eleven were only failing
one class, four were failing two classes, three were failing three classes and one was failing four. The
program ran for seven weeks, which included SMART goal writing, homework and study habit
breakdown, self-advocacy and accountability mentoring through one-on-one sessons.

The researcher ran a final grade report the week after the semester ended and for the 19
students that had been part of this intervention: ten obtained passing grades in all classes, seven failed
one class, two failed two classes and one that failed three classes. Of those that failed one or more
classes, seven will be able to receive a credit retrieval if they do well on their state or national testing,
and the remaining will be able to complete credit recovery by completing an online class through
Edgenuity, the district credit recovery program, while attending summer school.