California students have a greater chance of succeeding in high schoolhouse if their schoolhouse collaborates closely with their heart school before the students even enter 9th grade, according to a new study.

"Aligning curriculum and increasing communication between center grades and loftier school staff about curriculum and instructional strategies" is key, according to the report issued past the Comprehensive Education Center at WestEd. "Advice with teachers at feeder schools about incoming students as well appears to be an important component of a successful transition plan."

The report was released the day afterward a Harvard University study that raised major questions about the effectiveness of middle schools. Compared with students who attended a K–eight uncomplicated school, eye school students did worse in English and math and were more likely to driblet out of high school, the study of 450,000 3rd through 10th grade Florida students found. Transitions, the researchers said, appear to be "specially plush for younger students."

The Harvard report raises questions nigh course configuration in California, where the vast majority of sixth to 8th course students are in separate middle schools. But the WestEd report and an earlier study past EdSource offer strategies to assistance California's more than than 1,200 middle schools handle these crucial transitions.

The report, whose lead author is Tom Parrish of the American Institutes for Research, looked at centre-school-to-high-school transition strategies at California high schools with loftier graduation rates. The researchers selected nine high schools and interviewed the principals and nine administrators. They then visited 4 of the schools and their feeder eye schools and conducted interviews and focus groups with staff and students.

The researchers found that these high schools employ the following strategies:

  • Creating opportunities for staff beyond schoolhouse levels to jointly plan and collaborate;
  • Arranging activities for transitioning students to go familiar with the loftier school campus and culture prior to enrollment;
  • Ensuring all students feel connected to the new school;
  • Identifying students who are struggling prior to entering high schoolhouse and preparing timely and individualized supports for them.

EdSource focused on center grades schools in its 2010 study, Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades.The study looked at what distinguished successful middle grades schools from less successful ones with similar student characteristics, such as family income, based on California Standard Test (CST) scores in English language and math. The researchers surveyed more than 4,000 principals, superintendents, and teachers in middle grades, including K-8, half dozen-eight, and 7-8 schools. The study found no clear differences in middle grades success based on whether students attended a K-viii simple school or a separate centre school, after taking into account factors such as reported school practices. But a big difference betwixt the studies is that EdSource did non follow students into high schools like the Harvard researchers did.

However, the EdSource report did find that higher-performing middle grades schools had a articulate "future orientation." They pattern their curriculum and teaching to gear up the stage for high school and beyond. They make it clear to students and parents how much academic success in center grades matters to students' futures in higher or career.

In 2010 and 2011, EdSource interviewed principals from some higher-performing middle grade schools. They frequently emphasized what their schools were doing to assist ease transitions in and out of the middle grades. They employed strategies such as getting thorough reports from the unproblematic school nigh incoming 6th graders, including their bookish history, interests, and challenges they take faced. Some principals said they work closely with the high schools attended by their graduates to determine if students are succeeding and adjust their curriculum if necessary. And near all of the principals said they emphasized to their students the importance of middle school grades to their futures.

Ellen Ransons, so main at Vina Danks Eye School in Ontario, had many conversations with her students about college. "College is not a dream," she would tell her students. "It's a plan, and the plan starts now."

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