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HOW DO WE CATEGORIZE THE MIDDLE-LEVEL SUPPORTS TO 9TH GRADE?
Using research, we crafted 4 over-arching categories to investigate what factors appear to support promotion to the 10th grade. They are:
- Contextual Factors
- Personal Resilience & Social Skills
- Nurturing, Safe Environment
- Academic Rigor
CONTEXT: neighborhood characteristics
IN WHAT SORT OF NEIGHBORHOODS DID THE 6TH-GRADERS LIVE?
At least 3,300 (60%) of the sixth graders for whom we had addresses lived in a Census tract where a majority of adults over age 25 had a high school diploma or less.
Neighborhoods matter. When most adults in a neighborhood have low educational attainment, children might see low attainment as normalized. Nationally, 43% of adults over age 25 have a high school diploma or less.
Similarly children who live in concentrated poverty see few alternative models for themselves. While families have the strongest influence on children's expectations, communities are powerful too, in ways both encouraging and discouraging. Context matters to kids.
Also note the attribute: "Overcrowding." Rhode Island is the second-densest state in the U.S. Many of these data suggest sometimes-strained family circumstances that can limit adult attention to a child's academic needs.
CONTEXT: STUDENT CHARACTERISTICS
Low-income students were almost twice as likely not to be promoted to the 10th grade. Poverty is a strong predictor of 9th-grade non-completion.
Males were more likely not to be promoted (11.6%) than females (8.0%).
As with Black students, twice as many Hispanic students were not promoted as Hispanic students who were. Poverty is highly correlated with race, so a high proportion of students of the low-income students non-completers were also students of color.
DATA NOTE: The percentages in each category reflect that group's proportion of the total number in that category. Thus, of the 100% of students who successfully completed 9th grade, 7.5% were Black. Of the 100% not promoted, 14.4% were Black -- or almost double.
Personal Resilience: ADOLESCENT-ONSET
The unique challenges of adolescent-onset.
In 1989, the seminal work Turning Points urged educators to tailor middle schools to the needs of early adolescents in the midst of roiling physical, emotional, and social changes.
The report states:
"Puberty is one of the most far-reaching biological upheavals in the life span."
To promote the resilience of these young people, Turning Points recommends "personalizing" their education with strong adult relationships, advisors and role models. Early adolescents need adults to help them with good decision-making and empathetic behavior.
The report warns that ignoring the realities of puberty makes circumstances harder for these students as well as for those who work with them. Without guidance, peer and personal issues easily distract these students from concentrating on academics.
Personal Resilience: Increasingly, middle-schoolers miss, skip, or avoid school.
During each middle-school year, an increasing number of students become chronically absent, which is to say they miss a month or more of school during the year.
Students can not learn if they are not in school.
Personal Resilience: Also, our cohort increasingly gets suspended.
Suspension rates also rise during the middle-school years, especially among those who were not promoted.
Once students start being suspended, many develop a tolerance to it. Behavior that leads to suspension is often a symptom of deeper issues that require social support. Also, school-suspension policies vary greatly among the schools, and are enforced according to human judgment, which can vary as well.
Note that according to Information Works, 73% of all middle-school suspensions were for only 5 of 39 infractions. The 5 are:
- disorderly conduct
- insubordination/disrespect
- attendance-cut/skipped class
- fighting
- attendance-cut/skipped detention
NURTURING SCHOOLS: school climate
Students who feel that they are a valued member of a nurturing school community engage in learning more wholeheartedly than those who are afraid, disaffected or alienated. The SurveyWorks data allow us to see how students feel about their school's culture and climate.
ABOUT THE SURVEY: Annually, for most years since 1997, RI has administered an opinions-and-perceptions survey to parents, teachers and students. There was a break, however, that took place during our cohort's middle-school years. Therefore our cohort only took the survey in the 8th-grade; parents and teachers did not, until the following year. So the percentages are for those 8th-graders only. The data are not identifiable by individual; survey results are reported in the aggregate for the school's 8th-grade as a whole.
RI was the first in the nation to survey its school communities, extensively, to understand the culture and climate of each school. Research is clear that student outcomes, including achievement, improve with welcoming, helpful, socially-positive school environments.
Academic Rigor: NECAP proficiency predicts 9th-grade success
Many 8th grade students, who have been in our cohort since 6th grade, score "substantially-below proficiency" (Level 1) on the statewide tests. Those test results strongly predict reduced chances of promotion to the 10th grade. (See bar chart below).
Students who reported that the NECAP test was "harder" than their regular school work were more likely to struggle on the test and had lower 9th grade promotion rates. (Click the arrow to scroll to the second picture below, a scatter plot).
After students have completed each multi-day NECAP subject test, they take a short survey that asks them about their experience with the test.
If you selected the two questions that have to do with "trying hard" -- on the lower attribute selector -- fewer than 10% of the students scoring at Level 1 or Level 2 in any school said they did not try hard to pass the test. Generally, students take the test seriously.
