The Effects of a Transition Program on the Academic Achievement of Ninth Grade Students in a California Suburban High School
type: CreativeWork
description: Problem High school graduation rates have improved over the last decade. However, approximately one-fourth of U.S. high school students still do not graduate within four years. The rates are higher especially among minority and low socioeconomic status students, including students with special needs and English Language Learners. More ninth graders fail than any other grade in high school. A disproportionate number of students held back in ninth grade subsequently drop out. Students who do not complete high school face significant social, financial, and health challenges. Programs have been developed to address this need. One of those is the Accelerated Academic Achievement (AAA) Academy. This program selects students pre-identified to be highly likely to struggle in ninth grade and provides them help to become academically successful. This study examined the influence of AAA Academy on the achievement gap, particularly between minority and/or low socio-economic status (SES) ninth-grade students who attended the AAA Academy. Conceptual Framework and Research Design The theoretical framework of this study is anchored in Sergiovanni’s "school as community" or "gemeinschaft" perspective. As opposed to viewing schools strictly as bureaucracies and rigid organizations characterized by hierarchy and tight mechanisms of control, he advised educators to look at schools as communities, where members are not guided by contractual obligations or profit calculations, but rather by shared meaning and purpose, teamwork, collaboration, and local decision making. This would foster a sense of mutuality focused on networks of meaningful relationships that convey a strong sense of belonging (Sergiovanni, 1994). This approach has promised to create relational links for children and youth to keep them in school as a place with a nurturing community. AAA was designed with some of these community building aspects. A quantitative causal-comparative method was used. It compared differences …
abstract: Problem High school graduation rates have improved over the last decade. However, approximately one-fourth of U.S. high school students still do not graduate within four years. The rates are higher especially among minority and low socioeconomic status students, including students with special needs and English Language Learners. More ninth graders fail than any other grade in high school. A disproportionate number of students held back in ninth grade subsequently drop out. Students who do not complete high school face significant social, financial, and health challenges. Programs have been developed to address this need. One of those is the Accelerated Academic Achievement (AAA) Academy. This program selects students pre-identified to be highly likely to struggle in ninth grade and provides them help to become academically successful. This study examined the influence of AAA Academy on the achievement gap, particularly between minority and/or low socio-economic status (SES) ninth-grade students who attended the AAA Academy. Conceptual Framework and Research Design The theoretical framework of this study is anchored in Sergiovanni’s "school as community" or "gemeinschaft" perspective. As opposed to viewing schools strictly as bureaucracies and rigid organizations characterized by hierarchy and tight mechanisms of control, he advised educators to look at schools as communities, where members are not guided by contractual obligations or profit calculations, but rather by shared meaning and purpose, teamwork, collaboration, and local decision making. This would foster a sense of mutuality focused on networks of meaningful relationships that convey a strong sense of belonging (Sergiovanni, 1994). This approach has promised to create relational links for children and youth to keep them in school as a place with a nurturing community. AAA was designed with some of these community building aspects. A quantitative causal-comparative method was used. It compared differences …
author: Milosavljević, Igor Nicholas
keywords: Transition, Ninth Graders, Achievement, Academic, High School, Educational Leadership, Secondary Education
date published: 2019-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T00:53:24Z
provider: Andrews University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Andrews University