Education Commons^™

A Case Study On The Impacts Of Rigor, Relevance, And Relationships In A Freshman Academy For Secondary Classroom Students, Anna S. Moose

Education Dissertations and Projects

This study researched the impact a Freshman Academy approach has on rigor, relevance, and relationships in a secondary classroom setting. For the purpose of this paper, a Freshman Academy is one where ninth-grade students are grouped together in their core academic courses with a common group of teachers. Within these common academic courses, ideas and concepts are integrated in order to transition more effectively into the high school environment and provide students with a more cohesive academic experience. This paper further reflects the current, critical problems in existence in today’s high school setting that can potentially be addressed using the …

Impact Of Freshman Academy Experiences On Student Academic Intrinsic Motivation, Shirley C. Sealy

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to explore the transition of a group of ninth-grade students into a large rural upstate South Carolina high school. The primary focus was to ascertain the students' levels of academic intrinsic motivation toward English, math, science, history, and their general orientation toward school learning, and to explore those freshman academy experiences that the students felt most directly impacted these attributes. The freshman academy at this school was implemented in 2006 as a district initiative to strengthen the transition to high school and ultimately increase the graduation rate.

This was a mixed methods case study in which …

A Case Study Of A High School Transition Program Into The Ninth Grade, Jamie Douglas Durant

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of a Ninth-Grade Transition Program at a Rural High School in Central North Carolina. The ninth grade is a pivotal year that determines which students will prevail and which students will fail to finish high school (Hertzog, 2003). It is essential that schools put in place components that ease the transition into high school and provide ongoing support.

Investigation measuring instruments used by the researcher included a two-part student survey and focus groups involving students in the ninth grade and those teachers who teach in the ninth grade. The data …