Ninth grade: a school year to be reckoned with

Analysts say retention isn't the punishment it once was, but can be a necessary part of the learning cycle. "For some kids, being held back is the best thing," says Andrew Markoch, the administrator of the Ninth Grade Center at Wake Forest-Rolesville.

A bolder academic focus may at least help schools "to stop kidding themselves" about student performance, says Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, a University of Delaware child-development expert.

Many districts are now taking action. Some are starting "academies" that segregate freshmen and give them special attention. In Chicago, the country's third-largest district is discouraging would-be dropouts through waiver forms warning them of the dangers of quitting school. The city is also planning longer classes for kids having trouble in core subjects.

And many school systems are pondering a revamp of the junior high concept to better prepare incoming freshmen. In New York, up to two-thirds of the city's middle schools may be eliminated, making high schools 6th through 12th grades - an effort, in part, to smooth the middle years. In a huge educational overhaul, Indiana will track students more carefully during the high school transition and raise the minimum age that a student can drop out. And in Rhode Island, one district now runs a "truancy court" where school-skippers must explain their absences.

Here in the South, the declining freshman promotion rate is exacerbated by the issue of race, and concerns among black parents that their children get lost in an insensitive bureaucracy. One issue, analysts say, is that "survival skills" learned in poorer African-American communities don't always mesh with middle-class behaviors that high schools try to instill. "Kids from different geographic settings are coming in with different survival skills, and there's a need for districts to ... rechannel their ingenuity," says Mr. Agati.

But with options like GEDs, Job Corps, and the military, opportunities abound for the young and hungry, increasingly making them pass over their best chance at a decent, free education.

"When they're old enough to leave and there are other things for them to do, they come to the conclusion that school isn't helpful," says Jay Greene, an education analyst at the Manhattan Institute.

For Ms. Rohrer, academics are back in focus, with help from the school's Ninth Grade Academy - to be rolled out in all county high schools next year. It combines a "center" - a former library with donated couches - with an emphasis on the transition to high school.

But what concerns Mr. Markoch is whether her new focus on "Fahrenheit 451" will mean a passing grade. "I'll be checking your report card next week," he says. "I'm hoping it's good news."

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