Sondra Cooney and Gene Bottoms, Southern Regional Education Board
2002
As a follow up to a 2000 survey of eighth graders, the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) tracked those students through ninth grade to determine which experiences in the "middle grades" (6-8) are linked to success in higher-level ninth grade English and math courses. Penned by Gene Bottoms and Sondra Cooney, director of SREB's middle school reform initiative, this report finds-perhaps unsurprisingly-that three eighth grade experiences are most apt to translate into higher achievement for high school freshmen: 1) studying algebra; 2) reading lots of books; and 3) expecting to graduate from college. SREB's most important finding is that "ninth graders who are placed in higher-level courses have a lower failure rate that students with similar characteristics who are placed in lower-level courses." View this 12-pager at http://www.sreb.org/programs/hstw/publications/briefs/MiddleGradestoHS.asp or order a copy from SREB at 592 10th St., NW, Atlanta, GA 30318.
