Why 9th Grade Students?

• Highest retention rate - from the 8th grade to the 9th grade, the retention rate jumps from 4% to 24%.
• Highest dropout rate - 31.2% of the freshman class of 1996-1997 (graduating class of 2000) dropped out.

The transition from the 8th grade to the 9th grade is a tough one. The difficulty of the subject matter and the feeling that they can't keep up and no one cares causes many students to give up. They stop doing their homework or begin to skip school altogether. And, for those students who are retained and do return the following year, constant teasing from their younger classmates eventually leads to intolerable embarrassment and unfortunately, to dropping out. Teen pregnancy is also a problem as peer pressure increases in these upper grades.