9th Grade Boot Camp For High Performers

It's sad when students who got good grades in middle school need a boot camp to keep them from failing 9th grade, but if that's where we are, then this program is a good idea.

I attended credentialing classes with Jean Crowder. She's a good person.

Update: In light of the "membership" comment, here are some paragraphs from the story:

"Grade nine has increasingly become a hurdle for kids going through secondary school," said Walter Haney, a professor of education at Boston College.

His nationwide research shows that both trends -- dropping out during ninth grade and flunking ninth grade -- have jumped tremendously in the past 30 years.

Freshmen in low-income schools are particularly vulnerable to dropping out, according to a study by Education Week. The publication's research shows that 40 percent of students who drop out of high school in high-poverty districts do so during ninth grade.

Jean Crowder is a Sacramento educator trying to buck the gloomy trends. With a summer program called "Bridging the High Achievement Gap," Crowder has brought about two dozen incoming ninth-graders onto the campus of California State University, Sacramento, for a week of high school prep.

All are students who earned high grades in middle school. Crowder wants to make sure they keep up the good habits in high school so they can compete for the best colleges. The African American, Latino and Hmong students in the program are all members of ethnic groups with low rates of college attendance, Crowder says.

The ninth-grade camp is part of a larger college-prep program run by Crowder's Mathematics, Engineering, Science and Liberal Arts Honors Academy and funded by the Frank and Eva Buck Foundation.

Like I said, Jean Crowder's a good person.