Crucial Year Can Be Precipice or Springboard

Walsh and Mitchell took the goal-setting methods of businesses and introduced them at Minnie Howard. "The kids write an individual achievement plan," Walsh said. "They set goals at the beginning of the school year based on conversations with the teacher and based not only on what they would like to accomplish in high school but what was difficult for them in seventh and eighth grade."

This makes sense to parents and students who have found one of the most confusing parts of ninth grade is figuring out the potential senior-year consequences of decisions made as freshmen. Kenton Pattie, health, parenting and safety chairman for the Fairfax County Council of PTAs, said ninth-grade educators should start the year discussing "the students' future so the whole four years will be meaningfully directed by goals, aspirations and a vision of what it is all going to lead to."

His son, Marshall Pattie, a graduate of W.T. Woodson High School, endorsed that idea but recommended against the usual adult instinct to say everything is going to be great. "Letting a ninth-grader know that for some high school is a terrific experience, while for others it is depressing would certainly help with the adjustment," he said.

Mary Boehm, whose daughter Emily attended ninth grade at the small, private Francis Parker School in San Diego, said she had to watch carefully for signs of stress. Emily had rowing practice every day from 4 to 6:30 p.m., and she often raced on weekends. When Boehm found her daughter one day deep asleep in the library, her head on her books, Boehm hatched a new plan: On the Monday after a racing weekend, "it might be good occasionally to call in sick and let her sleep in," Boehm said.

Julie Phillips Torney, whose son, Max, is a sophomore at Osbourn Park High School in Prince William County, said he was three months into ninth grade before she and her husband realized he was not using his locker because he was reluctant to be late to class. "He hauled around gym bags, tons of books, his lunch, et cetera, all day," she said. Eventually, he took her advice and asked for a locker in a better location.

At Minnie Howard, with many of the students' parents struggling to make a living and not always able to keep an eye on their children, teachers also have to provide personal guidance, particularly when the desire to be with friends interferes with schoolwork.

"I talk to them about what's cool now and what cool is going to be four or five years from now," said Mitchell, now Minnie Howard's principal. "Is it going to be cool to be standing on the corner wondering what you are going to do with your life?"

Ninth-grade educators say if they repeat such advice often enough, with successful examples, students hear them. And sometimes that's half the battle, Walsh said, since students such as Salandy "are stunned that we are paying attention to them."

The Schools & Learning page will return Jan. 10.