In an April 3 Charleston Gazette article discussing high school dropouts in Kanawha County, Superintendent Ron Deurring noted that the county will expand the freshman academy program currently in place in four of the county's high schools to all county high schools in the fall.

The freshman academy is an in-depth orientation program intended to help ease the transition from middle to high school for ninth graders. Of several students interviewed, some students say they feel like the program is a good idea in theory, but few feel that it is worthwhile in practice.

Hilary Keller is a freshman at Capital High, one of the four schools with the program already in place. She said, "It is a good idea to help us transition from middle school to high school. However, we are not able to meet other people, especially upperclassmen."

John Adams eighth grader Brendan Mullins said he doesn't feel the freshman academy program is a good idea because it doesn't allow freshman to get a feel for real high school life.

South Charleston upperclassman Kali Tichenor, a junior, echoes Mullins' sentiments.

"I cannot see why they are putting middle school into high school instead of putting high school into middle school," she said. "Let's face it, high school is 1,000 times closer to being like college than middle school."

Freshman academies isolate ninth graders in a particular part of the school, keeping them away from upperclassmen. The students take all their core classes together and few - if any - electives with upperclassmen. They eat lunch together and have lockers together.

Some students view the program as being essentially middle school in a high school setting. It may help freshman adapt to high school academically, but many wonder whether it helps them adjust socially and emotionally since they are not around upperclassmen.

South Charleston junior Abby Rhodes believes that these are important things for students to learn. She says that regardless of how the program is taught, freshman need to learn maturity and responsibility by the end of their ninth grade year "so that next year they'll know what they are doing." 

Also, some upperclassmen who attend schools where freshman academies are in place have commented that when the freshman become sophomores, it is more difficult for them to find their way around the school since they have been isolated in a particular part of the building for a year.

Data from schools with the program, though, has been promising. For instance, a five-year study of one high school in Georgetown, Ky. found that with the freshman academy, dropout rates fell from 12.4 to 4.7 percent, attendance increased from 89 to 93 percent and failure rates fell from 17 to six percent. Also, discipline referrals dropped by nearly half, and expulsions were non-existent within three years.

Whether students love or hate the idea, freshman academies are becoming increasingly popular across the country - and like it or not, they'll becoming to a high school near you soon