The following interview was conducted with Dr. Mike Hall, the Georgia Department of Education’s Deputy Superintendent for Information Technology. Many feel the 9th Grade Academy is a key to a student’s ultimate high school success and completion. Hall was one of the first to institute an academy while principal at Houston County High School. He believes in its value and potential as the high school redesign effort gains momentum.
Q. What exactly is the 9th Grade Academy?
A. It’s a transition program designed to help students make the dramatic change from middle school to high school. According to the research, there are three main variations of transitions used in schools today: A 9th grade school (this is one in which only 9th grade students are enrolled; 9th grade academies (all 9th grade students are housed on the same campus with the other students in the high school, but are separated in their own area. This can be a building on the campus, a certain hallway, or by academic areas); and simply a program that targets specific students by academic or social needs. (An example of this would be a program for all "at-risk" students.) The academy model is the most commonly used.
Q. You instituted the Academy when you were principal at Houston County HS. Why?
A. Like most high schools in the country, over 60 percent of my total discipline referrals were with 9th grade students. When students go to the 9th grade, three areas are affected significantly: 1. Their grades go down (this is even true with gifted students) 2. Their number of discipline referrals increases. 3. The number of dropouts increases. In addition, alcohol and marijuana use increases in 9th grade students, and the number of suicides increases.
Q. What were the results you saw?
A. We used the 9th grade academy for six years and during that time the number of discipline referrals was reduced by over 55 percent and the number of student retentions (students failing the 9th grade) was reduced by over 40 percent.
Q. Do you feel the Academy is a key to high school reform?
A. I don’t know if transition programs are the key to high school reform, but I do know that the data did show that there was a much greater chance of the student graduating from high school if they made it to the 10th grade. Transition programs are one piece of the puzzle in helping high schools change the way they do business.
Q. What are the benefits?
A. The model that I designed utilized four key strategies to help students make this awkward transition.
1. All "first time" 9th graders were isolated into one location of the school (we used one hallway for three years then were able to build an additional building) for their four academic classes. We used a standard six period day with 55 minute classes. This addressed a couple of "issues." First, tardiness is the number one discipline issue in high schools today. At my high school the building was a quarter mile from the front of the building to the back of the building. Having the students in one location with their lockers right there, helped drastically reduce tardies. Second, the students were only in these classes with other first time 9th graders. They didn’t have the influence of older students.
2. All 9th graders had an "elective" class the last period of the day. Previously, a high number of 9th grade referrals were occurring the last period of the day. We felt that by having students in an elective class at the end of the day, it would help with some of the behavior problems. Students were now in classes at the end of the day that they chose to take.
3. The selection of teachers to work in the 9th grade academy was critical. We tried to choose teachers who wanted to be in the academy, who had a history of working with students outside of the classroom, and who were very flexible with strategies for helping students.
4. We also created a new elective course called High School 101 that addressed many of the social and technical skills that we knew were very important, but were not regularly addressed in the curriculum. Some of these included time management, study skills, decision-making skills, True Colors training - learning styles inventory, technology literacy skills, social tolerance, and career preference/academic skills matching.
Q. What are the drawbacks?
A. Scheduling is by far the hardest piece of the puzzle. For example, we had to treat 9th grade repeaters as 10th graders for scheduling purposes because we did not put them in classes with first time 9th graders.
Q. Is it costly?
A. The program was not costly. We did not spend additional dollars, but found ways to move things around within our existing structure. We did try to keep our class sizes smaller within the academy, which raised class sizes in the 10th grade, but our district class sizes were well within reason, so this did not create issues.
Q. Can it be done without additional funding?
A. Yes, it just requires some creativity.
Q. How important is the academy idea?
A. Nationally, for every 100 students who enter the 9th grade only 67 graduate from high school (the number in Georgia is about 56 percent.) When we are losing 33 percent of our students right off of the top and we look at what happens as students are making this significant transition, I don’t believe we have a choice. Again, I don’t think transition programs are the total answer, but at least they are one significant piece of the puzzle.
Q. How does a school start to establish an Academy?
A.I did a full year campaign with teachers, parents, and the school board. If you don’t get buy-in, the project is guaranteed to fail.
Q. Where can they go for help/support?
A. I will be happy to help anyone I can. (Mike Hall can be reached at E-mail , or phone, 404-657-0810.)
Note: According to Beth Burris, director, Community and School Affairs for the Houston County Board of Education, the system is still using the academies that Dr. Hall began. Houston County and Northside High School have programs and a limited version is working at Warner Robins High School. Perry High plans to initiate one once its campus renovation is complete. According to Burris, "This has proven successful for our system. The freshmen are taught academics within their own environment, and it has helped with retention and academic success."
9th Grade Academy 
