April 27, 2022
Ninth grade is hard. Being 14 or 15 years old and experiencing multiple emotional and hormonal changes is challenging. Many students entering high school as freshmen must navigate a new, larger school, while finding the schoolwork more difficult, with core classes and standardized tests. Even previous straight-A students see their grades slip for the first time.
It’s no surprise that ninth graders have the lowest grade point average, the most missed classes, more failing grades and more behavioral problems than any other high-school grade level. About 22 percent of students repeat ninth grade (more than any other grade), and the results can be disastrous – students face peer judgment and low self-esteem and have a 75 percent probability of dropping out of high school.
Learn4Life is rescuing many of those teens who either repeated ninth grade or simply did not promote to 10th grade. In some of its schools, this represents as much as 91 percent of the student population. Thanks to its model of one-on-one, personalized instruction, a low student-to-teacher ratio, and extra tutoring and counseling, 90 percent of Learn4Life students are successful by either graduating or catching up on credits and returning to their traditional school for graduation.
