The hallways are noisy and chaotic. The class schedule is grueling. Ninth grade is the year every grade suddenly counts, the year of the permanent record. Despite the challenges, most kids and their parents manage to make the transition from middle to high school with just a few hiccups.
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It’s a transition that prepares children well for the leap from high school to college and even from college to work life, says Dawn Burnette, a former high school teacher who authored, along with her sophomore students, High School 101: Freshman Survival Guide. The book is used at high schools around the country to help kids adjust.
- Grade 9 - Weekly Activities For the classes you are currently enrolled in, use the links below to find your weekly activities. You can repeat the previous week's activities, if no new schedule is available for the new week.
- Ninth grade, freshman year, or grade 9 is the ninth year of school education in some school systems. Ninth grade is often the first school year of high school in the United States, or the last year of middle/junior high school. In some countries, Grade 9 is the second year of high school. Students are usually 14–15 years old.
Burnette’s students wanted to pass along lessons they learned in 9th grade. The student authors tackled the sensitive issue of dealing with upper classmen, advising 9th graders not to announce their freshman status and to initially keep a low profile. They touched on dating, hanging out with friends, and peer pressure.
A major message: Learn good organizational skills so you can live a balanced life, with time for schoolwork, friends, family, and activities.
“Kids at this age may be starting their first jobs, and they have busy social calendars,” Burnette says. “It’s a lot to manage.”
Choose Courses Wisely
Some students arrive in high school with an unrealistic image portrayed on television. “TV never shows kids learning and studying,” Burnette says.
Students quickly realize that high school brings choices in what courses you take, and your schedule can determine how much homework you have every night and even which colleges you can go to.
Parents, Burnette says, should resist the temptation to push their children into the most difficult courses with the hopes that they’ll get admitted to Harvard. “To be in a course that’s too difficult just leads to frustration,” she says.
On the flip side, some students are tempted to take the easiest courses possible in hopes of getting straight A’s and a high GPA. That robs the student of a feeling of accomplishment and doesn’t fool college admissions officers, who look carefully at course difficulty when evaluating a transcript.
Different Academic Tracks
Most high schools have several paths: a college prep track for students motivated to attend college; an honors track for highly motivated students planning to attend a competitive college; and a career or technical track for students planning an occupation such as auto mechanic, electrician, dental assistant, or computer technician.
The goal in 9th grade is to start down the path most likely to be a good fit. But it’s possible to switch paths in 10th grade. It’s also possible to take some courses in the honors program and others in college prep. Some students in technical programs also take courses in the college prep track.
In 9th grade, parents should focus on helping their child figure out the right path while still leaving time for a social life and family. A counselor will help assemble a schedule that includes the right core courses and electives that match the student’s goals.
To help students sort it all out, many high schools have a “freshman academy,” which offers support services to 9th graders. Even if your child’s school doesn’t have such a program, counselors and teachers should be well-equipped to help your child make good decisions.
Still, high school can be a pressure cooker, and Burnette’s student authors emphasize the importance of personal well-being, including mental and physical health.
Transition for Parents
9th Grade Homeschool Curriculum
While students figure out their place in high school, parents have to find their place, as well. Parents tend to visit school less as their kids get older, but parents are needed even more, says Susanne Livingston, a longtime counselor at Eagle’s Landing High School in McDonough, Ga.
“Be involved,” she says. “Go to every meeting that’s announced, every open house. Stay in contact with the teachers and work with the teachers.”
Parents who ask their 9th grader what’s going on in school will probably get some variation of this response: “I have it covered.” This response, Livingston says, is often a signal that parents need to be involved. They need to know who their child’s friends are, who the friends’ parents are, and where their child is going. They need to know what their child’s grades are and whether homework is getting turned in on time.
When kids talk about their social lives, parents may find themselves dragged into the middle of mini soap operas and must be careful not to get sucked into the drama. “When a child comes home and says such and such happened, check it out,” she says. “You want to nip it in the bud as soon as possible.”
9th Grade Books
Take the same proactive steps with academics. “Going to a teacher on the last day of the semester is a day late and a dollar short,” Livingston says. “It’s easier to help a child when their struggle is small.”
Some 9th graders can study independently, but others still need to work at the kitchen table with a parent close by. Some kids have an easy time with studying, while others get overwhelmed and don’t know where to start. “I just told a parent today to get flash cards,” Livingston says. “They work even in high school.”
Ninth grade is a time when kids are figuring out what it means to be a teenager. Moms and dads are figuring out what it means to be the parent of a teenager. It may be time to let children make their own choices and experience a little freedom, but 9th grade is also a time for parents to stay close by and be available when they’re needed.
“Grades don’t matter until tenth grade, right?”
Both my daughters have uttered these words, each with that hopeful lilt in their voices, as if wishing could make it so. But the hard truth is that grades in ninth grade do count — more than most kids or parents expect.
Here’s what you need to know about why ninth grade shouldn’t be seen as a year to coast, and how you can motivate your ninth grader to take the first year of high school seriously.
Colleges will see your teen’s freshman year grades
Pretty much every college will see your teen’s grades from the first year of high school as part of their transcript review. Even universities that emphasizes tenth, eleventh, and twelfth grade grades when they evaluate applicants for admission will still see ninth grade marks on transcripts.
That C in Biology? The one your child got when she decided mastering the principles of genetics mattered less than mastering the principles of TBH (the app for teens and college students to share anonymous “to-be-honest” compliments). Well, she was wrong. Three years later, as a senior, when your daughter applies to college as an engineering major, that C will show up as a loud (and not-so-proud) sign of her less-than-stellar commitment to STEM.
Talking point: The vast majority of colleges care about your freshman year grades. (The one big exception are the public University of California and California State schools, which calculate your GPA starting in tenth grade.) By doing your best now, you’ll keep the doors to your dream colleges open.
It’s the easiest time to boost a GPA
Freshman grades are included in your teen’s overall grade point average calculations. Because it’s the beginning of high school, your child is starting with a clean slate. One A (or one C for that matter) will have a bigger impact on your teen’s GPA now and sets the stage for the years to come. Of course, as my 13-year-old recently pointed out, many schools like to see an upward trend in grades, such that with each year your child’s grades improve. “That means I can get C’s, then B’s, then A’s and they will be so impressed!” she declared.
Unfortunately my kid — like every teenager worth their salt — is better at optimistic delusions than risk aversion. So it was my job to gently remind her that classes get a lot harder between freshman and junior year, so freshman year may be the easiest time to nail that high GPA.
When my older daughter was a freshman, she got this message at just the right moment. She overheard a senior bemoaning her youthful negligence.
“How I wish I’d taken freshman classes seriously; I could have done so well if I just tried! Now I’m working like a dog, but it’s so much harder now.” Of course, this is a no-brainer. But for my daughter, it was a revelation.
Talking point: Every year school gets more challenging, so why not take advantage of those easier A’s and B’s while you have the chance?
The miraculously predictive power of freshman year grades
Ninth grade has long been considered a make-or-break year. Researchers have been studying how freshman year grades are related to students’ later successes and failures. A recent study from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research found that students’ ninth grade GPAs closely predict how students do later in high school, enrollment in college, and even completion of the first year of college. The higher a ninth grader’s GPA, the more likely the student will attend college. The study showed that the ninth grade GPA was more predictive than more objective measures like standardized tests. For parents, these findings can be eye-opening because they underscore how hard it is for kids who get off track at this age to get back on track.
Researchers are not yet sure why ninth grade GPAs are so meaningful. Some theorize that ninth graders who don’t get good grades get shut out of advanced classes, or that teachers in later years are influenced by a student’s earlier GPA, or that early struggles make some students lose confidence and stop trying.
Either way, it’s worth not allowing your child to become another statistic among the millions of new high school students who lose academic steam in ninth grade.
Talking point: Researchers don’t yet understand why, but for some reason your grades this year pave the path to your future. Keep your grades up and you can confidently know you’re on a path to success.
Learning has hidden rewards
Writing an analytical paper on the rhyming schemes in Much Ado about Nothing may not feel remotely useful to your teen. But the more kids understand that you never know where learning will lead you, the better. The more your child becomes a voracious learner of anything and everything during high school, the more likely they will discover the benefits of understanding the world, learn to master new skills, and maybe even discover their passion. Besides, kids who love learning intrinsically do better in school and in life.
Talking point: Grades are not just a gateway for getting into college. They’re signposts from your teacher that you’re learning. Focus on the learning and the GPA will just be a nice side effect of a lifelong love of learning. That’s sure to get an eye roll.
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