Why might some students have difficulty making the transition to secondary school (middle and high school)?

Young people experience considerable changes and transitions related to education– change in schools, change in classes, teachers

• Some see the effect of these changes in terms of declines in academic achievement, particularly with adolescents with immature personality development (Nisbet & Entwisle, 1969).
• Others draw attention to the vulnerability of young adolescents to a range of health risk behaviors as well as psychological risk – they attribute this risk to growth of peer influences and the increased distancing from adult society which occurs with secondary schooling. Issues of social ecological characteristics of the secondary school, including population size, composition, and social climate, have been topics of recent concern.

- One "mistake" made by early school reformers was the decision to consolidate schools into very large institutions (Entwisle, 1990). These structures are related to lower levels of student participation, increased apathy, misbehavior, violence, less responsiveness of schools. In contrast medium to smaller schools are associated with warmer and more cohesive climates, more chances for participation in key roles (Barker & Gump, 1964; Lindsay, 1984).

- For young adolescents, problems of transition are especially important. Evidence of decline in school achievement and participation following their move into secondary school (Eccles & Midgley, 1989). "Environmental discontinuity" occurs in that high schools are very different from students' previous primary school environment - they are larger, more complex organization, and teaching is dispersed across different teachers and classes. High schools are said to be less person-oriented (Cotterell, 1992) and more outcome oriented (in terms of behavior and performance).

- In the U.S., high schools emerged in the latter part of last century. A separate junior high structure appeared early this century, expressly to cater to distinctive mental, emotional, social, and vocational concerns of younger adolescents (Cuban, 1992). Unfortunately, it now seems to mirror the senior high – large grades/classes, remote administrations, ability groups. Similar issues have emerged with middle schools (Jackson & Hornbeck, 1989), introduced in the 1960s as solution to junior high problems. In fact, the institutional climate seems to produce alienation in boys and girls at the very point where they are likely to make new beginnings.

• Contemporary research underscores several important differences in the regularities and normative activities of elementary and secondary schools.
• Teachers at elementary schools tend to know students well. They generally have faith in students, try to bring out potential, and to an extent, to encourage autonomy. Junior high teachers often expect the worst from students. They may feel that incoming students are ill-prepared for junior high work and out of control. Teachers tend to keep a firmer grasp on their classes and do not encourage small-group or student to student interactions. Detention and suspension are used more as punishments.
• Following the transition to junior high, both grades and self-esteem have been found to drop (Simmons & Blythe, 1987). Students in junior high and middle school report lower quality of life than elementary students. Daily hassles with teachers and other school based demands rise, and social support and school participation decrease.
• The next transition for most students is that from junior high or middle school to high school. In term of daily routines, the high school transition is not dramatically different from the first transition (e.g., changing classes and teachers periodically).
• However, a few notable differences exist. Senior high schools are commonly twice the size and draw students from several middle/junior highs. Overcrowdedness tends to be an even larger issue in these schools.
• With this transition, the problem of school dropout becomes more prevalent. Academic achievement declines (even more). However, pressures to succeed increase, as students begin to become aware that their performance at this level will affect their future chances. Rigid academic tracking is even more detrimental at this level.
• Social support decreases even more from school staff, and peers are used more for advice and support (Seidman, Allen, French, & Aber, 1996). Here, pressures to participate in antisocial activity intensify. Students who have been turned off by school may go to other activities that may be detrimental to their health and well-being.
• For some students, sports teams can be a buffer when academics are not a driving motivation but school is still important. However, this can prevent some from focusing on academics if a balance is not offered and encouraged by teachers and coaches.

• Biological development: on set of puberty and maturation issues within and across gender
• Cognitive development: strivings for autonomy and identity
• Interpersonal development: the change from an adult-centered orientation to a peer-centered orientation

These needs are often in conflict with the structure and regularities associated with secondary schools.

With population size and mix, there is concern that the presence of older adolescents is likely to have negative effects on attitudes and behaviors of younger adolescents.

• The creation of middle and junior high schools was an attempt to address this concern.
• The hope with this new structure was that younger students would be less susceptibility to negative influences of older peers.
• But are their possible opportunities related to social competence and growth that would result from mixing age groups in single school settings?
• Two longitudinal studies examined the effect of organizational structure on social relations.
• Allen (1989) examined a school situation where 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th graders were grouped into three "houses". These houses were similar except that two were homogenous in age groups and the other contained mixed age groups.
• The most socially adept adolescents associated more with same age peers, while those with younger or older friends had lower estimates of their own competence and popularity. The findings confirm a normative preference for same-age friends and show social benefits of same-age friendships.
• Blyth (1981) focused on effects of changes in age mix of schools. She examined two schools undergoing reform where the junior highs had grades 7-9, and the senior high with grades 10-12. Schools were reorganized in following year into separate school groups made up of 7-8^th graders, 9-10^th graders, and 11-12^th graders. For the 7^th graders, the removal of older (9^th graders) students improved the social opportunities of younger adolescents – they had more positive perceptions of school, less anonymity, sense of control, perceived teacher control. Boys reported less victimization, less substance use. For the 9^th graders, however, less favorable outcomes resulted – they showed less participation, more substance use, more victimization of boys, and more anonymity. Older students’ presence increased antisocial outcomes and restricted opportunity.

• When students sense discrepancies between their school tracks/curriculum and the pathways to adult success, their commitment to school may lessen. This concept of alienation was originally employed by Marx to capture sense of social separation between the worker and his/her work, leaving work devoid of meaning and purpose.
• Seeman identified 5 basic meanings of alienation: 1) powerlessness – inability to influence events; 2) meaninglessness – the sense of being unclear as to what one ought to believe in order to act intelligently; 3) normlessness – social norms broken down and no longer able to regulate behavior, 4) social isolation- sense of being apart from goals and beliefs; 5) self-estrangement- loss of intrinsic meaning in one’s work, absence of pride/commitment in daily activity.

- Participation-Identification. Alienation is seen as more likely for adolescents and older youth now because youth access to workplace is increasingly delayed. The outcome or end product – working and producing – are less accessible to students. This difficulty in finding meaning in school tasks can lead to detachment-dropout. Experience of failure and isolation from desired social/peers groups also can contribute to weakening of attachment (Finn, 1989).

- Rutter’s (1986) work suggests role of schools themselves in this alienation– currently schools are concerned less with social processes, more with disciplinary style, and have high levels of depersonalization.

• Coleman’s (1961) study of subcultures gave rise to a symbolic view of status. Subcultures are cliques or status groups within the school setting that embody particular characteristics or values. The group subcultures are most likely to become relevant as students make the transition into both puberty/adolescence and the transition to secondary education.
• What is role of youth peer structures in school (i.e., the "cool" groups versus the "non-cool" groups)? Coleman felt that certain groups socialized its members positively or negatively about school and whether it is important.
• More recently, others have found that individuals' academic motivation (i.e., whether a student thought school was cool or for "nerds") was not the catalyst that affected student engagement, but that, instead, school systems themselves set up recognition and reward systems for different types of students (Kinney, 1993).
• These different types of students then may respond and cope to these rewards and recognition (or lack of) in ways that are both adaptive and maladaptive (Angus, 1984; Ogbu, 1985)

What characteristics of middle and high schools would be likely to contribute to student alienation?