Why Middle School Should Count: A Better Path to High School Success

If you spend time in schools, you’ve probably noticed something curious: students cruise through middle school without earning formal credits, then suddenly in ninth grade they have to start “earning” their way to graduation. It’s a big jump, and for many students it is a real shock.

In most states, students advance from 6th to 7th, 7th to 8th, and 8th to 9th grade without worrying about credit accumulation. They move up because they attended class, completed enough work, or simply reached the age cut-off. But then come ninth grade, when every course counts toward a diploma. Fail a class, and you can quickly fall off track.

I frequently remind 8th grade students the importance of work ethic and simply trying. It seems like even the best students have become apathetic towards putting forth the best effort to get the greatest reward- a good grade. Students expect us to spoon feed them, parents want educators to coddle "their baby", and administrators expect to see results with the two aforementioned things intertwined. It's a recipe for disaster.

I have seen year after year, students passed on to high school without passing a single academic course in 8th grade. As an educator and parent, this is not effective. How are we preparing productive, career driven, independent adults if students are rewarded with mediocre effort. As my parents told me years ago, "your only job is to go to school and make good grades". I know that is not the reality for many of our youth- some are faced with challenging home dynamics. Overall, the responsibility must lie on the student to prepare them for the shift from middle grades to high school.

What’s striking is not just how sudden this shift feels. It’s that early academic success is one of the strongest predictors of long-term outcomes. Research on transitions from middle grades to high school consistently shows that students’ performance before ninth grade matters more than many people realize (University of Chicago, 2019).

A 2019 research brief from the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research found that students who leave eighth grade with higher GPAs are far more likely to earn good grades in high school and graduate prepared for college or career. In contrast, students with lower GPAs in the middle grades have sharply reduced chances of graduation and future success.  Another report from ACT found that overall academic achievement by eighth grade has a bigger impact on college readiness by the time students graduate high school than anything that happens during high school itself (ACT, 2015).

Put simply, what happens before ninth grade sets the tone for what comes next...

And the ninth grade year itself is widely acknowledged as a “make or break” moment. Students who pass their courses and accumulate enough credits during ninth grade are much more likely to graduate on time. Some studies suggest that passing all ninth grade courses makes students nearly four times more likely to graduate than peers who fail classes early in high school (Achieve, 2018). That research helps explain why many school systems focus intensely on ninth grade on-track indicators. States and districts often monitor whether freshmen are earning the expected number of credits or passing core courses because falling behind early makes it much harder to catch up (Achieve, 2018).

But here’s the challenge: most states do not require students to earn credits in middle school. That puts the burden of learning these systems entirely in ninth grade, when the stakes are already high. Contrast that with states that allow or encourage middle school students to earn credits for passing certain courses. Some state policies let students earn high school credit for Algebra I or foreign language courses completed in middle school. In these cases, those credits show up on the high school transcript and can put students ahead before they even set foot in ninth grade.

According to my research, Florida has middle grade promotion requirements, which include successfully completing all academic classes. I experienced this while I taught in Florida for four years. While Florida's educational system has its challenges, just like any other state, I thought this concept was amazing and wished it were more wide spread across the United States.

These policies aren’t widespread, but they represent important innovations in thinking about preparation. They signal that academic momentum can start earlier and that students can benefit from experiencing the credit system before they are fully immersed in high school. It’s a shift from surprising students with expectations to equipping students with the tools they need to succeed. The evidence on early credit doesn’t just point to academic performance. It also lines up with what we know about building habits and mindsets that matter for success. When students learn early that attendance, assignment completion, and course success matter in a concrete way, they develop ownership of their learning. Those habits carry forward into high school and beyond.

This doesn’t mean middle school should be harder or that the pressure of credits should replace support and developmentally appropriate learning. Rather, it’s about intentional preparation, giving students a chance to understand how progress is measured, to recover from mistakes, and to build mastery before the expectations of high school hit.

Middle school, at its best, is a time for growth in both skills and identity. It’s when students begin to see themselves as learners with purpose, capable of setting goals and achieving them. Making credit expectations meaningful in this period doesn’t just prepare students for high school requirements. It prepares them for responsibility, accountability, and the kind of follow-through that makes graduation more than just a milestone.

If our goal is for more students to graduate prepared for college, career, and life, then preparation should start earlier. Not in ninth grade. Not halfway through high school. But in the years when students are still building habits that will stay with them. Middle school should count.

-Courtney Tolson, Ed.D.

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