Preparing Your Middle Schoolers

It won’t be long before holiday break is over and school resumes. In many middle schools, January is the month when parents are invited to “what to expect in high school” information nights. A range of topics are possible, but hopefully one will be how to prepare for a successful high school and college experience.

As I point out in Toward College Success: Is Your Teenager Ready, Willing, and Able?, middle school is the time to start teaching the life skills that every teenager will need when they leave home. It is also the time to be aware of what academic requirements your teenager needs to complete to be competitive in the college application process. Dr. David Conley of the University of Oregon, in his 2007 “Redefining College Readiness” paper, writes that “because colleges judge students based on the sum total of their performance in high school, it is critical that students begin their journey toward college readiness before they arrive in high school….For their part, students need to be making careful decision as they plan their very first high school course schedule as incoming ninth graders.”

Others are apparently thinking about this connection between the middle and high school years. A Dec. 26 Education Week article explains that “Cincinnati city schools are taking another look at how to boost student performance by merging some middle schools with high schools, betting the move will help younger students by providing more academic options sooner.” Such a move would allow the mathematical whiz to advance more rapidly, the science master to take a larger variety of classes, and the writer to work his way through creative writing courses.

Whatever the situation at your child’s middle school, if college is the eventual goal, it is time to seriously consider all the skills, both academic and life, that he or she will need to master—then get to planning!

Read the Education Week article at: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2011/12/26/482208ohmergingmiddleschools_ap.html
Read Dr. David Conley’s paper at: https://epiconline.org/publications/articles_%2526amp%3B_reports