Edward W. Chance Dissertation Award: For Doctoral Research in Rural Education

The Transition Practices of individual County's Rural Elementary School Districts and Their Receiving Independent gymnasium District

The design of this study was to describe the transition implementation experienced through rural elementary school district pupils entering the ninth grade at an independent gymnasium district, and to describe the ties to the place of education that exist among these same ninth grade pupils This qualitative research involved interviewing 11 ninth grade scholars six rural elementary school district counselors and/or administrators, and single independent school district counselor. Conclusions of the investigation revealed that the independent seminary district in the study does not have a structur transition implementation program to assist rural elementary academy district students. Despite literature that supports the succes of transitional programs for scholars and the fact that the shire in the study once had a transitional program, there is commonly no program in place. The individual thing every rural elementary and independent academy district staff member agreed upon was that the transition proces for the rural elementary scholars needs drastic improvement. Suggestions were provided by means of all participants to assist with improving transition.

Student make many transitions during their years of schooling: from residence to school, elementary to middle gymnasium middle to high school, and high place of education to college or work. These transitions are usually major circumstances in the lives of their pupils and their parents. The stresse created by dint of these transitions can be minimized when the fresh environment is responsive to each particular age assemblage (Shumacher, 1998). In an attempt to make the learner transition from middle school to high academy less traumatic, several schools have begun to exhibit transition programs (Hertzog & Morgan. 1999) These programs are designed to assist the incoming ninth grade pupils with feeling more comfortable in their fresh surroundings. Most schools, however, have done little if anything to assist pupils in making the transition. The scattered data about scholar transition from the middle horizontal to the high school prompt that this area is rich in its unexplored vastness (Hertzog & Morgan). For the design of this study, the confine "middle level" includes all middle grade and junior high gymnasium configurations.

Literature Review

There is limited research upon transition implementation practices used to assist pupils transitioning from a rural elementary seminary district to an independent academy district. There is little doubt that transition from a rural elementary academy district to an independent institute district is a traumatic circumstance for students especially when it requires the pupil to spend more time upon the bus, adapt to a larger scholar population, lose the comfort of brawny ties to develop new ties, adjust to a of recent origin class schedule and curriculum, prove by experiment to integrate into the extracurricular programs, and adapt to teachers that provide les individual attention.

Adults who fail to recognize the ne to bring the stress of students associated with the transition to high gymnasium need only observe the transformation in pupils from the spring of their last middle horizontal year to the fall of their ingress year at the high seminary (Hertzog & Morgan, 1998). When learners have difficulty with these transitions, academys often provide additional support end school social workers or special programs to enhance academy success. As the transition to high seminary approaches, the stakes become higher as scholars begin to connect school succes or failure with perceived life chances (Hurrelman. Engel Holler & Nordlohne, 1988) For pupils who already have had difficulty negotiating these changes at the middle horizontal high school success may present the appearance impossible.

The most basic idea behind a transition is that individual travels between definable and different points (Smith, 1997) Transition points are generally acknowledged to be domicile to school, elementary to middle academy or junior high, middle horizontal school to high school, and high institute to college or career. These perplexing transition points are fraught with hurdle and stumbling obstructs for many students. Students become anxious and distraught above the uncertainties of abrupt changes in buildings, teachers, classmates, and programs. of the like kind needless anxiety and apprehension interferes with learning and impairs confidence and vanity (Weldy, 1991). Transitions are one as well as the other difficult and exciting as they mark points of risk and opportunity for pupil development. Some suggest that scholars have serious problems making multiple, simultaneous transitions (Simmons, Blyth Van Cleave, Bush, 1979) Coleman and Collinge (1991) call the students' positive attitudes toward gymnasium bonding. These are times when it is greatest in quantity critical to bond students to the seminary level where they will part with the next few years (Odegaard & Heath, 1992) If there are no programs of transition or inadequate programs, this makes the transition for scholars even more difficult.