Easing the Transition From Middle School to High School: Developmentally Responsive Transition-Related Supports

• In Event: Roundtable Session 40
  In Roundtable Session: Enhancing Learning Opportunities for Young Adolescents

Abstract

This present qualitative multi-site case study (N = 23) was to gain a detailed understanding of how transition-related supports at the middle and high school level may foster a developmentally responsive transition. Data were collected during the spring semester, summer, and fall semester of 2009, including observations, individual interviews, and focus group interviews of 23 participants. Findings suggest that procedural and social transition-relate supports fostered a developmentally responsive transition while academic transition-related supports both supported and hindered a developmentally responsive transition. The importance of implementing transition-related supports designed to focus on the procedural, social, and academic aspects of the transition in order truly meet students’ needs and foster a developmentally responsive transition emerged as the major theme of this investigation.

Authors

• Jennifer M. Denmon, University of South Florida

• Ruchelle L. Owens, University of South Florida

• Cheryl R. Ellerbrock, University of South Florida

• Krista Lindstrom, University of South Florida

• Sarah Boles-Haslup, University of South Florida