Predictors of success for successful transition in a hispanic serving school district

Eighth-grade students experience significant difficulties as they transition into a high school setting (Weiss & Baker-Smith, 2010). To ease the transition to high school, many districts offer solutions such as freshman academies and an emphasized focus on 8th grade students, such as additional counseling and parent meetings (McCallumore & Sparapani, 2010). However, with average freshman graduation rate (AFGR) at 80% for all students and 75% for Hispanic students, the inadequacies among freshmen academic achievement in the United States is evident (Stetser & Stillwell, 2014). In addition, the disparity between the AFGR for Hispanic students is more prevalent when compared to the 84% AFGR for White students. Therefore, this quantitative study intended to add knowledge to current literature by statistically testing data from a predominately Hispanic South Texas rural school district. This study aimed to distinguish the relationship between the levels of student achievement on the 2014-2015 9th grade English I STAAR End-of-Course (EOC) exam and 2013-2014 8th grade student data. The examined variables included 8th grade Reading State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) scores, overall grade average, attendance, socioeconomic status and Language Proficiency status. To measure the predictability of the independent variables on the ninth grade English I EOC exam, a multiple regression analysis was conducted. Descriptive statistics and gender differences would also be evaluated. All the data analyses were conducted using SPSS version 22. In testing the three null hypotheses, the regression equations indicated significant predictions toward the STAAR ELA EOC exam scale scores among: H01: F(5, 350) = 83.88, p < .001 (all students), H02: F(5, 173) = 47.50, p < .001 (female students) and H03: F(5, 171) = 37.52, p < .001 (male students). The data gathered from this study may provide school leaders with the needed inquiry to create or enhance the necessary transition systems that could ensure that social, procedural, and academic concerns are minimized