Advocates for Children Report

27 Jan Advocates for Children Report

Advocates for Children Report on Over-age middle school students

Over-Age Middle School Students at Risk of Dropping Out Due to Shortage of Programs

9.10.2014 | More than 50,000 middle school students – a quarter of the students in New York City’s public middle schools — have been left back at least once, and more than 8,500 students have been left back at least 3 times. Despite their significant academic and social-emotional needs, there are fewer than 450 seats in programs for over-age middle school students in the City’s traditional public and charter schools.

Today Advocates for Children of New York (AFC) is releasing a report, Sixteen Going on Seventh Grade: Over-Age Students in New York City Middle Schools, to bring attention to the unique needs of over-age middle schoolers and to provide the New York City Department of Education (DOE) with recommendations for improving outcomes for this population.

“Thousands of these students have been retained repeatedly, but without the additional support they needed to move on to the next grade,” said Kim Sweet, Executive Director of Advocates for Children of New York. “They’re stuck in limbo until many of them give up and drop out. Researchers have documented that dropout rates are two to eleven times higher among previously-retained students than their on-track peers. As the DOE focuses long-overdue attention on middle schools, we need new strategies to restore educational opportunity for the students struggling repeatedly to meet grade-level standards.”

AFC is also releasing a new publication for families, Guide for Over-Age Middle School Students, which explains the legal rights of NYC students and describes programs for over-age middle schoolers.

View the press release
Read the policy report 
Read AFC’s Guide for Over-Age Middle School Students

– See more at: http://www.advocatesforchildren.org/node/802#sthash.288KBPm3.dpuf