Historically, the repeat ninth grader was a boy whose parents wanted to give him one more year to mature physically or emotionally before entering high school. But parents of boys and girls alike are now looking at repeating as a way to cement academic skills, build confidence and maturity, and put students on track for a more successful high school experience. “We want our parents to understand the importance of continuing to build their child’s confidence,” says Fay Secondary School Counselor Courtney Sargent, “because a confident kid will often be a successful student.”

The best of both worlds

While the majority of Fay’s ninth graders move on to tenth grade in secondary school, the students who repeat ninth in secondary school get the “best of both worlds,” in Courtney’s opinion. At Fay, ninth graders get the benefit of culminating experiences like the weeklong service trip to the Dominican Republic and leadership opportunities like captaining a team without missing out on the freshman experience of their next school and integrating with that community’s academic and social culture.

A stronger transcript

As parents look ahead to college, repeating ninth grade can also be a way to strengthen a student’s high school transcript. Not only do these students enter secondary school with greater confidence and preparation, they are often placed on an advanced academic trajectory having already completed the basic freshman coursework at their previous school. A student who has already taken geometry - the typical ninth grade math course - can take Algebra II as a freshman in secondary school.

More time, more options

For parents, the decision to repeat often raises questions of how that student will fare in the secondary school admissions process. In Courtney’s experience, repeat ninth grade applicants do extremely well in secondary school admissions and are often strong applicants for schools that might have been considered out of their reach in eighth grade. Perhaps the best advocates for repeating are the parents whose children have done it. “I’ve never had a family look back and say that repeating was ill-advised or a waste of time, and actually I’ve had many parents who have made that choice for an older child and then done it again with their younger siblings,” says Courtney. “If the pieces fit together and it makes sense for your child, then I believe there’s nothing to lose.”

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