A Comparison on Non-traditional Middle School Students - Essay Example

From the discussion it is clear that due to globalization, the United States has experienced an influx of foreigners in the last four decades resulting in changes in the public education sector. There has been a variation in academic performance between traditional and non-traditional students. According to Texas State’s statistics, 80% of traditional students move to high school in contrast to 34% for non-traditional students. Also, community-based providers and school officials that serve students in public schools have reported an increase in the number of non-traditional sixteen-year-old seventh graders or seventeen-year-old eighth graders remaining in middle school.

This study stresses that school districts are attempting to address the problem by making changes in their educational systems in order to address the needs of these students. The school officials have developed special programs and various strategies within schools to target the specific group of students in middle school. The retention impacts negatively on the non-traditional students in middle school. There are many middle school students who are retained in middle school, which increases the dropout rate by the time students reach high school.

Various studies have evidenced other factors that cause students to be retained and become over-age in middle schools without interventions to alleviate the problems. These students experience self-esteem issues, low reading and math skills, behavioral/emotional needs, a high need for individual attention.