This year, Duval County’s 6th and 9th grade students will get help dealing with the many changes inherent in going from elementary to middle school and middle school to high school.
Duval school Superintendent Dr. Nikolai Vitti says the transition classes were created to give students the tools they need to succeed in school.
“We know we’re losing a lot of students in a transition year from elementary to middle and from middle to high school so that transition class is about reading coming of age novels, and about giving them exposure to the skills, strategies to cope with issues like bullying," he said.
"So those classes are really built to offer students an opportunity to understand who they are and who they’re not.”
Vitti says the transition classes will also get students used to working together, which is one of the key instructional components of the new common core standards.
Duval County makes the switch to common core next year.
