Starting next fall, ninth grade will look a little different at Whitefish High School.

Instead of jumping right into a traditional high school schedule, ninth-graders will be part of a freshman academy.

The academy will create a smaller learning environment within the school, and even within the freshman class, which will be divided into two teams.

Each team will have about 65 students and core classes including English, science, 21st century literacy, business, physical education and health.

The setup is intended to ease the “traumatic” transition from eighth grade to high school, Principal Dave Carlson said.

“That’s a pretty big jump,” he said.

Freshman Academy-ASPIRE (Achieving Success through the Pursuit of Integrity, Responsibility and Excellence) has been in the works for more than a year, said Carlson, who is in his first year as principal.

Other schools across the nation and in Montana have implemented freshman academies to help ninth-graders adjust to high school. Kalispell Public Schools instituted freshman academies at Flathead and Glacier high schools when Glacier opened in 2007.

Some research suggests that students in freshman academies have more successful high school careers than those without the program. The research says there are better test scores, lower truancy rates and steady or improved grade-point averages among students who have gone through a freshman academy.

Much of the research has taken place at larger schools trying to create a small-school atmosphere, but Assistant Principal Pat Audet said even a school such as Whitefish High can help students through freshman academy.

“We do still need the small groups. It’s a huge jump from eighth to ninth,” said Audet, the freshman academy director.

About 500 students are enrolled at Whitefish High School this year. Carlson anticipates about 135 students in next year’s freshman class.

Some students will come from nearby Whitefish Christian Academy, and a handful of Olney-Bissell graduates will attend high school in Whitefish even though the school is a feeder district for Glacier High.

But most of the freshman class will graduate this spring from Whitefish Middle School, where for the last few years, students have been part of “pods” not unlike the teams they will join as ninth-graders.

That means nearly every freshman entering the high school is used to a small-school environment. Going through ninth grade in a relatively small group will help ease the transition to high school, Audet said.

Whitefish’s freshman academy will differ from similar programs in that ninth-graders won’t be isolated from the rest of the school, Carlson said. Some academies keep freshmen in their own wing, but in a school with limited space like Whitefish High, that isn’t practical, he said.

Freshmen will have core classes with their team and then take other classes with students from the other team or other grades.

“They will be part of the school, part of the mainstream,” Carlson said. “They’ll learn to socialize with each other. It’s not designed to make them feel like they’re outsiders.”

Their core classes will include a full year of English and a full year of science, Audet said. P.E. and health will each be a semester, as will business and 21st century literacy.

The latter class will cover learning skills, financial literacy, career exploration, human relations and media literacy.

Ninth-grade classes outside the academy include history and math, which the school can’t realistically integrate into the core, Carlson said.

“Ever kid comes to us at so many different levels for math,” he said. “We don’t want to try to play one-size-fits-all for math.”

It’s also a staffing issue, he

said; with five different math classes available to freshmen at a variety of ability levels, Whitefish High couldn’t include math in the academy. With 10 teachers already committed to freshman academy — eight teaching core classes and two for special education and Title I students — “it locks up the schedule for next year,” Carlson said.

But officials say the benefits will outweigh the inconvenience a certain amount of scheduling inflexibility might cause. By having the same few teachers for a full year, school officials are hopeful that freshmen will develop “real personal relationships” with their teachers, Carlson said.

Teachers will have an opportunity to get to know their students well, and will be better able to help them, he explained. Freshmen will be able to better know their teachers’ expectations, and “what it’s going to take to get them to be successful.”

For further information about Whitefish’s freshman academy program, contact Carlson at carlsond@wfps.k12.mt.us or at 862-8600 extension 405.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.