The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of ninth-grade students and their teachers and parents/guardians with regard to the transition from middle school to high school. A mixed-method approach with both qualitative and quantitative measures assessed attitudes toward this transition. Student focus groups were also conducted toward this end. Parents and school staff were surveyed to gain insight into the problems associated with the student transition.Data gathered from students, parents, and school faculty were also analyzed to facilitate the design of a school-transition program for the local high school serving as the study site in this research. The findings support research that has indicated academic and social problems confronted by students transitioning into high school. All three study groups agree that developing a program to effectuate early adjustment by students and parents to this transition will “pave the way” toward ultimate student success.

In this thesis, the results of a survey regarding grade progression between secondary and upper secondary school in a municipality in the north of Sweden serve as the starting point for a study of the experiences and expectations of a number of 16 year old girls who are in the first year of upper secondary school. The study is performed by means of focus group interviews with female pupils from the three largest upper secondary schools in said municipality in an attempt to gauge their experiences of grades, grade assessment, teacher practices and perceived differences in how boys and girls are treated. The results show that most of the girls are disappointed with upper secondary school so far. Many of them feel that secondary school was both more fun and more rewarding in a sense of learning. Their appreciation of how this more rewarding atmosphere affected their grades differed between the various groups. One group considered lower demands in upper secondary school to be a good thing since it made good grades easy to achieve, whereas one of the other two groups considered the lower demands to be demotivating at best.