Washington 9th graders perform better with new program, but funding isn’t guaranteed

Across Washington state, schools rolled out a support system designed to help high school freshmen over the last few years. 

In the Ninth Grade Success initiative, teachers and other school support staff pair up with students dealing with low grades, truancy, poor behavior and more. 

A recent state evaluation shows it’s working: More students pass their classes and stay on track to graduate, a report for the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction shows.

“It’s really a student-centered approach,” said Kimberly Tennant, assistant principal at River Ridge High School, part of the North Thurston Public Schools. “We do empathy talks, we talk to their parents, we talk to their teachers. We kind of get a whole picture of the kid and then we think about what the student needs.” 

Around 60 schools participate in the program. Those that do typically see a 6 percentage point boost in freshman students passing their classes, according to the evaluation.

Ninth grade is a critical year for students, and studies show that those who pass their freshman year classes are more likely to graduate high school on time. 

In schools with 250 enrolled ninth graders, about 15 more students stayed on track to graduate.

“This evaluation confirms what educators across Washington have seen firsthand: when we strengthen educators’ routines and data practices, students receive the right support during their first year of high school, more of them succeed,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal.

Last year, Ninth Grade Success served 50 schools across 32 districts, but there are more schools that have sustained the program without additional funding, said Katy Payne, chief strategy officer for OSPI. 

Ninth Grade Success is particularly helpful for low-income and multilingual students where on-track graduation rates increased by 6.75 percentage points and 10.96 percentage points, respectively. 

“Ninth grade is a make-or-break year,” said Henterson Carlisle, Northwest regional director for the Center for High School Success, a nonprofit educational organization that partnered with OSPI to help get the program started. 

“This approach has been working for kids, regardless of what school, community, where you live … As long as we can continue to have the partnership with OSPI and the state of Washington, I see a future — a bright future — for our ninth graders.”

The program is comparatively cheap, but with the state of Washington’s budgetary affairs, it’s longevity isn’t promised. 

Those involved with the program are “gravely concerned” about funding.

“Every year, until we have multi-year funding or funding that is guaranteed, there’s always a worry,” Carlisle said. “I’m not comfortable saying, oh yeah, we’re going to be here next year.” 

OSPI will be requesting $1.5 million each year over the next four years to keep the program running and to expand it to more schools, said Payne. 

North Thurston Public Schools received $6,000 in the 2025-2026 school year to kickstart the program.  

In its first year, 65.8% of ninth graders at North Thurston passed all their courses. In the 2024-2025 school year, that figure jumped to 75.4%. Last year, it was 72.8%, according to data from OSPI. 

Ninth Grade Success operates in 15 states. Washington launched a pilot program in five high schools in the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. Over the next seven years, it expanded to 78 schools, according to the OSPI evaluation.