106). What I liked about this article: I found in my own experience that boys do feel more connected when they begin high school than girls do. Akos suggests that boys may have a less intense concern about social and academic issues entering high school than girls. This was true in my high school experience, and I smiled when I read the data in this section.

What I learned from this assignment. It was interesting to review the data regarding the difficulties that Latino students have as they enter middle school and high school. Latino students "may need particular attention during the transition to middle school." For one thing, there are "language barriers" to overcome. Also, the families of Latino students traditionally do not believe it's appropriate to become personally involved in school. It is noteworthy that Latino students received most support from counselors -- because counselors are generally bilingual.

The gist of this article is that the transition from elementary to...

But the bottom line is teachers, counselors and administrators should pay heed to research like this, so they can provide help to students making the transition, which can help students settle in sooner and improve grades. I did not find any part of the article difficult to understand (except perhaps some of the algebraic data involved in the breakdown of responses), and colleges students (especially those going into teaching) should be well aware of all these transitional issues that young students face. Even for college students who are not going into teaching, they will be parents one day and the more they can understand about the challenges young people face moving from middle school to high school, and from elementary school to middle school, the better they will be able to guide their own children. One highlight that is perhaps most important as far as ethnicity, is that Latino students do need substantial support…