The transition between middle school and high school can be tough, going from being at the top of heap to the new kids on campus, and top of high school is harder and takes more organization and time management skills.
Throw in a school the size of Columbia High School and it can be daunting, and that’s why the South Orange-Maplewood School District re-tooled and reintroduced its Freshman Academy last year and hopes to build on its success this year.
“For those of you who have been in that high school, it is massive. As an adult, when I walk in, I’m overwhelmed,” Superintendent of Schools Jason Bing said at a recent Board of Education meeting. “So you can imagine what an eighth grader, who is becoming a ninth grader, feels like. So we made a separate academy for them.”
Dr. Kerri Waibel, director of Data, Research, Planning, and Evaluations, told The Village Green that in preparing to roll out this year’s Freshman Academy, team leaders “completed specializing planning over the summer that align this year’s goals for success including building core executive functioning skills in the classroom, strengthening communication with families, fostering mental health and belonging, and opening doors to career and industry exploration.”
“Building on a year of great progress, the Freshman Academy is launching the 2026–27 school year with four targeted goals aimed at keeping students on the path to success. Following significant drops in both discipline referrals and chronic absenteeism last year, Academy leaders are focused on deepening that momentum,” Waibel said.
Waibel said the counseling department “is also stepping up as a key partner, joining forces with educators to support students both academically and emotionally. Throughout the year, ninth graders will participate in a series of team-building activities designed to strengthen peer collaboration and deepen relationships across the school community.”
The Freshman Academy has its own assistant principal, teachers and counselors and keeps ninth graders together in the D wing of the school, where they are grouped in four “houses” and they spend the bulk of their time.
“99% of their time is spent in that Academy,” Bing said in June. “It’s not spent walking through a building that is ginormous…We put in a true Freshman Academy this year, [2025-26], and what I mean by ‘true Freshman Academy’ is a dedicated team of teachers, a dedicated team of counselors, a dedicated team of social workers, a dedicated curriculum for our kids.”
After gathering the data from all four quarters of 2025-26, the District was able to look at year-over-year comparisons to the year prior to implementing the Academy. Waibel said that in its first year, grades and attendance among ninth graders were up and discipline issues were down — with fights, suspensions and bullying incidents down overall by 64%. Class cuts were down by 13%, and the number of students who were chronically absent declined by 66%.
Bing told the school board in June that each quarter of the first Freshman Academy also saw a reduction in the percentages of individuals students failing courses.
“It’s moving us in the right direction,” he said.
The ninth grade curriculum is heavily focused on core subjects — English, math, science, social studies — that are required for graduation and foundational courses for the rest of high school. At the end of the 2025-26 school year, Bing addressed student and parent concerns about having freshman fewer electives — particularly in the Arts — during freshman year.
“I receive emails on a regular basis: ‘Why are we restricting electives for our ninth graders?’” Bing said, “This is why we’re restricting electives for our ninth graders. To get these results.”
He explained further: “We believe our ninth graders should be taking as many academic core graduation requirements as possible, so their schedule is freed up their sophomore, junior and senior years, which will enable them to do work-based learning, to take internships, to take those three core sequences we talked about to earn industry certifications.”
In June, Bing pointed to the success of the Freshman Academy, saying it should lead to improved graduation rates, which in 2023-24 was 89% — just below the state average. “That is one of the reasons we put the Freshman Academy in place,” he said.
Last week, after the U.S. News & World Report High School rankings came out using that 2023-24 data, Columbia’s ranking dipped to #72, and Bing and CHS Principal Frank Sanchez said the 2025-26 graduation rate is 93%.”
“We have worked hard to increase that [graduation] rate since our team came in—it is now 93.2%,” Bing wrote to the Village Green in response to an email request for comment. “While we still have work to do we are moving in the right direction. Some of our high impact initiatives include: Freshman Academy, a review of grading policy, increased mental health/wellness supports, new bell schedule, new Director of Guidance, personalized pathways for graduation, restorative practices, AP offerings increased, comprehensive academic support for students, intentionality around reducing achievement gaps, and a focus on instruction and learning.”
The Freshman Academy webpage describes the approach this way: “By creating a smaller, more personalized learning community, we help students build confidence, develop essential skills, and feel connected to their school.”
In addition, the webpage states that every freshman will participate in a three-week executive function class at some point during the school year that focuses on helping students build essential skills such as organization, time management, goal setting and effective study strategies.
The Freshman Academy also offers a 1.25-credit, self-paced “First Year Experience’ course online that covers study skills, time management, digital literacy and school policies, among other things.
Columbia High School first tried to implement a Freshman Academy in 2023 but it struggled with staffing, a curriculum and it was reduced to two days a week from five.
