Gewertz, C. (2017, November 01). Peers Guide 9th Graders Through ‘Make-or-Break’ Year.

Two teenage boys joking around before class starts—no big deal, right? Scenes like this play out every day at high schools across the country. But this one is part of a carefully orchestrated project to help students survive a make-or-break year in their lives: 9th grade. The project uses 11th and 12th graders as its secret weapons, training them to shepherd freshmen through their perilous first year of high school, and set them on a glide path to graduation.