Intervention program planned for freshmen

The county Board of Education is expected to vote Wednesday on a new program that would prevent some students at Annapolis High School from having to repeat ninth grade.

If the board approves it, the Middle College High School would open in April, at the start of the fourth marking period, said Kathy Lane, director of alternative education for county schools. It would be located on the campus of Sojourner-Douglass College in Edgewater.

"It's a really targeted intervention for a group of ninth-graders who we feel are at risk of being retained," she said.

Research suggests students who repeat ninth grade run...