by KYW's Dr. Marciene Mattleman

The June graduation ceremonies are just about over and educators nationwide are hoping that for many kids, they’re not the last.
 
Whether schools are called junior highs, middle or intermediate schools, administrators in southern California are toning down commencement ceremonies, although they may concede that many of the kids won’t make it through high school.

They’ve scaled back ceremonies at the end of  8th grade because they have too closely resembled high school graduations. Administrators want kids and families not to think of finality, but rather than a transition.
 
In Santa Ana, officials call the ceremony “promotion,” with the message that completion of 8th grade is not a milestone, but rather a benchmark.

According to the Los Angeles Times, schools in that city, call 6th grade completion a “culmination,” and to make the point, students at a recent 6th grade promotion ceremony were addressed as the class of 2012.

In a city with the dropout rate reported as high as 50%, every means available should be used to keep the kids in school to work toward a high school diploma.