An extra year of middle school?

The urban environment of Washington, D.C. hasn't been known as the most "friendly" and some kids are taking notice. Some have even requested not to move up to high school once graduating from middle school.

Christian Carter's conversation with his mother began last fall just before dinner. The eighth-grader said he didn't like any of next year's D.C. high school choices. The places were too scary or too disorganized, he said. He wanted to stay at Shaw Middle School, a former educational disaster area suddenly doing well. Other classmates had similar chats with their parents, their principal and eventually the chancellor of the city schools.

Now, to the astonishment of nearly every adult involved, class president Christian and his friends have become, as far as historians can determine, the first eighth-graders ever to lobby successfully for a ninth grade at their middle school so they could have an extra year to prepare for the jarring realities of urban high school.

That's an interesting concept, and what might be taken from this is not just an escape from a bad high school situation but allowing for more time in middle school so that ninth graders can transition more. 

Plenty of people could probably tell you about how awkward their freshman year is, throw in the hostile high school environments of D.C., and you have a serious problem on your hands.

Do you think more middle schools should have a ninth grade? Do you think kids should be allowed to stay in schools that are in much better situations than the high schools that they have to go to? What do you think?