The new ninth grade

Crispus Attucks High School is redesigning its freshman year experience, and the changes could soon be a model for Indianapolis Public Schools.

Attucks will see hundreds of new students next fall as one of the district’s four high schools spared from closure. That change will come a year after the school lost its middle school grades, prompting the administration to rethink its approach to ninth grade and create a program to help students adjust and thrive...