Stephanie White, an English teacher at DuVal High School, asked a group of incoming freshman about the penalty for fighting in school.

"Suspension," several students replied during the July 16 session.

White agreed, adding that a student who fights receives a 10-day suspension, but there are no consequences for the fight instigators.

"They're here getting their good grades," White said. "So you have to think about the end result. You have to get out of the moment."

White's discussions about actions and consequences are part of the Prince George's County school system's new Jumpstart to Graduation program, a summer session designed to help ninth-grade students know what to expect when they attend one of the county's Smaller Learning Communities schools this fall.

The SLC program — currently being piloted at Crossland High School in Temple Hills, Potomac High School in Oxon Hill, DuVal in Lanham, Oxon Hill High School and Suitland High School — will divide all grades into smaller "career academies" within the buildings to make larger high schools less intimidating. School officials plan to eventually incorporate the model at all county high schools.

Chantel Willis, 13, of Lanham said she was nervous about coming to a school with older students, but the summer program has eased her fears.

"The way [White] talks about it, it doesn't seem that bad," she said of high school.

Yusuf Kura, 15, of Lanham said he feels more prepared for high school now.

"I got to know the teachers and the students. It's been good," he said.

The SLC program, including the summer preparation portion, is being funded with a five-year, $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. At the ninth- and 10th-grade levels, students in SLC schools will be grouped together as much as possible, allowing the same groups of students to have their core classes together, whenever possible. In the 11th and 12th grades, students will break into "career academies" based on their career interests, and have courses together, whenever possible.

The summer program was open to any incoming ninth-graders in the five schools, and 750 students are participating. The summer program includes classes in English and math; provides breakfast, lunch and transportation; and has an advisory period that focuses on study skills and college and career planning. There is no cost to the students.

"What we wanted to do is make sure we energize kids and get them focused on what they need to do in order to graduate in 2013," said Darlene J. Bruton, coordinating supervisor of Small Learning Communities and signature programs for county schools.

According to a 2007 report from the National High School Center, an information clearinghouse funded by the U.S. Department of Education, 40 percent of high school dropouts in low-income schools leave after the ninth-grade, and in schools with less poverty, 27 percent drop out after the ninth grade.

Last school year, the program began with ninth-graders at the SLC schools being assigned advisers responsible for getting to know them, and they met with their advisers in small groups. That practice will continue this year with the new ninth-graders and with 10th-graders.

"We don't want students to pass through high school anonymously, as many kids do because our high schools are very large," Bruton said.