Re-Building Student Supports for Pandemic-Impacted Times

Hosted by AASA, The Superintendents Association

November 17, 2022

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Noelle Ellerson

Associate Executive Director, Advocacy & Governance

AASA

Our Speakers Today

Carla Gay

Gresham-Barlow School District

Robert Balfanz

Director

Everyone Graduates Center, Johns Hopkins School of Education

Candace Robertson

Director of College and Career Strategy

NOLA Public Schools

Executive Director, Innovation and Partnership

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Today will Examine Two Questions

• Why do we need to rebuild student supports to meet current challenges?

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• How can Student Success Systems help us do this?

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How We Will Start to Answers the Questions

• Short presentation by Bob Balfanz
• Discussion with school leaders
• Carla Gay, Candace Robertson, and audience
• Share a free tool you can use
• Invite you to join the GRAD Partnership

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Why Current Student Support Efforts are Not Sufficient for a Pandemic Impacted World

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They Were Not Designed for Current Scale and Scope of Student Needs

As we emerge out of the Pandemic many schools are still facing historically high levels of:

• Chronic absenteeism
• Behavioral challenges
• Academic gaps and course failures
• Mental health needs
• Slowed momentum through high school to postsecondary schooling and/or training (e.g., high school graduation and college going rates)

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They are Often Fragmented, While Student Need is Usually Holistic

Many of our current student support systems arose in past 20 years in response to specific needs. Collectively they consume a lot of teacher and school staff time but still leave some students not well supported.

Early Warning/On-Track Systems – dropout prevention, graduation rates

PBIS – behavior challenges

RTI/MTSS – academic challenges

Attendance Teams – attendance challenges

College Readiness/Counseling – course taking, applications, financial aid

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Do Not Fully Incorporate Recent Learnings from Brain Science and Youth Development

For example, School Connectedness – we did not know how important this was until we lost it in the Pandemic

It is as close as we have to an universal prevention action. When students are connected to school – they do better in school, have better mental and physical health, and engage in fewer risky behaviors.

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School Connectedness

Students are connected to school when…

• They believe there is an adult who knows and cares about them as a person
• They have a supportive peer group
• They engage in activities they see as helping others
• They feel welcome in school for who they are

All of this is measurable and actionable by schools but is currently not systematically collected or acted on in most schools.

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How Do We Create Student Supports that Are Strong Enough for Pandemic-Impacted Times?

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Nine Organizations Pooled Their Learnings and Experiences

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We Conducted Surveys and Focus Groups with Over 300 Educators

Including :

• Teachers
• Counselors
• Principals
• District Student Support Staff
• Superintendents
• School Board Members
• Community Partners (Non-Profits)

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We Sought Insight From

• School Districts
• State Departments of Education
• Key Constituent Organizations

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Building on Prior Work with Early Warning and On-Track Systems This Led to the Development of Student Success Systems

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Student Success Systems

Student success systems are a way of organizing a school community to better support the academic progress and well-being of all students.

They

• combine a focus on building strong relationships
• with real-time, actionable data,
• are guided by improvement science, and
• shaped by student-centered mindsets.

By integrating these four elements they help educators address school-wide achievement patterns and school culture issues, increase school connectedness and a sense of belonging among students, and meet individual student needs.

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01 | Supportive Community Relationships

Engaging and supporting all students so they can graduate on a pathway to postsecondary success

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Supportive relationships in all directions — school adults to students, students to students, staff to staff, school adults to parents/caregivers — provide the foundation for student and school success. High-quality student success systems both build upon and strengthen these relationships.

02 | Holistic, Real Time, Actionable Data

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The data encompass:

• Research-based indicators such as attendance, course grades, and grade point averages that can predict key student outcomes,
• Information about student well-being, belonging, school connectedness, and experiences in their classrooms.
• Insights from teachers, school staff, students, and families/caregivers.

03 | An Analysis, Response, and Improvement System

Student Success Teams:�

• Progress monitor all students using predictive indicators of well-being (belonging and school connectedness) and academic success
• Identify underlying causes that school actions can address
• Develop, and implement strategic actions and supports to address those causes
• Evaluate the use and impact of the actions and supports, and
• Use continuous improvement approaches to modify or change them as needed until proven to work.

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Actions and supports can be at the district, school, grade, classroom, student subgroup, or individual levels.

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04 | A Shared Set of Mindsets

Student Success Systems work best when the adults implementing them develop a shared understanding of their purpose including:

• Equity rather than injustice and unfairness
• Inclusion rather than separating and stigmatizing
• Empathy rather than judging and blaming
• Strengths- and asset-based framing rather than deficit framing
• Proaction rather than remediation
• Belief in educator and student agency rather than thinking nothing can be done
• Improving with and together, rather than improving alone, for, or because
• Acting based on evidence and with shared understanding rather than compliance and custom

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How Student Success Systems Work

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Student Success Systems: Benefits

Student Success Systems provide schools with a unified system that integrates, extends, and increases the capacity of existing student support efforts, including early warning, on-track, and multi-tiered support systems.

Ultimately, Student Success Systems will lead to greater outcomes for current levels of adult effort.

As a result, schools are empowered to graduate ALL students on a pathway to higher education and job training that leads to adult success.

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Student Success Systems in Action

The BARR model brings together actionable data, supportive relationships, and evidence-based practices. A recently released randomized control trial conducted by AIR further confirms the impact of the BARR Model and the student success system within it.

Manzano High School, Alburquerque, NM, named GRAD Partnership Spotlight School

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Conversation with �District Leaders

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Student Success System

Team Reflection Tool

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Team Reflection Tool

This tool is designed to help schools …

• examine their existing student support systems to see where improvements will have the most impact
• in operating and continually improving their student success system
• spark courageous conversations
• Adaptable to be unique to the contexts of school communities

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Team Reflection Tool, cont’d

A fillable template that focuses on the four elements of a high-quality student success system:

• Supportive Community Relationships
• Holistic, Real Time, Actionable Data
• An Analysis, Response, and Improvement System
• A shared set of mindsets

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Team Reflection Tool, cont’d

• Provides teams/schools with set of guiding questions for each component, as well as guidance on the data to examine and what to look for

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• Action planning tools help schools decide what areas of existing student support systems should be improved to create a student success system.

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Team Reflection Tool, cont’d

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Seeking Participants

We are inviting schools to pilot the team reflection tool:

• Sign up here if you are interested in piloting the self-reflection tool or want to know more (link is also in the chat!)

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GRAD Partnership: Advocating for Student Success Systems

GRAD Partnership brings together nine organizations to partner with schools, districts, and local community organizations to create the conditions to bring the use of evidence-based Student Success Systems from a new practice to an integral part of a school's work.

Our Mission: to advance Student Success Systems so that all students graduate ready for their future.

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GRAD Partnership: Our Current Efforts Include:

• Ongoing dialogue about Student Success Systems
• Recruiting schools and districts
• Connecting with potential Intermediaries (advocating and implementing)
• Developing tools and resources
• Building networks to support educators

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How to Participate in the GRAD Partnership

DISTRICTS &�SCHOOLS

INTERMEDIARIES &�COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS

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ADVISING & �COMMUNICATING PARTNERS

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• Partner with us to plan, implement, and sustain high-quality student success systems so that middle and high schools are empowered to graduate all students ready for the future.
• Multiple types of technical assistance and training are available that can be tailored to your needs.

• Partner with us to increase your capacity to support school level implementation of student success systems in local schools.
• Work with us to advocate for the widespread use of next generation early warning/on-track systems.

Communicating Partners spread the word in your networks on the value of high-quality student success systems.

Advising Partners give feedback on tools and resources, Nominate schools, already implementing high quality student success systems, to showcase

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GRAD Partnership Events: https://www.gradpartnership.org/events/

Upcoming Community of Practices:

• How a City Learned to Improve Graduation Rates
• Nov. 30, 2022 at 2:00pm ET
• Definition of High Quality Success Systems
• Dec. 14, 2022 at 2:00pm ET
• Working with Postsecondary Readiness Indicators
• Jan. 11, 2023

Join the GRAD Partnership: https://www.gradpartnership.org/how-to-participate/

Join us!

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Contact

Nine organizations partnering with communities to use high-quality student success systems so that schools are empowered to graduate all students ready for the future.

Who We Are

Robert Balfanz

Director

Everyone Graduates Center, Johns Hopkins School of Education

Patricia Balana

Managing Director

GRAD Partnership

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Thank You

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