Relationship-Based Intervention;The Hard Way is the Only Way
Format
Individual Presentation
Location
Scarbrough 3
Strand #1
Academic Achievement & School Leadership
Strand #2
Social & Emotional Skills
Relevance
Intervention in the areas of discipline, truancy, and at risk graduation is central in closing the achievement gap for America's most vulnerable students. We have enjoyed great intervention success at Milton High School, Milton, FL. The primary thread in all of our efforts has been relationship-building. The relationships, once built, have had a lasting impact on the social and emotional well-being of our students and have had an immediate impact on academic achievement. Consequently during this period of relationship-based intervention, MHS increased from a D to an A in a single year and has maintained this level of achievement in subsequent years.
Brief Program Description
Imagine your school with a 50% reduction in referrals, a 25% reduction in dangerously truant students, and a 50% increase in at-risk graduation rate. What might this mean to your overall school rating? Milton High School (FL) enjoys this level of improvement through relationship-based intervention. Teachers, deans, guidance counselors and administrators will benefit from these proven strategies.
Summary
Milton High School generated around 2600 discipline referrals, had between 60 and 70 students with 10% unexcused absences each year, and was chronically unable to meet the state requirement of 65% of its at-risk students graduating within four years of enrollment.
A new Principal, Michael Thorpe, took the reins and focused on bringing a robust RTI/MTSS approach to intervention. The RTI/MTSS methodology was not new, but such an intentional and deliberate embrace of the framework is not common at the high school level. Nevertheless MHS Leadership embraced RTI/MTSS and used it to bring a laserbeam focus to the work of intervention.
Whether through the establishment of the 9th Grade Academy, Discipline and Truancy RTI focus, math and reading MTSS focus, Freshman PBS, or Panther PACT, MHS has found that the common thread in all intervention success has been our ability tto build relationships with our most vulnerable students.
This deliberate relationship-based emphasis led to a 50% reduction in referral rates, a 40% reduction in OSS rates, a 25% reduction in the number of students who are dangerously truant, and a 50% increase in the percent of at-risk graduates who graduate within four years. These dramatic reductions enabled MHS to move from corrective action to become a high-achieving school.
During this presentation, participants will:
-See the blue print of MHS' path to high achievement
-Engage in an interactive exercise to gauge the state of relationship-based intervention on their own campus.
-Glean ready-made strategies and proven ideas to reach their most vulnerable students.
While the road to intervention success is paved by hard work and intentional, deliberate strategies, this presentation is designed to help school leaders establish their own blueprint for the relationship-building, which will dramatically impact their schools for the better.
Evidence
Through the use of school based data, extensive goal-setting and utilization of established strategies provided in the work of Marzano, Hattie, and Whittaker, we crafted a plan each school year
The RTI and MTSS framework have consistently provided the guidelines for identification of students in need of intervention. Discipline, OSS, and attendance data established for us where to focus our positive behavior support efforts and how to amend our discipline action hierarchy in order to best serve our most vulnerable students.
The research of AttendanceWorks.com provided the working definitions used for our establishment of dangerously truant.
As we tracked our data each year in the key areas through out School Improvement Plan, state reporting categories and school based data, our strategies were validated. This validation caused an increase in fidelity to the established strategies leading to the dramatic improvements sited in other fields of this application.
*50% reduction in referral rates over 3 years.
*40% reduction in out of school suspensions over 3 years.
*25% reduction in dangerously truant students in 1 year. (students with 10% unexcused absences for the year)
*Increase from 49% to 74% in At-Risk Graduation Rate.
Biographical Sketch
Chad Rowell is the Assistant Principal of Milton High School (Milton, FL.) In his tenure he has overseen multiple responsibilities, such as leading the Discipline, Truancy, and the MTSS Teams. Rowell has presented at the Florida Social Studies Network state conference, and has been published in the Florida Student Services Newsletter.
Keyword Descriptors
intervention, MTSS, RTI, at-risk, truancy, PBS, discipline, relationship-based, relationships
Presentation Year
2016
Start Date
3-9-2016 11:15 AM
End Date
3-9-2016 12:30 PM
Recommended Citation
Rowell, Chad G., "Relationship-Based Intervention;The Hard Way is the Only Way" (2016). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 117.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2016/2016/117
Relationship-Based Intervention;The Hard Way is the Only Way
Scarbrough 3
Imagine your school with a 50% reduction in referrals, a 25% reduction in dangerously truant students, and a 50% increase in at-risk graduation rate. What might this mean to your overall school rating? Milton High School (FL) enjoys this level of improvement through relationship-based intervention. Teachers, deans, guidance counselors and administrators will benefit from these proven strategies.
