Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

NA

Second Presenter's Institution

NA

Location

Ballroom E

Strand #1

Academic Achievement & School Leadership

Strand #2

Safety & Violence Prevention

Relevance

Academic Achievement & School Leadership:

Academic Interventions discussed will focus heavily on establishing a growth mindset with all students while supporting at-risk students through Tier II interventions to prevent failure or credit deficiencies. Intense mentoring for at-risk students will be discussed as a strategy for increasing academic engagement, achievement, and the eventual goal of graduation. Other school based interventions that support the whole student in his or her academic needs, behavioral needs, physical needs, and/or emotional needs will be presented, as students who do not have their basic needs met, will not benefit fully from the learning experience available to them.

Safety & Violence Prevention:

Often school expectations for behavior differ from home expectations for at-risk students. Through positive behavior supports, staff mentoring, and peer mentoring, schools can effectively communicate and model expected school behaviors to decrease incidences of school disruption, disrespect, and overall behavior referrals. Instead of find opportunities to punish students, this presentation will focus on opportunities to teach students the expectations and reward positive behavior so they can stay in the classroom to learn without disrupting instruction for others.

Brief Program Description

In order to effectively educate all students and make progress in closing the achievement gap, we must look at two areas for school improvement: positive relationships, and school policies and procedures. Participants in this group will walk away with strategies for building positive relationships, reducing the drop-out rate, and assisting students in meeting their goals. Participants will also learn how to evaluate current policies and procedures that may be restricting student growth or achievement through data awareness.

Summary

Students come to school now with more distractions and problems than ever before. One powerful way to cut through those distractions and help at risk students is through positive relationships between students and staff. This presentation will highlight the successful components of a high school mentoring program for all students including discussions on goal setting, graduation requirements, post secondary planning, and expectations in the school setting (Tier I intervention). By creating this collaborative environment between students and staff, additional interventions can be implemented to improve academic and behavioral outcomes for at-risk students (Tier II interventions). These interventions work to hold students accountable to high levels of learning and encourage a growth mindset while providing support based on students’ needs. Specific Interventions that will be discussed are: Credit repair, Credit recovery, Intercession Saturday School, Online Learning Communities, Peer mentoring, Communities in Schools support, Positive Behavior Supports, and Administrative coaching.

Additional barriers to student success can sometimes be found in the policies and procedures currently in place. Through simple data analysis techniques, school leaders and teachers can uncover trends in behavioral and academic data. For example, looking at the types of discipline infractions across several months or in different settings can lead to changes in supervision or student traffic patterns and can frame a discussion on expectations in the school environment. When students are punished for behavior, they are missing classes and missing vital instruction. For at-risk students, this time out of the classroom is even more detrimental. We will discuss how to use relevant data to frame discussions for effective and necessary school change.

Evidence

Interventions such as positive behavior supports and positive relationships between students and staff have a wealth of support in research and current literature. These interventions have also changed the outcomes of students dramatically over the last three years and the presenter’s high school. Over the past three years, the school has implemented a mentoring program for all students and has implemented partial components of positive behavior supports. In the first two years since implementation, and especially this past year, the school has achieved improvements in student attendance, suspension rates, 4-year graduation rate, and has significantly reduced the number of behavior referrals for students. This equates to more time for students in the learning environment. Just this past year, we have been able to shift attention to working with at-risk students in collaboration with Communities in Schools. Through this collaboration and other school-based intervention programs, we have achieved a record 4-year graduation rate as enrollment continues to climb and our free and reduced lunch numbers continue to hover around 39%. Our population has not changed, but the environment within our school and our approach to addressing weaknesses has changed through the relationships we have created and the use of data analysis and data awareness to support necessary changes.

Biographical Sketch

Jeannette Hallam, EdS, is a High School Assistant Principal in the Coweta County School System in Georgia. With 13 years of experience as an educator, she has gained varied experiences as a substitute teacher, special education teacher at the elementary, middle and high school levels, and an in-school special education coordinator before moving into administration 4 years ago. She is currently working on her dissertation at Liberty University titled, “Mathematics Content Mastery for High School Students: Homeownership Status and Blended Online Learning Versus Traditional Classroom Learning for Credit Recovery”. Previous degrees include a Specialist’s Degree in Educational Leadership, a Master’s Degree in Special Education, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy. Helping students realize their full potential in school and out of school is her passion and she is excited about sharing these strategies with others.

Keyword Descriptors

achievement, relationships, strategies, procedures, mentoring, data

Presentation Year

2016

Start Date

3-8-2016 10:15 AM

End Date

3-8-2016 11:30 AM

Download

Share

COinS
 
Mar 8th, 10:15 AM Mar 8th, 11:30 AM

Building Successful Academic and Behavioral Programs for At-Risk Youth: Low and No Cost Options

Ballroom E

In order to effectively educate all students and make progress in closing the achievement gap, we must look at two areas for school improvement: positive relationships, and school policies and procedures. Participants in this group will walk away with strategies for building positive relationships, reducing the drop-out rate, and assisting students in meeting their goals. Participants will also learn how to evaluate current policies and procedures that may be restricting student growth or achievement through data awareness.