Fruitport High School: 9th Grade Guided Academics

Fruitport High School selected math, literacy, and behavioral targets to address the needs of those students at risk for dropout. Rather than selecting 15 students already in high school, the team selected their struggling learners who were a semester away from becoming freshmen. The team worked with middle school staff in order to find which students—as perceived by the middle school staff—were struggling. In order to support a strong transition from 8th to 9th grade, the team partnered with colleagues at the middle school level to administer reading assessments and to collect data within the other three categories of the learning criteria. The high school team hand-scheduled the core academic classes for this group of students. In addition, the team added a class at the end of the day within which they could provide more supportive services.

During this pilot class, entitled “Guided Academics,” students had an opportunity to improve their literacy skills, complete assignments, participate in service learning, and receive support from their older classmates—members of a student leadership group.

By the end of the first semester, which is a critical time period for buildings to monitor the early warning signs for dropout, most of the students in guided academics were passing three out of four core academic classes. While this success seems a modest achievement, for most of the students, elementary school was the last time any of them had passed a core class.

In addition to adding Guided Academics, the principal and the team reorganized their school improvement practices and set targets according to the four learning criteria. School improvement materials were distributed to parents and the community with measurable goals to be achieved within the school year.

While the Fruitport team may not have been aware that their attempts were decreasing the bureaucracy about which Curran Neild warned, their efforts helped to equalize the influence of departmental decision making by adopting schoolwide school improvement targets.

Screening Tools and Responding With Appropriate Interventions

After schools analyzed their individual building data, all the schools were invited to explore the adoption of the eight practices of Response to Intervention (RtI). Schools spend the second year of the initiative learning how to build such a system.
Each team needed to know the scope of student needs. In order to quantify the need, many schools began with a universal screening tool. This screening is a critical first step in assessing how to build the tiers of intervention.

At the beginning of the second year, all the teams compared their struggling students’ early warning signs against any other students who might also be experiencing academic failure. Teams reviewed how many of their students had been retained, had attendance problems, and were two grade levels below in reading and math proficiency.

Early warning sign research and tools are available through the National High School Center. Though some of the schools reported a familiarity with some of the risk factors, they may not have had the tools to screen for literacy and/or math. By the end of the second year, most of the schools in the initiative had conducted curriculum-based assessments in reading and/or math.

The use of either the AIMSweb system or the Northwest Evaluation Association screening tool provided the teams with information about the depth of the learning challenges in the building.
These screening tools, more commonly found at the elementary level, are designed to assist the schools in how to build tiers of intervention.

In the upcoming year of the initiative, the schools will use the screening information in order to match student need with evidence-based interventions in literacy and/or math. The administration of the assessment for students in either 6th or 9th grade will provide snapshots of information, which should indicate how much time and which interventions are needed to produce positive student results.

The RTSL initiative leaders believe that a better prepared middle school student is likely to have a more successful transition into high school—an environment that is experienced by the student as a new level of schooling. While middle school students may not be oriented to the issue of credit attainment, they will be at the senior high. Improved core subject proficiency is likely to lower the risks inherent in changing schools. For example, a better reader is likely to have the emotional energy to take on the challenge of learning new study skills or team building skills. After becoming a more mature, self-directed learner in high school, a high school graduate is more likely to achieve better postsecondary outcomes—a target for all educators, especially those in the transition community.

Secondary RtI

Secondary level adoption of RtI presents unique challenges statewide and nationally. Barriers to common planning time for teachers, uneven literacy supports, and building size are often cited as features of high school reform that make the work difficult. Teams have reported their appreciation for having three years in the RTSL initiative in order to move into an RtI model. This systems approach builds efficiencies for meeting the needs of all learners. The teams are working with their colleagues to adopt all eight practices of RtI.

Sharing schoolwide goals helps teachers build a sense of collective efficacy, sometimes referred to as teaming. Mutual efforts are likely to build social networks, especially needed by new teachers, and may lead to new sources of support in terms of parent involvement and community collaborations. All the teams have worked to make sure this connectedness moves beyond the school walls.

Social cohesion seems to improve parent involvement. Fruitport conducted home visits for all of the students enrolled in their guided academics class, Kent Transition Center has a clothes and school materials closet (run by parent volunteers), Morrice asked a parent to serve on their Reaching and Teaching team, Greenville parents raised money to buy more AR quizzes since demand had exceeded the school’s budget, and Suttons Bay has improved relationships with their Native American students’ families and tribal elders. To read more about the Suttons Bay story, watch for the upcoming FOCUS on Results article Suttons Bay High School: Learning Together to Improve Student Achievement for All Students.

RTSL Promotes Positive School Culture

The RTSL buildings regularly monitor how successfully their vision is being communicated to their neighborhoods and families. For the RTSL teams, evidence of their shared vision must translate into a positive school culture.

As a pre-test to measure the positive quality of their school culture, all the buildings administered the Aspirations Survey to staff and to students. The survey revealed how effectively the teachers engaged one another and how effectively they engaged their students. The results helped the administrators, teachers, and staff review the degree to which they are welcoming and supportive to all students and their families. Kenowa Hills High School trained 30 teachers in Capturing Kids Hearts this summer in response to their survey results. Download free tools and activities, including surveys, from Leading With Trust by Susan Stephenson.

To support the work of the whole staff, the teams received professional development for team facilitators. Facilitator professional development occurred before each large group meeting and emphasized the need to build ‘relational trust’ with each other and their students. According to Trust in Schools, Bryk and Schnieder report that high achieving schools exhibit large amounts of relational trust with students and with their families. Facilitators were trained in learning community practices, trust-building dialogue skills, and collaborative problem solving.

Teams and facilitators have noted that positive student engagement has become a much higher priority. The RTSL leadership group holds to the theory that as teachers are supported, they are more likely to support their students. The teams explored the congruence between their beliefs and their practices. Were they walking the talk of ‘all children can succeed’? Most staff report a fundamental shift within their team and among their staff. They have moved from trying to change the students to helping the adults change practices.