Project for Student Success

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Project for Student Success Task Force
Report Findings and Recommendations June 25,
2008
Diane Neighbors Bob Fisher Vice
Mayor President Metropolitan
Nashville Belmont University and Davidson County
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Introduction

• First meeting in January 2008
• 40-member task force
• Developing recommendations to reduce the
  influence and impact of student dropout-related
  risk indicators

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Introduction

• Four committees
• Student Risk Factors
• Family and Parental Role
• Community Neighborhood Risk Factors
• Chronic Poor Academic Performance

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Student Risk Factors

• Research shows that the more risk factors a child
  or youth experiences, the more likely he or she
  will exhibit behavioral, academic, substance
  abuse, violence and related problems.
• School Dropout is about the risk factors in an
  individuals life that might cause a student to
  be in the position of considering dropping out as
  a viable option.
• The committees charge was to investigate the
  relationship between these risk factors and
  Nashvilles dropout problem and to recommend ways
  to build protective factors within the individual
  student at the individual, peer and school level.

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Chronic Poor Academic Performance

• Long before students drop out of school, they
  have typically established a record of poor
  academic performance.
• Evidence suggests that students most at risk of
  dropping out can be identified early in their
  academic careers, but this will require a more
  precise targeting of resources toward
  underperforming schools and at-risk students.
• The committee was charged with examining the
  issue of chronic poor academic performance and
  making recommendations for ways to break the
  cycle, which has proven to be an
  intergenerational problem affecting not only
  individual students but families and communities.

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Family and Parental Role

• Students academic performance is affected by the
  influences of others in their lives.
• Parents and family have particular impact on
  students due to their emotional connections and
  dependency/care-giving relationships.
• The committees charge was to understand the role
  and relationship of the family and parent as it
  relates to helping their student succeed, and
  recommend real-world suggestions for ways improve
  the relationships between schools and
  parents/families.

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Community Neighborhood Risk Factors

• Poverty, violence, segregation, low percentage of
  home ownership, low educational attainment, high
  unemployment and lack of services characterize
  the neighborhoods of the majority of youth in
  Metro Nashville Public Schools.
• Under these conditions, it is very difficult for
  youth to attend school ready to learn and
  succeed.
• The committee's charge was to collect and process
  information to understand the facts about MNPS
  and Nashvilles neighborhoods and to develop
  recommendations that will better address the
  needs of students from distressed neighborhoods
  and change area conditions to produce
  neighborhoods that support students educational
  success.

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Three Phases

• Investigative phase
• gather community input, collect data and
• research, and identify existing resources and
• programs in the community
• Issue identification phase
• to determine the most critical and salient issues
• influencing the student dropout rate in local
• schools and
• Recommendation phase
• combine the data gathered concerning specific
• issues with research on best practices
• nationwide to create goals and action steps to
• address the dropout problem.

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• RECOMMENDATIONS

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• Student Risk Factors

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Improve Attendance and Reduce Out-of-school
Suspension

• FINDINGS
• Poor attendance is an early predictor for school
  failure.
• Out-of-school suspension is an indicator of risk
  for dropping out.
• Students are more likely to drop out of school
  when they lose hope of catch-up credits.

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Improve Attendance and Reduce Out-of-school
Suspension

• RECOMMENDATION
• Improve attendance through a protocol for
  absences and reduce out-of-school suspension.

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Create A Social and Emotional Development
Department

• FINDINGS
• Social and emotional needs that children have are
  difficult to address because teachers are not
  trained to handle these issues.
• Personal protective factors can help balance and
  buffer risk factors.

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Create A Social and Emotional Development
Department

• RECOMMENDATION
• Create a Social and Emotional Development
  Department within the school system led by a
  director and staff.

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Increase Community Involvement in Support Centers

• FINDINGS
• Students experience many issues that make them at
  risk in their communities, so they need to be
  supported where they live.
• Government agencies (e.g., MNPS, Social Services,
  Health Dept.) and neighborhoods should forge
  healthy partnerships with local churches and
  grassroots organizations.

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Increase Community Involvement in Support Centers

• RECOMMENDATION
• Increase community involvement in support centers
  through community collaborations.

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Improve Data Collection and Access

• FINDINGS
• Recognizing risk factors early on is key to
  affecting high-risk students.
• Tracking and recognizing high-risk youth is
  important to prevention.

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Improve Data Collection and Access

• RECOMMENDATION
• Improving data collection will allow teachers to
  recognize at-risk youth and identify early
  predictors for school failure.

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• Chronic Poor Academic Performance

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Provide Continuous and Rigorous Professional
Development

• FINDINGS
• Schools with the greatest number of at-risk
  students dont have enough teachers trained to
  handle these students.
• The hiring schedule doesnt allow for hiring and
  retaining teachers with this training.
• MNPS doesnt offer regular and ongoing
  professional development aimed at this type of
  training.

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Provide Continuous and Rigorous Professional
Development

• RECOMMENDATION
• Provide continuous and rigorous professional
  development to teachers and administrators at
  schools in areas with chronic poor academic
  performance.

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Reduce Mobility of Students, Teachers and
Administrative Leaders

• FINDINGS
• There is a high frequency of student mobility
  between schools, and schools are inadequately
  prepared to help with these transitions.
• There is also instability with principals and
  teachers.
• With the mobility of all of these groups, its
  almost impossible to create a long-term program.

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Reduce Mobility of Students, Teachers and
Administrative Leaders

• RECOMMENDATIONS
• Develop and implement procedures to minimize
  student transitions.
• Effective principals and teachers should remain
  at low-performing schools for a minimum of five
  years.
• Ineffective teachers and principals should be
  removed from the system or be improved by
  professional development.

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Monitor and Assist At-risk Students

• FINDINGS
• The primary reason students fall into chronic
  poor academic performance is that they do not see
  themselves as learners.
• Students enrolled at low performance schools, or
  who feel no connection to the school, are not
  engaged learners.
• Too many students who graduate from high school
  are not prepared to succeed.

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Monitor and Assist At-risk Youth

• RECOMMENDATION
• Establish an infrastructure that ensures students
  with chronic poor academic performance or who are
  at risk of dropping out are identified, monitored
  and assisted.

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Create and Expand Incentives for Performance

• FINDINGS
• NCLB has created a climate where its easier to
  punish schools than to reward them.
• Its important to create a more positive culture
  and offer carrots, as well as sticks, as
  motivators.
• This must be done by a more precise targeting of
  resources.

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Create and Expand Incentives for School and
Teacher Performance

• RECOMMENDATION
• Create substantial financial incentives for
  individuals (teachers and administrators) and
  low-performing schools to demonstrate gains in
  various areas, which could include TCAP scores,
  attendance, persistence and graduation rates.

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Improve Data-based Decision-making

• FINDINGS
• MNPS is not using the states Value-Added
  Assessment System effectively.
• Teachers dont receive the most up-to-date
  information on at-risk students, which makes
  these students difficult to track.
• There is no early warning system to identify and
  monitor potential dropouts early in their
  academic careers, making intervention difficult.

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Improve Data-based Decision-making

• RECOMMENDATION
• Implement and monitor a record-keeping system to
  allow teachers, principals and schools to receive
  frequent and regular data reports on each
  student, classroom and school.

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• Family and Parental Role

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Create a Districtwide First Day Celebration

• FINDINGS
• A childs academic performance is directly
  affected by the involvement or non-involvement
  of parents and other family members in ongoing
  interactions with the school.
• Schools need to create a welcoming environment
  for families, communicate positive school news
  early and often, and increase positive and
  proactive dialogue with parents in order to build
  lasting, trusting relationships.

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Create a Districtwide First Day Celebration

• RECOMMENDATION
• Create a districtwide First Day Celebration in
  each school to kick off the school year.

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Expand Family Case Management to Every School

• FINDINGS
• Truancy and behavioral problems are often
  symptoms of larger, personal and family-related
  problems that are often overlooked.
• Students facing traumatic or stressful events are
  likely unable to achieve their academic
  potential.

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Expand Family Case Management to Every School

• RECOMMENDATION
• Place a family case manager in every school to
  serve as a resource for families in helping to
  identify problems, working through the Metro
  system or other providers to address the familys
  needs.

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Provide Professional Development To Create
Supportive Partnerships with Parents

• FINDINGS
• When parents and families are engaged in a
  positive way with teachers and principals, the
  partnership that is created can be the most
  valuable contributor to student success.
• There needs to be a feeling of trust between
  schools and families.

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Provide Professional Development To Create
Supportive Partnerships with Parents

• RECOMMENDATION
• The MNPS system should develop curriculum for
  faculty and staff on skills needed to deal with
  both positive and negative family interactions.

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Redesign the MNPS Web Site to Target Parents

• FINDINGS
• The MNPS Web site is not user-friendly for
  parents a missed opportunity to easily connect
  with families and provide necessary information
  in an effective and efficient manner.

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Redesign the MNPS Web Site to Target Parents

• RECOMMENDATION
• Redesign the MNPS Web site to target parents,
  provide answers to frequently asked questions and
  give parents access to students course
  information and grades.

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• Community and Neighborhood
• Risk Factors

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Provide Access to High-quality Afterschool and
Summer Programs

• FINDINGS
• Nashville has few programs and opportunities for
  middle and high school students, and the programs
  we have may not match the needs of high-risk
  youth, in terms of location, targeted social and
  educational interventions and hours of operation.
• Active participation in high quality after-school
  programs in the middle grades leads to better
  school engagement, attendance and performance.

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Provide Access to High-quality Afterschool and
Summer Programs

• RECOMMENDATION
• Provide access for youth to high-quality
  afterschool and summer programs, emphasizing
  activities that address the needs of youth.

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Re-engage and Recover Disengaged Youth and Young
Adults

• FINDINGS
• Disengaged youth have greater incarceration
  rates, diminished earning power and greater
  reliance on public assistance.
• For these disengaged youth to succeed, the
  Nashville community must provide multiple
  supports and a different kind of school.

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Re-engage and Recover Disengaged Youth and Youth
Adults

• RECOMMENDATION
• Re-engage and recover youth and young adults by
  building a coordinated system of outreach,
  graduation alternatives and supports.

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Task Force Members

• Student Risk Factors Committee
• Alene Arnold
• Jim Bearden
• Rodger Dinwiddie
• Rev. Rueben Dockery
• Kim Finch
• Ralph Thompson
• Adrian A. Granderson
• Melvin Johnson
• Marsha Warden
• Staffer Kelly Fork
• Committee Co-Chair

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Task Force Members

• Chronic Poor Academic Performance Committee
• Yousuf Ahmad
• Camilla Benbow
• Steve Cook
• Vincent Durnan
• Allison Halbrook
• Michael Nettles
• Ralph Schulz
• Julie Simone
• Ashley Stevenson
• George Van Allen
• Staff Doug BrockAdditional Support Marc Hill,
  Tim CaboniCommittee Co-Chair

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Task Force Members

• Family and Parental Role Committee
• Carla Aaron
• Hal Balthrop
• Robert Churchwell
• Randy Dowell
• Marsha Edwards
• Elizabeth Fox
• Judge Betty Green
• Journey Johnson
• Cara RobertsonStaff Katie Rainey
• Committee Co-Chair

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Task Force Members

• Community Neighborhood Risk Factors Committee
• Mary Bufwack
• Hal Cato
• Darrell Freeman
• Julie Lamb
• Rev. Clint Lewis
• Brenda Morrow
• Cesar Muedas
• Chief Ronal Serpas
• Roy Wilson
• Staff Pam Hazelwood
• Committee Co-Chair

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Project for Student Success Task Force
Report Findings and Recommendations June 25,
2008