Destination: GraduationDropout Prevention

New York State Style

Presentation by Rebecca Gardner at the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention Division of Adolescent and School Health Annual Conference, Washington, DC - February 2002

Dropout Prevention

Dropout - In New York State, any student who leaves school prior to graduation for any reason except death and does not enter another school or program leading to a high school diploma.

Factors Linked to High Dropout Rates

Student Retention Poverty Ethnicity LEP Pregnancy Tracking

Leading Reasons Why Kids Dropout

Older than other classmates due to being held back in earlier grades Frustrated by failure to achieve satisfactory grades due to lack of learning

in primary grades Alienated from teachers who are dissatisfied with the “big slow kids” Feeling that they will never catch up, never do well Afraid of teasing and abuse from kids and staff Tormented at school for being gay or lesbian (about 30 of 100 annual youth

suicides in NYS are by gay or lesbian students) Pregnant Behind in school because of illness or family crisis Needed at home to care for a sick family member Unhappy at school and wanting to work where they can feel they

accomplish something Angry when discipline policies are unfair, capricious and stacked against

them

Students are:

Characteristics of Best Practices in Relation to Dropout Prevention

They identify vulnerable students

They have a strong career education/workforce readiness component

They utilize out-of-classroom learning

They are intensive in the sense of being small, individualizing instruction, having low student-teacher ratios, and offering more counseling than ordinary schools

They are flexible to accommodate individual situations, such as a pregnant, gay, or alienated honor student

School Practices That Can Reduce The Dropout Rate

End grade retention. Students should progress with their age cohort and receive supplemental instruction to address their weaknesses. Publicity is needed to alter public perception that retention is an appropriate way to address incomplete academic achievement.

Ensure that the weakest students get the best teachers. The greatest single factor in academic success is the skill of the teacher.

Students should be given assignments appropriate to their ability at which they can succeed.

Teaching staff need training in cultural differences, sensitivity to student needs.

Staff should be caring people who want to see all their young people succeed. Staff who do not have this attitude need a different job.

School Practices That Can Reduce The Dropout Rate (continued)

Alternatives to the academic school need to be available.

Research indicates that physiologically teens tend to go to sleep late and need to sleep late in the morning. High school should begin later in the day, perhaps 8:30 or 9:00 am, for improved alertness.

The school must strive to be a place where students want to be, not one where they are required to be. While that may sound silly or whimsical, if students are seen as valued customers or valued people, they will be provided with relevant and interesting learning.

Seven Traits Common to Successful, High Poverty Schools

Samuel Casey Carter Effective principals are

free to decide how to spend their money, whom to hire and what to teach.

Effective principals use measurable goals to establish a culture of achievement

Master teachers bring out the best in a faculty

Rigorous and regular testing leads to continuous student achievement

Discipline is anchored in achievement

Effective principals work with parents to make the home a center of learning

Effective principals require hard work

Factors for Success of Alternative Education Programs

Schools generate and sustain a community within them.

Content differently packaged than conventional school.

Frequently used independent study and experiential learning.

Builds on the strengths of students.

Deals with whole student. Instructional methods

build on prior learning and complement rather than contradict student’s experiences.

Strategies for DropoutsNDPC-Clemson University

Early Interventions

Basic Core Strategies

Improving Instruction

Partnering with the Community

UCLAA Comprehensive Continuum of

Intervention

System of prevention System of early intervention Systems of care

Talent Development Model-Johns Hopkins

Separate Ninth Grade Success Academy with teams of 4-6 teachers who share 120-180 students and have common planning time to work on student problems

Several separate self-contained upper-grade career-academies enrolling 250-350 students with an adult mentor

On-site after-hours alternative program for short-term assignment of small number of students with serious discipline and attendance problems.

NYS’s Dropout Prevention Initiative

Learn more about high school dropouts, who they are and why they drop out.

Build the capacity of the schools and the Department’s regional networks to address the dropout problem effectively.

Address the needs of students, including those with disabilities, with regard to dropout prevention and teenage students who have dropped out.

Establish collaborative partnerships between the schools and the community at large that become part of an institutionalized culture.

Document and share effective practices in dropout prevention that can be replicated in schools across the State.

Evaluate and document the Initiative’s process and outcomes to determine replicability of the dropout prevention initiatives and their longitudinal effect on the dropout rate in the piloted schools.

The goals of the initiative are to:

Dropout Pilot - Destination Graduation

2001-2003 - two year pilot

NDPC (Clemson University)

Big 5 Cities Smaller Cities

Local Partners (12 middle schools)

National Partners

UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools

Johns Hopkins

Each JMT NYC

CHAPS SIT OWPCE VESID

SED Partners District

Superintendents NYCBOE RSSC Network CSH Network

Regional Partners

Rural Native American Nonpublic

List of Participating Schools

New York City

Lower HudsonMid-StateMid-WestWestWestMid-HudsonNorth CountryCapitalMid-South

Long IslandNew York City

New York City

PeekskillSyracuseRochesterBuffaloGowandaNewburghUticaWatervlietElmira

WyandanchNonpublic

Wadleigh HS, Chancellor’s District #85, Grades 6-12Peekskill MSShea MSMonroe MSLincoln AcademyGowanda JHSHSouth JHSDonovan MSWatervliet JHSHBroadway MSErnie Davis MSMilton L. Olive MSSt. Franics Xavier, Brooklyn

JMT District Participating Middle School

Effective Strategies for Dropout Prevention

Systemic Renewal Community Collaboration Professional Development Family Involvement Early Childhood Education Reading/Writing Programs Alternative Schooling Individualized Instruction Instructional Technologies

Mentoring/Tutoring Service Learning Learning Styles / Multiple

Intelligences Violence Prevention/Conflict

Resolution Career Education/Workforce

Readiness Out-of-School Experiences

Research-based strategies and solutions Positive impact on the high school graduation rate

Activities

Internal Steering Committee

Acknowledgement of Responsibility Local Action Team Data Gathering LAT Training School Climate Inventory Program Assessment and Review

(PAR) Follow-up Visits Technical Assistance

CHAPS SIT

IRT Nonpublic

NYCRSS Native American

OWPCE VESID

Year 2 Implementation/Technical Assistance

Regional seminars Symposium - Spring 2003 Summer Institute - 2003

Exchange of Learning Evaluation