Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Navigating the Seven “C’s” to Successful Graduation August 2014 Laura C. Brown, Ph.D. Director of College and Career Readiness, GA SPDG Debbie Currere, Parent Support Specialist, GA SPDG

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” DISCLAIMER: The contents of this presentation were developed under a grant from the US Department of Education, #H323A However, those contents do no not necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education and should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. 2

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 7 “C’s” Convening Collaborating Coalescing Communication Community Commitment Capacity 3

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Write & Compare What is the 2013 graduation rate for all students in Georgia? What is the 2013 graduation rate for students with disabilities in Georgia? What is the 2013 graduation rate for students with disabilities in one of your high schools? For all students? 4

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” What is good enough? 5

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GA’s Graduation Rates For ALL Students % % % 6

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GA’s Graduation Rates for students with disabilities % % % 7

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Learning Targets I can describe student engagement as it relates to improving graduation rates. I can identify strategies to support the efforts of school teams to improve graduation rates. 11/26/2015 8

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Learning Target Pre-Assessment Using the pink rating sheet, rate your knowledge of the learning targets from = No knowledge 5 = Could teach others 11/26/2015 9

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GA’s GraduateFIRST Nationally recognized Data-driven intervention process Designed to help students stay in school and graduate Partnerships with NDPC-SD, School Improvement, GLRS Funded by GA’s SPDG 10

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 11 are participating in GraduateFIRST and over 3000 students are being supported. 80 schools across Georgia… Today 80 schools across Georgia… 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST Community GraduateFIRST Partners GaDOE Design Team GraduateFIRST staff Regional Collaboration Coaches School Teams includes Parent Mentors School-based GraduateFIRST Team Leaders 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 14 GraduateFIRST Core Components 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST Core Components 1. Establish an effective School Team and identify the Team Leader responsible for the implementation of the School Action Plan 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST Core Components 2. Collect and analyze data 3. Use data prioritize areas of need and to select and monitor a target group of students 4. Use data to develop School Action Plans 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST Core Components 5. Implement and monitor School Action Plan with fidelity 6. Evaluate the effectiveness of School Action Plans 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Collaboration Coaches Trained by the NDPC-SD Focus on helping schools achieve positive student outcomes especially for a target group of students Use a blended model of coaching including onsite coaching 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 19 GraduateFIRST ABCs Family and Community Engagement BelongingRelationships Self-Determination 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST ABCs Focus on Attendance, Behavior, and Course Performance Helping students develop a sense of belonging, develop caring relationships, and self-determination All of these dimensions are underpinned by strong family and community engagement 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST & Student Engagement The GraduateFIRST model is based upon the NDPC-SD framework and the construct of student engagement. Fostering student engagement relies not only on the ABCs, but also a focus on the dimensions of affective, cognitive, and family engagement. 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians”  Affective Engagement  Academic Engagement  Behavioral Engagement  Cognitive Engagement  Family & Community Engagement 22 Focus on Student Engagement Sandra Christenson Check and Connect 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians”  Affective Engagement  Academic Engagement  Behavioral Engagement  Cognitive Engagement  Family & Community Engagement 23 Focus on Student Engagement Sandra Christenson Check and Connect 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Student Engagement  Affective Engagement Developing caring relationships with adults Sense of School connectedness School bonding Mentoring 11/26/ Sandra Christenson Check and Connect

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Student Voice: It’s Time to Turn Up the Volume More Academically Motivated Students When: Teacher/Student Relationships (d=.69) Self-Worth Engagement Purpose Voice Quaglia & Corso, 2014

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Engagement Be meaningfully engaged in something – Fun/Excitement – Curiosity & Creativity – Spirit of Adventure – not being afraid to fail or succeed Affectively, Behaviorally, Cognitively Engaged Students who are engaged are 15X more likely to be academically motivated. Quaglia & Corso, 2014

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Self-Worth Believing you can make a difference – Belonging – part of a group – Heroes - trusting others – Sense of Accomplishment – do a good job of recognizing end products, but not such a good job of recognizing perseverance, effort, good citizenship Students with a sense of self-worth are 5X more likely to be academically motivated. Quaglia & Corso, 2014

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Purpose Leadership & Responsibility – Confidence to take action – Dreams & Aspirations – Making your own decisions and accepting responsibility for these actions – Teachers have to believe that the students can be successful. Students who have a sense of purpose are 17X more likely to academically motivated. Quaglia & Corso, 2014

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Voice Students are communicating all the time. Student voice in decision-making. Student voice in schools is not a natural state of affairs yet. Many students do not have the skills to listen or to express themselves. Do we have the skills to listen? Students who have a voice are 6X more likely to be academically motivated.

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians”  Affective Engagement  Academic Engagement  Behavioral Engagement  Cognitive Engagement  Family & Community Engagement 30 Focus on Student Engagement Sandra Christenson Check and Connect 11/26/2015 Attendance

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Impact of Attendance on Graduation Grad Rate for Sts with No Absences Grad Rate for Sts with 6-10 days Absent Grad Rate for Sts with days Absent Grad Rate for Sts with 15+ days Absent th graders ( th Graders 78.73%64.73%54.33%30.89% th graders ( th Graders 76.32%64%49.32%26% th graders ( th Graders 79.63%72.63%61.63%34.45%

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Student Engagement Cognitive Engagement Students ‘ investment in the learning Setting learning goals Self-efficacy Self-determination Motivation 11/26/ Sandra Christenson Check and Connect

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians”  Affective Engagement  Academic Engagement  Behavioral Engagement  Cognitive Engagement  Family & Community Engagement 33 Focus on Student Engagement Sandra Christenson Check and Connect 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Vital Behaviors to Improve Graduation Rates Using the form provided, please select the areas of the GraduateFIRST model that these vital behaviors support. Identify all of the areas that apply. 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 35 GraduateFIRST ABCs Family and Community Engagement BelongingRelationships Self-Determination 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Students perform best when they are engaged in all areas. 36 Best Performance Outcomes 11/26/2015

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Georgia Department of Education's State PersonnelDevelopment Grant (SPDG) GraduateFIRST Assessment Tool Mind

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” GraduateFIRST Assessment Tool Charting 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 39 Your Challenge

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 40 Preparation - Commitment & Collaboration

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Making the Commitment & Collaborating Discuss with your Special Education Director Meet with the GraduateFIRST Team Leader Discuss how you can support the school’s efforts to increase graduation rates. Identify a targeted group of families of students who have experienced attendance difficulties. (7 – 10 families) 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Making the Commitment & Collaborating Gather key contact information of the student of the identified families. (ie: caseload teacher, guidance counselor, mentor, etc.) Last year’s attendance data as a baseline Ask who else you should be introduced to? (Collaboration Coach, Principal, etc.) 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 43 Communication

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Communicating with Families Your role as a parent mentor allows you to – Help bridge home – school communication – Provide resources Contact Families that the school’s focus is for ALL students to graduate! Discuss with them the importance of graduation. (Use Conversation Starters Handout) 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Communicating with Families Encourage their input. Ask if it is ok to contact them from time to time and what is the best way to contact them. Provide your contact information. Follow-up with families every other month or by grading period. Refer to Conversation Starters and Attendance FACTS handouts when planning your calls. 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 46 Building Capacity

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Attendance FACTS & Strategies 47

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” A Repository of Parent Workshops will be available on the SPDG website. (power point and single page handout) Workshops are designed that you can present to a group or when meeting with a parent one- on-one. Providing Additional Family Support/ Trainings 48

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” What would the training needs be? 49

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 50 Reporting

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Reporting Track your contacts with families on the sheet provided. – Include baseline attendance data Track Parent workshops Make notes of any concerns 51

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 52 Coalescing around the issues…

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Coalescing Around Improving Graduation Rates 1.Who cares about this issue and why? 2.What work is already underway separately? 3.How could this shared work unite us? 4.How can we deepen our connections as we go forward? 53

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” 54 What do we need to communicate?

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” How can you help build capacity? 55

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Learning Target Post-Assessment Using the pink rating sheet, rate your knowledge of the learning targets from = No knowledge 5 = Could teach others 11/26/

Dr. John D. Barge, State School Superintendent “Making Education Work for All Georgians” Laura C. Brown, Ph.D. Director of College & Career Ready Debbie Currere Parent Support Specialist, SPDG 57