The ongoing work to help every student successfully finish high school
by Kaaren Andrews, Director of the Center for High School Success
The Center for High Schools Success (CHSS), part of Stand for Children, launched this fall with the goal of increasing the number of 9th graders on track for high school graduation and college and career readiness. We are proud to already have partnerships in the Yakima Valley (six districts), South King County (two districts), and in Spokane (one district and a public charter school).
The work we’re doing helps bring the focus of increasing graduation rates to the 9th grade year. Across the teams I coach, there’s a diversity of needs that are unique to each school.
We partner with our participating school districts to provide professional learning, coaching, technical assistance, data support, and resources to districts and high schools interested in developing effective 9th grade success programs as a key lever for increasing on-time graduation rates. Our current program is supported by grants and philanthropic dollars, allowing us to offer the CHSS program at no cost to school districts at this time.
We provide this support through:
Professional Development
Support for examining 9th grade data that is paired then with specific goals backed up with clear action plans — one district has planned a family engagement night to help build families as partners in this work.
Coaching
We help support development and implementation of a comprehensive system of 9th grade transition practices. Our coaches include former superintendents, principals, teacher leaders, and district-level administrators with decades of school and systems-improvement experience.
Collaboration
CHSS employs a “Networked Improvement” model where we organize demonstration site visits and convene quarterly collaboratives designed to help partner schools cross-share effective practices for promoting student success.
Continuous Improvement with Data Analytics
CHSS provides partner districts and schools with the option to use an advanced data platform with real-time access to actionable data. We support schools with trend and progress reports across key performance indicators, and provide coaching on how to analyze, synthesize, and act on this data. Improving high school graduation rates can feel like an insurmountable task, but one team has already identified a practice for breaking down their work into specific, near-term and measurable actions that will get their school closer to their goal on behalf of students.
I look forward to continued progress with our district partners and sharing what we learn. To learn more about this program and our approach, please contact me at kandrews@stand.org to connect.
