Oregon High School and Hawks Take Flight

Here at Oregon High School, we have developed a program called Hawks Take Flight (HTF) which is an intervention program for students that need extra support or have circumstances outside of school that interferes with success freshman year. Freshman team teachers volunteer to mentor 3-4 students and meet with them weekly on an individual basis to discuss grades, teach organizational skills, offer homework help and serve as a strong role model for these freshmen. Furthermore, HTF students are required to attend an after school homework cafĂ© every Thursday with all of the HTF teachers and they are enrolled in an advisory period during the school day that is facilitated by one of our team members. The vision and goal for HTF is to ensure all HTF students remain on track for on time graduation.

Students for this program are identified and on-boarded the summer BEFORE their Freshmen year. We do that by utilizing an Early Warning System that allows us to examine every 8th grader's performance in Junior High while flagging the major factors that contribute to the failure of these students: missing assignments, absences and lack of school connectedness. This tool allows to sort students and accurately identify the 15% of the incoming class that is most in need of help so we can put supports in place before they even reach our building and they can begin experiencing success day one.

Essentially, Hawks Take Flight is relationship based. We do not have any sophomore programs in place for them, but the kids know that if they need us we will always be there for them. The program is meant to do exactly what it is called, we expect our Hawks to be able to take flight at the end of freshman year by providing them with the skills they need to do that. We’ve found that by the end of the program, they have the confidence and mindset that they need to be successful. Of the students participating last year, 100% graduated to 10th grade.

Overall, the program has had a strong impact on our student population, and since starting our program in 2008, we have now evolved into a full freshmen team that has adopted common grading practices and meets to discuss the progress of ALL of our freshmen weekly during our common plan period. In those meetings we review the D/F list and attendance for the week and problem solve the best ways to get students back on track. This collaboration has been very helpful because we get a well-rounded view of student performance and can more accurately communicate that to parents for support.  Additionally, having a common plan time allows teachers to have problem solving meetings throughout the week as issues arise as opposed to waiting a full week to come together formally. As a result, the number of semester failing grades has dropped drastically from 273 Fs in 2007-2008 to only 14 Fs in 2018-2019.

For more information about these practices, reach out Kimberly Radostits at krad@ocusd.net.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

About Freshmen On Track

Almost one third of our nation’s students drop out of high school  (Barton, 2005) , and students that are at risk of doing so begin to show signs early in their education ( Jessica B. Heppen and Susan Bowles Therriault,2006) . According to recent research, 9 th grade may be the last chance that we have as educators to step in and intervene. Studies show that "students are three to five times more likely to fail freshman year than any other grade”, and the impact of that on their future success is staggering  (February 2011 Research Brief: Challenges of the Ninth Grade Transition, 2011) . According to the Consortium on Chicago School Research, students with a “B” average at the end of their 9 th grade year have a 95% chance of graduating on time. Students with a “C” average at the end of their 9 th grade year have a 72% chance of graduating and if a freshman ends their first year with a “D” average, they have less than a 28% chance of four year graduation (Allensworth, E. and
Read more

Peotone High School and Freshmen Transitions

On January 19th, I had the opportunity to speak to Jason Spang, Principal of Peotone High School. Peotone recently finished the 2021-2022 school year with 96.5% of their Freshmen ending the year on track for a four year graduation. Peotone High School is one that does a lot with the resources they have available in order to make sure all of their students are successful. One part of that system includes them adopting a 20 minute advisory period in the middle of the day titled "Blue Devil Support" or "BDS".  Every teacher in the building has a roster of up to 14 students and special education teachers have a roster comprised of students on their caseload. During this time, students are expected to check in with their BDS teacher and are then encouraged to seek support from teachers in courses they are struggling in.  As an additional study time for Freshmen in need of extra support, Peotone offers an elective course called " Freshmen Transition " that is a
Read more

Rockford Public Schools and the reFRESH Program

On January 9th, I had the opportunity to visit with Morgan Gallagher, the Chief of Schools at RPS 205, to discuss the work they are doing to keep Freshmen on track. In addition to a dedicated staff, the efforts outlined below has them at a 3% increase over where they were this time of year last year. Rockford utilizes a Freshmen Academy  model in order to ease the transition from middle school to high school and has been creative over the years on ways to onboard students to make sure they start off their first year of high school with the skills they need to be successful. Most recently, they developed a program called reFRESH  that provides 8th graders with the opportunity to take some summer classes before Freshmen year. In the reFRESH program, students are given extra instruction in math and English in order to close any skill gaps and to give them a jump start on their coursework. Students in this program are invited in by staff  that utilizes data collected throughout 8th grade.
Read more