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.

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