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. What sets this program apart from others is that students in the reFRESH program are taught by the teachers they will have as Freshmen, allowing them to start developing strong relationships with the adults they will see their first year in a new high school. 

Additionally, at one of this district's high schools, they have begun keeping the students in the reFRESH program in a cohort once the school year has begun where the entire group has the same core content teachers and Physical Education teacher so that those teachers can have weekly meetings about the students in the program. These weekly MTSS meetings are data centered and involve discussions around systems of support that RPS has available for their student body.

Next steps in this district include discussions around consistent grading practices and continued work on the ReFRESH program. 


For more information about these ideas, reach out to Morgan Gallagher at morgan.gallagher@rps205.com. 



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