SAFE PASSAGES ALL-TEAM TRAININGMAY 4TH 2010, 9:00-3:00

OUTLINE:ACADEMIC CONSIDERATIONSDEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONSSYSTEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONSPROMISING PRACTICES WITHIN A SOCIAL JUSTICE FRAMEWORK

Promising Practices in Transitions Programming

DEFINITION OF TRANSITION FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS TRAINING:

ACADEMIC- 5/6 AND 8/9SOCIO-EMOTIONALDEVELOPMENTAL

FAMILIAL

Students in Transition: Academic Considerations

Creation of Middle School Concept

1965: only 5 percent of middle-grades schools in the United States were 6 - 8 or 5 - 8 middle schools

2000: 69 percent were 6 - 8 or 5 - 8 middle schoolsCreated to:

Meet the developmental needs of young adolescents Create smaller teaching and learning environments Reduce overcrowding, poor facility use, and racial

segregation*

* D. MacIver, A. Ruby, 2010. Education Encyclopedia: Middle Schools.

5th / 6th Grade Transition

The transition from elementary to middle school is where test scores plummet, truancy increases and a commitment to school and community erode (City of Oakland OFCY Strategic Plan).

In 2009, 66% of California 4th graders scored proficient or advanced in Math, compared to 43% of 7th graders. (California Department of Education, 2009).

By the time students reach 9th grade, their sense of connection to the community declines and their connections with caring adults diminish (California Healthy Kids Survey, 2009).

It is in middle school that youth also feel the most unsafe and the highest proportion of youth feel the need to carry weapons (California Healthy Kids Survey, 2009).

8th / 9th Grade Transition

Instead of academically struggling in school like middle school students, struggling high school students often drop out.

In 2009, four public entities—OUSD, the Alameda County Probation Department, Alameda County Social Services and the City of Oakland—coordinated data in an effort to identify youth most in need of intervention, as well as the most opportune time to intervene. The data indicated that over 800 youth living in Oakland were sent to the County Juvenile Detention Center at least once during the 2007-08 school year. Among that population, only 370—fewer than half—returned to Oakland public schools after release from detention. Among those students, almost half were 9th graders.

During the 2007-08 school year, 1,632 students were designated as drop-outs in OUSD. Nearly half of these students (49%) were 9th graders.

These indicators demonstrate an intense level of disconnect from the educational process and an even greater need for academic and socio-emotional support.*

* Safe Passages, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

What’s not working?

Lack of developmental knowledge of the needs of middle school students

Lack of specialized teacher and principal preparation for teaching middle school students

Lack of culturally competent, socially conscious frameworks for the engagement and academic success of all students

Need better communication along the elementary-middle-high school continuum for struggling students

What is working?

“Structural changes in middle-grades education - how students and teachers are organized for learning - have been fairly widespread and have produced good results" (Anthony Jackson and Gayle Davis , 2000)

Focus on relationships- schools-within-schools, looping, subject ‘coring’, block schedules, and common prep periods.

Such reforms have been found to increase students' well-being and perceptions that their teacher cares about them and their learning, and to strengthen teacher - student relationships. In turn, when middle-grades students perceive their teachers care about them and their learning, they are more likely to report that they try to do what their teachers ask them to do and give their best effort in class, and they are less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

Promising Practice # 1: Improve the Teaching and Learning Environment

Recommendations:• Create smaller learning environments and groups• Form teams of teachers and students• Assign an adult advisor for every student• Teach young adolescents to think critically, be active citizens, and develop healthy lifestyles• Expand opportunities for learning, career guidance and youth service• Give teachers greater influence in the classroom• Designate leaders for the teaching process• Ensure student access to social and health services• Establish schools as health-promoting environments• Offer families opportunities to support learning at home and at school, roles in school governance and keep parents informed• Augment resources for teachers and students*

*Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development on transforming middle grade schools. Turning Points: Preparing Students for the 21st Century

Promising Practice # 2: Emphasize early identification and proactive intervention for

struggling students

Recommendations:

School leaders must pay close attention to the assessment and careful placement of students who are learning english.

Records of entering students should be reviewed thoroughly for possible warning signs of academic vulnerability and need for support.

Subject area teachers, intervention teachers and parents should meet to develop and monitor student intervention plans.

A comprehensive range of required and voluntary strategies should be used to intervene on behalf of students who are two or more years below grade level, or at risk of failure in the current school year.*

*Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better. www.EdSource.org

ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENTYOUTH DEVELOPMENT

Students in Transition: Developmental Considerations

Promising Practice # 3: Use Youth Development Principles Youth Development Framework for Practice

Developed by CNYD in collaboration with Michelle A. Gambone (YDSI) and James P. Connell (IRRE) 2003 CNYD. All rights reserved

DEFINITION: SYSTEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL

Students in Transition: Systemic & Institutional

Considerations

How oppression affects teaching and learning

Educators bring their unaware biases to their work and relationships with each other and students. They relate to people differently as a result of these biases.

Individual biases, values, and actions get institutionalized in policies and practices. Children internalize the messages and mistreatment they get from the society. These

messages undermine their confidence, install recordings of passivity and hopelessness, and interfere with their inherent curiosity. We still deal with these messages as adults.

The education system does not provide the support or time necessary for (and sometimes actively impedes) the building of alliances between individuals from different groups, e.g. people of color / whites / LGBTQ / immigrants / men / women / abled / differently abled, etc..

Experiencing oppression diverts attention away from learning and interferes with teaching and leadership.

Policies, even those pronounced as being for the benefit of under-represented students, often perpetuate the oppression because they have not been thought through.*

Additional examples: Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit

*Adapted by BayCES from National Coalition for Equity in Education (NCEE)

2007 OUSD Graduation Statistics: OUSD graduates: 1,646Graduation rate: 65.3%12th grade enrollment graduation rate: 87.8%Adjusted grade 9-12 derived dropout rate: 37.6%Graduates with UC/CSU requirements: 37.8%Number of students taking the SAT: 1,000Average SAT score (out of 2400): 1279*

*Oakland Unified Website www.ousd.k12.ca.us

OUSD High School Graduation Rates

School to Prison Pipeline

The phrase "school-to-prison pipeline" conceptually categorizes an ambiguous, yet seemingly systematic, process through which a wide range of education and criminal justice policies and practices collectively result in students of color being disparately pushed out of school and into prison. “Zero-tolerance” and academic tracking policies illustrate how the intersection of education and criminal justice policies leads to disparate minority student pushout and potential incarceration.*

* Katherine May, By Reason Thereof: Causation and Eligibility Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Promising Practice # 4 Adopt a Social Justice Framework

Do the personal work to raise your understanding of bias and how it affects your work with students, families and staff

Examine the data- academic, behavioral, disciplinary Sources: COST Monthly Data, Mid-Year Reports, CDE,

CHKS, AERIES

Help parents and students understand their educational rights

Advocate, Advocate, Advocate

Promising Practices Summary

Promising Practice # 1: Help improve the teaching and learning environment

Promising Practice # 2: Emphasize early identification and proactive intervention for struggling students

Promising Practice # 3: Use Adolescent Development Knowledge and Youth Development Principles

Promising Practice # 4 Adopt a Social Justice Framework

PROMISING PRACTICE # 1: HELP IMPROVE THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

PROMISING PRACTICE # 2: EMPHASIZE EARLY IDENTIFICATION AND PROACTIVE

INTERVENTION FOR STRUGGLING STUDENTS

PROMISING PRACTICE # 3: USE ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT KNOWLEDGE AND YOUTH

DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES

PROMISING PRACTICE # 4 ADOPT A SOCIAL JUSTICE FRAMEWORK

Students in Transition: Promising Practices

Summary