Project for Student Success Task Force Report Findings and Recommendations June 25, 2008

1. Project for Student Success Task Force Report Findings and Recommendations June 25, 2008 Diane Neighbors Bob Fisher Vice Mayor President Metropolitan Nashville Belmont University and Davidson County

2. Introduction • First meeting in January 2008 • 40-member task force • Developing recommendations to reduce the influence and impact of student dropout-related risk indicators

3. Introduction • Four committees: • Student Risk Factors • Family and Parental Role • Community Neighborhood Risk Factors • Chronic Poor Academic Performance

4. Student Risk Factors • Research shows that the more risk factors a child or youth experiences, the more likely he or she will exhibit behavioral, academic, substance abuse, violence and related problems. • “School Dropout” is about the risk factors in an individual’s life that might cause a student to be in the position of considering dropping out as a viable option. • The committee’s charge was to investigate the relationship between these risk factors and Nashville’s dropout problem and to recommend ways to build protective factors within the individual student at the individual, peer and school level.

5. Chronic Poor Academic Performance • Long before students drop out of school, they have typically established a record of poor academic performance. • Evidence suggests that students most at risk of dropping out can be identified early in their academic careers, but this will require a more precise targeting of resources toward underperforming schools and at-risk students. • The committee was charged with examining the issue of chronic poor academic performance and making recommendations for ways to break the cycle, which has proven to be an intergenerational problem affecting not only individual students but families and communities.

6. Family and Parental Role • Students’ academic performance is affected by the influences of others in their lives. • Parents and family have particular impact on students due to their emotional connections and dependency/care-giving relationships. • The committee’s charge was to understand the role and relationship of the family and parent as it relates to helping their student succeed, and recommend real-world suggestions for ways improve the relationships between schools and parents/families.

7. Community Neighborhood Risk Factors • Poverty, violence, segregation, low percentage of home ownership, low educational attainment, high unemployment and lack of services characterize the neighborhoods of the majority of youth in Metro Nashville Public Schools. • Under these conditions, it is very difficult for youth to attend school ready to learn and succeed. • The committee's charge was to collect and process information to understand the facts about MNPS and Nashville’s neighborhoods and to develop recommendations that will better address the needs of students from distressed neighborhoods and change area conditions to produce neighborhoods that support students’ educational success.

8. Three Phases • Investigative phase gather community input, collect data and research, and identify existing resources and programs in the community; • Issue identification phase to determine the most critical and salient issues influencing the student dropout rate in local schools; and • Recommendation phase combine the data gathered concerning specific issues with research on best practices nationwide to create goals and action steps to address the dropout problem.

9. RECOMMENDATIONS

10. Student Risk Factors

11. Improve Attendance and Reduce Out-of-school Suspension FINDINGS: • Poor attendance is an early predictor for school failure. • Out-of-school suspension is an indicator of risk for dropping out. • Students are more likely to drop out of school when they lose hope of catch-up credits.

12. Improve Attendance and Reduce Out-of-school Suspension RECOMMENDATION: • Improve attendance through a protocol for absences and reduce out-of-school suspension.

13. Create A Social and Emotional Development Department FINDINGS: • Social and emotional needs that children have are difficult to address because teachers are not trained to handle these issues. • Personal protective factors can help balance and buffer risk factors.

14. Create A Social and Emotional Development Department RECOMMENDATION: • Create a Social and Emotional Development Department within the school system led by a director and staff.

15. Increase Community Involvement in Support Centers FINDINGS: • Students experience many issues that make them at risk in their communities, so they need to be supported where they live. • Government agencies (e.g., MNPS, Social Services, Health Dept.) and neighborhoods should forge healthy partnerships with local churches and grassroots organizations.

16. Increase Community Involvement in Support Centers RECOMMENDATION: • Increase community involvement in support centers through community collaborations.

17. Improve Data Collection and Access FINDINGS: • Recognizing risk factors early on is key to affecting high-risk students. • Tracking and recognizing high-risk youth is important to prevention.

18. Improve Data Collection and Access RECOMMENDATION: • Improving data collection will allow teachers to recognize at-risk youth and identify early predictors for school failure.

19. Chronic Poor Academic Performance

20. Provide Continuous and Rigorous Professional Development FINDINGS: • Schools with the greatest number of at-risk students don’t have enough teachers trained to handle these students. • The hiring schedule doesn’t allow for hiring and retaining teachers with this training. • MNPS doesn’t offer regular and ongoing professional development aimed at this type of training.

21. Provide Continuous and Rigorous Professional Development RECOMMENDATION: • Provide continuous and rigorous professional development to teachers and administrators at schools in areas with chronic poor academic performance.

22. Reduce Mobility of Students, Teachers and Administrative Leaders FINDINGS: • There is a high frequency of student mobility between schools, and schools are inadequately prepared to help with these transitions. • There is also instability with principals and teachers. • With the mobility of all of these groups, it’s almost impossible to create a long-term program.

23. Reduce Mobility of Students, Teachers and Administrative Leaders RECOMMENDATIONS: • Develop and implement procedures to minimize student transitions. • Effective principals and teachers should remain at low-performing schools for a minimum of five years. • Ineffective teachers and principals should be removed from the system or be improved by professional development.

24. Monitor and Assist At-risk Students FINDINGS: • The primary reason students fall into chronic poor academic performance is that they do not see themselves as learners. • Students enrolled at low performance schools, or who feel no connection to the school, are not engaged learners. • Too many students who graduate from high school are not prepared to succeed.

25. Monitor and Assist At-risk Youth RECOMMENDATION: • Establish an infrastructure that ensures students with chronic poor academic performance or who are at risk of dropping out are identified, monitored and assisted.

26. Create and Expand Incentives for Performance FINDINGS: • NCLB has created a climate where it’s easier to punish schools than to reward them. • It’s important to create a more positive culture and offer “carrots,” as well as “sticks,” as motivators. • This must be done by a more precise targeting of resources.

27. Create and Expand Incentives for School and Teacher Performance RECOMMENDATION: • Create substantial financial incentives for individuals (teachers and administrators) and low-performing schools to demonstrate gains in various areas, which could include TCAP scores, attendance, persistence and graduation rates.

28. Improve Data-based Decision-making FINDINGS: • MNPS is not using the state’s Value-Added Assessment System effectively. • Teachers don’t receive the most up-to-date information on at-risk students, which makes these students difficult to track. • There is no early warning system to identify and monitor potential dropouts early in their academic careers, making intervention difficult.

29. Improve Data-based Decision-making RECOMMENDATION: • Implement and monitor a record-keeping system to allow teachers, principals and schools to receive frequent and regular data reports on each student, classroom and school.

30. Family and Parental Role

31. Create a Districtwide “First Day Celebration” FINDINGS: • A child’s academic performance is directly affected by the involvement – or non-involvement – of parents and other family members in ongoing interactions with the school. • Schools need to create a welcoming environment for families, communicate positive school news early and often, and increase positive and proactive dialogue with parents in order to build lasting, trusting relationships.

32. Create a Districtwide “First Day Celebration” RECOMMENDATION: • Create a districtwide “First Day Celebration” in each school to kick off the school year.

33. Expand Family Case Management to Every School FINDINGS: • Truancy and behavioral problems are often symptoms of larger, personal and family-related problems that are often overlooked. • Students facing traumatic or stressful events are likely unable to achieve their academic potential.

34. Expand Family Case Management to Every School RECOMMENDATION: • Place a family case manager in every school to serve as a resource for families in helping to identify problems, working through the Metro system or other providers to address the family’s needs.

35. Provide Professional Development To Create Supportive Partnerships with Parents FINDINGS: • When parents and families are engaged in a positive way with teachers and principals, the partnership that is created can be the most valuable contributor to student success. • There needs to be a feeling of trust between schools and families.

36. Provide Professional Development To Create Supportive Partnerships with Parents RECOMMENDATION: • The MNPS system should develop curriculum for faculty and staff on skills needed to deal with both positive and negative family interactions.

37. Redesign the MNPS Web Site to Target Parents FINDINGS: • The MNPS Web site is not user-friendly for parents – a missed opportunity to easily connect with families and provide necessary information in an effective and efficient manner.

38. Redesign the MNPS Web Site to Target Parents RECOMMENDATION: • Redesign the MNPS Web site to target parents, provide answers to frequently asked questions and give parents access to students’ course information and grades.

39. Community and Neighborhood Risk Factors

40. Provide Access to High-quality Afterschool and Summer Programs FINDINGS: • Nashville has few programs and opportunities for middle and high school students, and the programs we have may not match the needs of high-risk youth, in terms of location, targeted social and educational interventions and hours of operation. • Active participation in high quality after-school programs in the middle grades leads to better school engagement, attendance and performance.

41. Provide Access to High-quality Afterschool and Summer Programs RECOMMENDATION: • Provide access for youth to high-quality afterschool and summer programs, emphasizing activities that address the needs of youth.

42. Re-engage and Recover Disengaged Youth and Young Adults FINDINGS: • Disengaged youth have greater incarceration rates, diminished earning power and greater reliance on public assistance. • For these disengaged youth to succeed, the Nashville community must provide multiple supports and a different kind of school.

43. Re-engage and Recover Disengaged Youth and Youth Adults RECOMMENDATION: • Re-engage and recover youth and young adults by building a coordinated system of outreach, graduation alternatives and supports.

44. Task Force Members Student Risk Factors Committee Alene Arnold Jim Bearden Rodger Dinwiddie Rev. Rueben Dockery Kim Finch** Ralph Thompson Adrian A. Granderson Melvin Johnson** Marsha Warden Staffer: Kelly Fork **Committee Co-Chair

45. Task Force Members Chronic Poor Academic Performance Committee Yousuf Ahmad Camilla Benbow** Steve Cook Vincent Durnan Allison Halbrook Michael Nettles Ralph Schulz** Julie Simone Ashley Stevenson George Van Allen Staff: Doug BrockAdditional Support: Marc Hill, Tim Caboni**Committee Co-Chair

46. Task Force Members Family and Parental Role Committee Carla Aaron Hal Balthrop Robert Churchwell** Randy Dowell Marsha Edwards Elizabeth Fox Judge Betty Green** Journey Johnson Cara RobertsonStaff: Katie Rainey **Committee Co-Chair

47. Task Force Members Community Neighborhood Risk Factors Committee Mary Bufwack** Hal Cato Darrell Freeman Julie Lamb Rev. Clint Lewis Brenda Morrow Cesar Muedas Chief Ronal Serpas Roy Wilson** Staff: Pam Hazelwood **Committee Co-Chair

48. Project for Student Success Task Force Report Findings and Recommendations June 25, 2008