WISE Up!

1. WISE Up!

2. AOCC 2012 Presenters: Eileen McGarvey, School Counselor Ridgeview Jr. High Kris Owen, School Counselor Ridgeview Jr. High Sherry Orlando, Executive Director Fairfield County United Way Not Present Rick Brenner School Psychologist Ridgeview Jr. High

3. WISE Winning Interventions for Student Excellence History • In 2005 we were informed that the FACFC wanted to have more involvement in schools AND in our area of the county.* • We piloted a before school program, The Breakfast Club, in the Spring of 2006 with money from the Family, Adult and Children First Council. ** • We continued the program in 2007-2008, but had difficulty getting kids to come at 6:30 a.m.

4. History Continued In the spring of 2008-2009 we piloted a new and improved program during the school day…. WISE

5. Starting in the 2009-2010 School Year… WISE met during the school day for three days per week from October through late May.* • Since fall of 2010, WISE has been a part of the school day and class schedule for the 60-80 students it serves. **

6. Purpose The WISE Program was designed to meet one of the biggest academic needs of Junior High students… It also focuses on: • study skills • work completion • improving grades • building assets • Increasing self esteem Improving organizational skills

7. Philosophy • The junior high school years are a crucial developmental period in a student's education. Success is often determined by grades, test scores, and work completion. • It is our hypothesis that designing and implementing a program to improve a junior high student's organizational and study skills would ultimately lead to better grades, higher self-esteem, and a more successful transition to high school.

8. Data…Data…Data According to a needs assessment conducted each year, approximately: • 30% of the students felt they needed some extra help with time management • Over 45% felt they needed help to improve their grades • 26% felt they needed help with organization.

9. Approximately 8 out of every 10 students that were referred to Ridgeview Junior High School's Intervention Assistance Team (IAT) from 2006 to 2008 had as their primary referral concerns: • poor organizational skills • missing work • numerous assignments not turned in • not coming to classes with necessary materials • poor test scores. • These difficulties were also the primary reason(s) these students were either failing or near-failing some or all of their classes.

10. Typical Classroom Accommodations like: • extended time • preferential seating, • using an assignment notebook, • frequent parental involvement, and • frequent parent-teacher communication had NOT significantly improved these students' overall grades or self-esteem.

11. The Program In order to improve grades and self-esteem for at-risk (non-special education) kids who are disorganized and unmotivated, you need a program that offers the following: 1. Direct Intervention 2. Implemented in a small-group setting 3. With daily monitoring and supervision 4. Increased communication between home and school 5. Daily incentives/opportunities to earn rewards

12. The Results This chart is from the 2010-11 school year. We have always had between a 75% and 80% success rate.

13. Unintended Outcomes • WISE has become a great intervention for struggling students to determine whether testing for Special Education services is necessary. • WISE has reduced the number of Special Education referrals. • We are here presenting! We had no idea how successful this program would be. We are now also trying to start the same program at the other Jr. High in our district.

14. Does it Stick?* The longitudinal data indicates that even months (to over a year) after exiting the program, previous WISE students current mean grade averages are still higher than their pre-WISE mean grade averages and in a few cases are even higher than their post WISE mean averages.

15. A Work In Progress…Changes we propose for the future • We are moving to a Google Docs survey for perception data (pre and post) and including more questions related to self esteem and personal assets.* • Change the focus of the questions to a more positive approach. • Look at graduation rates for those who participated in the program. • Formulate a school policy for the acceptance of work through this program.

16. 2012 United Way Campaign Video

17. Show Me The $$$

18. Cost • WISE is a very cost effective program. We employ a full-time teacher from late Sept.- June who directly serves and monitors as many as 80 at-risk students per year. We also buy supplies to help the students organize as well as some small incentives, all for… Under $20,000

19. United Way Funding and Building a Network

20. Other options… • This program can easily be done within a school district if the district will support the hiring of a teacher or aide. • With the data we have provided, you should have enough information to make such a proposal. However, if you need more, please feel free to contact us.

21. Questions?

22. Contact Information • Eileen McGarvey- (614)548-1716 eileen_mcgarvey@plsd.us • Kris Owen - (614)548-1717 kris_owen@plsd.us • Sherry Orlando - (740)653-0643 sorlando@uwayfairfieldco.org