Transcript Transforming the Newark Educational Experience

Princeton Center for Leadership Training
Dr. Margo Ross, Senior Director of Development
Dr. Sherry Barr, Vice President
January 25, 2013
 Partner with schools to help create safer and more
supportive, engaging, inspiring environments
 Has served hundreds of schools since 1988 and our work
touches tens of thousands of students, educators, and
parents annually
 Highly committed to implementing effective programs in
partnership with communities that have large numbers of
economically disadvantaged youth
 District/School
Administrators
 Teachers
 Government Leaders
 CommunityBased/Nonprofit Leaders
 Student Support Services  Business Leaders
Professionals
 Funders
 Elementary Educators
 Parents
 Middle Grades Educators  Students
 High School Educators
 Who did we miss?
As a result of participating in this workshop, learners will be able
to:
•
articulate why feeling connected to school leads to fewer
dropouts, higher grades, and reduced bullying
•
appreciate the need to focus on the middle to high school
transition in efforts to improve students’ sense of school
connectedness
•
understand the strategies and actions of an evidence-based
peer group mentoring model that enhances school
connectedness for students and eases the transition into high
school for 9th graders
• There is a profound weakness in the support
provided to students during the transition
into high school.
• By the time they are in high school, as many
as 40 to 60 percent of all students—urban,
suburban and rural—are “chronically
disengaged” from school.
• Such disengagement has dire consequences
– research consistently demonstrates that
students are most vulnerable for dropping
out of school during and immediately
following their first year of high school.
Blum, 2005; Cohen & Smerdon, 2009
By leveraging the power of school-based, group mentoring by
older peers and focusing intensively on the transition from
middle to high school…
We can transform this period of heightened vulnerability into one
of significant opportunity to prevent the potentially devastating
personal and societal consequences of high school
disengagement.
School connectedness
- the belief by students that people in
the school care about their learning
and about them as individuals –
is an powerful protective factor in the
lives of young people and an important
prerequisite to reduced bullying, greater
academic achievement, lower dropout
rates, improved grades, fewer discipline
referrals, and fewer high-risk behaviors.
Blum & Libbey, 2004; http://www.casel.org/basics/climate.php
Once upon a time, we were where our students
are. Our experiences may have looked
different from theirs, or our experiences may
have looked similar. Almost across the board,
though, adolescence wasn’t—and isn’t—easy.
To help establish context for considering
programming that supports school
connectedness and ensures that students make
an effective transition into high school, let’s
begin with a quick visit back to that time and
place when we, too, were teenagers…
Working in groups of three, participants introduce themselves to
one another and take turns sharing responses to any one of the
following questions:
• What is one memory you have about a time in high school when
you felt strongly connected to other students?
• What is one memory you have about a time in high school when
you felt strongly disconnected from other students?
• Think back to one adult in your middle school or high school
who threw you a lifeline – this adult knew you and cared about
you, and this person’s caring made a positive difference in your
life.
• What patterns did we see emerge in
our memories of school connectedness
and disconnectedness?
• What might make it even harder for
today’s high school students to
experience a sense of school
connectedness?
A peer-to-peer group mentoring model,
known as Peer Group Connection (PGC)
that has provided hundreds of high
schools across the country with a
straightforward, cost-effective, and
evidence-based model for enhancing
school connectedness and easing the
transition into high school for 9th
graders.
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Let’s watch a brief video segment that highlights
the PGC program in Union City, New Jersey, where
students are currently immersed in mentoring
roles.
•
•
What did you see or hear that resonated with
you most deeply?
What school-based challenges do you think
would be addressed by a group mentoring
program that sets older students in motion with
younger students?
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% of Ninth Grade Students who
Graduated from High School
90%
90%
81%
80%
77%
80%
67%
70%
70%
63%
60%
60%
50%
50%
Program Group
Program Group
Control Group
All Students
Control Group
Male Students
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•
Higher grades
•
Better attendance
•
Fewer discipline referrals
•
Fewer instances of fighting and suspension
•
Improved communication with peers and
others
1.
2.
3.
4.
PCLT staff collaborates with school leadership to assemble and train a
school-based Stakeholder Team.
PCLT staff collaborates with the school-based Stakeholder Team to
identify, select, train, and support Faculty Advisors.
Faculty Advisors select and train Peer Leaders through an out-of-school
retreat and a daily, credit-bearing leadership class.
Peer Leaders mentor and support younger peers in curriculum-driven
weekly sessions, carefully planned special events, meaningful service
learning projects and informally throughout the school day and year.
5.
Parents/caregivers participate in special family events.
6.
Younger peers receive additional support for a second year.
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The PGC curriculum uses engaging, hands-on activities to
address issues that have been shown to help reduce risk
behaviors and produce positive student outcomes, including
high school completion. Curriculum topics include:





Sense of School Belonging
Competence in
Interpersonal Relationships
Conflict Resolution, Anger
Management, & Violence
Prevention

Goal Setting

Coping Skills

Decision Making

Peer Acceptance & Resisting
Peer Pressure
Bullying & Bystander
Behavior

Anger Management

Stress Management
Achievement Orientation &
Motivation

Service Learning
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

Use the Self-Assessment Rubric in your Resource
Guide to follow along as we briefly review each of
the 7 best practices
For each best practice, consider – is my school:
• GREEN – Fully up and running
• YELLOW – En route to this best practice
• RED – We have yet to begin

On a signal from your facilitator, please weigh in by
holding up the appropriate colored paper from the
set you’ve been given
Create a Stakeholders
Team comprised of key
school and community
representatives
Prepare students
with care
Prepare faculty
with care
Involve parents and
other adult caretakers
Utilize an interactive,
engaging curriculum
Handle logistics
and scheduling
well in advance
Evaluate your program
• What is something you’ve heard or
thought about today that will stay with
you?
• What’s one next step you would like to
take back to your own school?
• For additional information about PCLT,
please contact Margo at
[email protected]