advocate for their students. They check on grades, develop relationships and talk about how adults can help students succeed. The program meets 20 minutes a week. It helps every student be noticed. Also, about every six weeks, our student assistance team meets. They identify students who aren’t doing well academically or who are having attendance issues. They strategize as to how to help them. started in January. We formerly had advisory programs but dropped them years ago. We will keep some of our same students all the way though high school, but allow faculty to change the composition of the teams a little each year. The staff actually came to me asking to revive the program. Before, we met too often and lost instructional time. They like the current 20 minutes a week. not follow through. Sioux City, West HS We do an advisor-advisee program. We are a PBIS school. We run a student leadership class which led to a leadership club. The club aims to improve school climate and culture. They will organize assemblies where students who usually aren’t in the spotlight can gain some recognition. We do the “Circle of Friends” program that pairs regular education and special education teachers together to lead recreational activities for special needs and regular education students. We also have an effective at-risk program that We do culture and climate surveys and have seen improvement in our data. There was some faculty resistance to the Advisor-Advisee program. I’m a big believer in the advisor-advisee program. It gives students the chance to talk about non-academic issues with an advocate. Students get to know other students that they do not normally hang with. Remember to have fun with your activities.
assemblies to recognize all students and not just for those in sports; developed a spirit group that is multi-cultural; hold diversity assemblies; various methods for student input. We have United Way support. Our calculation of ELI students who were sent to Roosevelt on a bus was 240 hours a year – they now are staying in our developed program at Hoover. students. Burlington Community HS Last few years we have been doing PBIS – very beneficial; now on Tier II. Narrowing in on safe schools. 2010 graduation rate was 83%; 2013 graduation rate was 93%. Referrals are down. We have advisory periods. 1:1 graduation supports. Emphasis on Respect, Responsibility and Initiative. We teach lessons on this. We put data on matrixes on walls across the school for students and staff to see. Directly teach students skills to work together and support each other. We track our data, analyze what we need to do and then make a plan. We have in-coming students from urban and inner-city schools - - we put much effort into orienting these students to our expectations - - this takes focused attention to integrate them. Attention to bullying - - we have defined it more explicitly rather than a general issue – we directly teach the continuum in 4 categories: Teasing; Sexual innuendos; Harassment; Bullying – pattern of behavior, repressed aggression, intended to harm, imbalance of power. (We have consequences for each but treat bullying like a suspension). We work to educate our public on these elements/categories. Data is the key. Gather climate information by surveys – students, staff, parents. With this formative information, look at best practices. Look at current strengths: what are we doing?, how are we doing? See the change needed and teach it, hold accountable and monitor progress – this is no different than teaching math or science. Waterloo West HS Restructured to learning communities. Divided up Office referrals are down. Responsibility and commitment by all. Courage to make changes. Develop learning communities. Determine ways to engage