Ten Strategies to Ensure Student Success

Our staff met these past few weeks to reflect on the many successes that we have achieved with our students this school year.

Student Engagement in Learning and Their School Communities

Here are our top ten strategies for student success:

Our high school students are fully engaged once again in their daily school activities after distance learning. They use their talents, skills, and voice to produce creative projects through media art classes that include film and photography projects.
The leadership team creates monthly social activities that include group movie nights, lunch time rallies, a twin day, a pajama day, and a pie in the face of an administrator day. The all-time favorite was when the students dyed the hair of an administrator.
The students’ ongoing academic growth is impressive at the 8^th and 12^th grade levels because these students lost 18 months of face-to-face learning without social interactions with their teachers and peers.
All students are achieving significant milestone growth at each reporting period.
Our afterschool study hall provides students with academic teacher support by using supplemental materials for acceleration.
The student clubs are supported by teachers and support our English learners in their language development. Favorite student clubs include the chess club, film, volleyball, an adventure club with science and nature activities, and a cooking club that focuses on cooking culturally diverse recipes.
The teachers collaboratively support each other at the many academic activities to foster cooperation and team work.
We have a larger pool of students in our senior class who are eligible to attend four-year universities and colleges.
Teachers and parents can now attend student sporting events since the COVID restrictions have been lifted for attendance.
Our major event for the year was a “trunk or treat event” in October. Nearly 25 cars were decorated by the students with open trunks full of candy for students and their families. The high school media arts class decorated cars along with the advisory groups. The community attendees voted on the best decorated car. Community agencies provided community services. A community vendor provided reduced cost foods as a donation for the event. And staff members performed in a folklorico dance group. This celebration of our school community truly showcased the vibrance of our students and their many achievements.

Much success as your school’s staff creates spring and summer activities to celebrate your school’s families and their children’s many achievements this past school year.

Consider Children’s Needs for School Choice

Consider Your Children’s Needs for School Choice

When considering different school options, you can ask yourself the following questions about your child or collectively about your children:

What is my child’s personality type?
Does she prefer playing or socializing in small groups, large groups, or by herself?
Does she like to lead a group in various activities?
Would she prefer to watch others and then follow in small group play and socialization activities?
Is she easily frustrated when playing and socializing with others?
Does she get angry when things do not go her way?
What are her favorite activities?
Does she prefer outside or thinking types of activities?
Does she prefer paper and pencil activities or large muscle and interactive activities?
Would she learn best by reading with you, listening, or watching others?
What are her academic experiences?
Does she recognize letters and letter combination sounds?
Has she exhibited other pre-reading or reading skills?
How does she apply number sense in everyday activities?
What has the teacher said about her social, emotional, and learning skill development?
What concerns do you have about her academic success and learning challenges?

Middle and High School Considerations

Added considerations for middle and high school students may include:

Is there a specific college and career path that your child is interested in exploring?
What types of classes, experiences, or internships do prospective schools offer to support your child’s learning interests?
Does the preferred school provide sufficient extra-curricular activities, sports teams, and academic support programs to accommodate your child’s interests and preparation for college?
Does the preferred school’s course sequence include options for your child to attend competitive colleges in her area of interest?
What else do you need to discuss with the prospective school to ensure that it will provide adequate counseling and support services to ensure your child’s success?

Conducting School Site Visits

Once you answer these questions and have completed a conference for added information from your child’s teacher, you may choose to visit schools in your school district, charter schools, private schools, and parent participation schools to learn more about various learning philosophies. You can review appropriate teaching strategies by visiting your state’s department of education website and by researching different teaching philosophies.

It is important to select a school for your child that reinforces your family’s values and how you plan to support your child’s learning. If you have more than one child starting the school, you should consider the overall school climate that best aligns with your parenting style and your children’s diverse needs. This ensures an effective transition into an elementary school or transfer into a middle or high school. After visiting several different schools in your community, consider the following when selecting an appropriate school for your family:

The various school options and choices for learning in your neighborhood
How your child will travel to school each day
The locations of various schools in proximity to your home, office, or access to afterschool childcare
The school’s expectations for parent participation, homework philosophies, and expectations for parents’ support
How you and your family can mange each day in regards to parent participation and homework support
How much stress your family can manage when considering a selected school’s location, teaching philosophy, and homework expectations

A Sample Case Study

The following case study illustrates how parents must align their preference and values when considering a school’s expectations.

Case Study of a High Achieving Elementary School and a Family’s Demanding Schedule

Tracey and Mark were excited when they visited a high achieving parent participation public elementary school in their neighborhood. They wanted the best for their four children and valued the extensive parent participation components offered at the school. They also loved the focus on service learning and community-based project homework that required hours of support from parents and the entire family beyond the school day. Within the first few weeks of school, Lily, their oldest child, was over-whelmed and feeling like a failure because she could not keep up with her classmates. Her parents were overscheduled with demanding jobs, younger sibling care, and little time to reinforce her learning needs when assigned community-based homework projects. Although her parents valued education, the school’s high academic success, and the parent participation components, the values of the school did not align to their ability to fully participate in the school. After meeting with their daughter’s teacher, Tracey and Mark were able to adjust their schedules to meet their daughter’s learning needs. Scheduling sufficient time for parent participation at the school will continue to be a challenge as their other children start the school.

When considering this case study, it is important that parents work in partnership with the school to successfully complete the registration process that may include:

Reviewing various school options relevant to the family’s values and learning needs
Registering for a selected school with backup options
Following-up with the selected school’s confirmation and document completion process
Compiling all mandatory vacinations and medical check-up documentation

Sometimes, parents are not offered any of the schools they selected for their children through a lottery system or when selected schools are over-enrolled. Many parents will then appeal to the school district’s student placement office to have their child transferred to another school. Options can include a school that is closer to a student’s home or that has a higher student performance ranking in the district. The anxiety of registering for schools can be frustrating, confusing, and challenging. For example, urban parents may feel desperate in their attempts to challenge a school assignment. They may feel forced to wait another year for reassignment while their child attends an alternative program. It is important to reassure your children that they will have a successful school year and that you will be there to support them in this process.

Sample School Selection Worksheet

The sample worksheet below was completed by Tracey and Mark when they decided to send their child to a high performing parent participation elementary school in the neighborhood.

Tracey and Mark’s School Selection Worksheet

List 5 primary values for our family:

1. Our family values being active together at home and at school.

2. We value a well-balanced education for our children.

3. We want our children to give more than they receive in their community.

4. We value the individual contributions of each family member.

5. We respect the diversity of our community and giving back to all.

List three characteristics you are looking for in your children’s schools:

1. The school is near my home.

2. It is high performing and has a rigorous curriculum.

3. Parents are encouraged to become partners in their children’s learning.

List the types of learning that your child/ren prefer or respond to effectively:

1. My children prefer to engage in interactive socialization when learning.

2. They are self-motivated and like to work in small groups.

3. The children are self-starters, creative, and love to socialize as they work in groups.

4. They love to do art projects and use art in their academic learning.

After visiting various schools in the area, identify three schools that will serve your family best. List the reasons to justify your preference:

1. Marian Wright Elementary School is the neighborhood school near our home. This school is our first choice for our children because it is near our home. The school is a high performing school with extensive project-based learning with participating parents.

2. Star Charter School is a rigorous academic K-8 public charter school within 10 miles from our home. The school specializes in science and math technology with lots of parents participating in small group activities with their children.

3. Las Palmas Cooperative School is a private school within 5 miles from our home. It focuses on children exploring careers throughout their K-8 education with a focus on service learning and community development with rigorous academic standards.

Selected school with registration completion requirements includes:

We have decided to have our eldest child attend the local elementary school and must complete the following for school registration:

1. Submit documentation to the district office that confirms that we reside in the neighborhood for this school.

2. Finish the school’s application and mail to the district office.

3. Complete the student medical examination documentation with updated immunization records and submit to the school nurse.

Much success identifying your family’s learning preferences at specific schools.

What Does an Engaged Classroom Look Like?

This post is sixth of a series based on excepts from my book on Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke (2020). You can purchase the book from Roman and Littlefield for charts, examples, and worksheets on how to engage students to become owners of their learning successes.

How to Create Learning Goals from Academic Standards

In the classroom, clear and actionable goals are a good start to supporting student learning. Students can then deconstruct standards and big picture goals into their own individual learning aims and intentions. The level of challenge must be feasible for the students. If the goals are too easy, students will get bored and complete their assignment quickly. If the goals are too hard, students become discouraged leading to low-quality outcomes, or none at all.

Students’ Feedback Ensures Realistic Learning Goals

Feedback is also an essential element of flow. This can be personal feedback through reflection on progress and outcomes, a self-scored rubric, and feedback from a peer or from a teacher. Students’ statements of engagement include:

“I understand the learning intentions and I’m supposed to…”

“Now I know where and why we are heading there.”

“I know what I will do to reach them: read, highlight, and color code the categories.”

“I will start with this first step and see how it works out.”

“I can make progress. I’ll take my time reading to see if I can understand the main ideas.”

“OK, the first step is done and I checked it against the criteria. I just need to adjust the tone.”

“This sounds interesting AND possible. I have strong feelings on this topic and will try to curb my emotions.”

“OK, I’ll give it another try. Now that I can see where I’m headed.”

Engaging learners in assessment reduces the stress of learning something new. A little cortisol, the stress hormone, can whet the brain in anticipation of an assessment, but we don’t want to raise it to a red flag level. Finding the balance between attentiveness and anxiety differs from student to student. In any setting, there should be no assessment surprises. For example, asking students to apply learning in a somewhat different scenario than the one learned in class can raise anxiety and students should be reassured that the process is the same. Stress from notetaking can be reduced by giving students empty outlines where they are picking out the appropriate word or phrase. Confidence in public speaking can be developed through the use of students’ choice of a technology for electronic presentations.

Student Engagement Ensures Informative Feedback

Engagement is infrequently an element of traditional assessment as tests are typically a solo activity. But when the roots of assessment are considered, the connections become clearer. Assessment comes from the Latin word “assidere” which means “to sit beside as an assistant or advisor.” These routine check-ins, informative feedback, and opportunities for improvement are the engaging and relationship-based elements of assessment.

Sarine prefers predictability in assessment and Seiji sees himself as an assessment warrior. Sarine has learned the skills she needs to purposefully and diligently prepare for an upcoming test. She summarizes the main ideas, reviews what she was taught about its meaning and relevance, and how it was used in class. She confidently digs into the example on the test. Seiji has a momentary panic attack before realizing that they did a similar problem in class and the flow of cortisol activates his brain enabling him to do his best work.

What Is a SMART GOAL?

There are numerous goal setting models. The SMART goal model shown is a reliable and achievable strategy for students. It is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-Based. The model is relevant for all learners by adjusting the language levels. For example, “What are my specific goals?” is simplified to “This is what I will learn. What actions and steps will I take?” translates to “My first step will be.”

Personalization of goals makes them more relevant, authentic, and interesting to learners. It begins when students evaluate their incoming knowledge and skills in relation to learning purposes and intentions and in due course, to assess their learning outcomes. Here is a summary of steps students must consider in creating SMART goals:

Students must consider what they need to learn to establish specific and strategic
They must identify any qualitative or quantitative data that is required to create measurable and motivational
Goals must realistic with steps and a timeline to be actionable and achievable.
Students can monitor the steps to achieve time-based and tangible

Our December 14th blog will provide an example and explain how students assess their learning outcomes. For more charts, examples, and worksheets on how to engage students to own their learning, you can purchase Student-Engaged Assessment: Strategies to Empower All Learners by Laura Greenstein and Mary Ann Burke (2020) from Roman and Littlefield

Middle and High School Career Explorations Play Activities

Materials:

Journal, marking pens, and artist materials for career reflection activities
Subscription to a career focused or professional association magazine (e.g. coding, STEM, writing, teaching, counseling, legal services, performing arts, youth development, service learning, construction, sports, business, architecture, and fashion)
Registration and participation in activities relevant to a specific passion or career (e.g. maker fair STEM fairs and competitions, science fairs, writing contests, performing arts contests and shows, family karaoke events, and sports recreation nights)
Participation and materials that support community service projects
Registration for online career explorations through a professional career association that supports youth

Activities:

Encourage your child to write about various passions, interests, and hobbies in a journal and reflect weekly on relevant activities. Your child can illustrate ideas, brainstorm new projects or concepts, or graph a workplan using different types of art materials in the journal.
Research various subscription options for your child. Local bookstores feature lots of unique publications that focus on hobbies, STEM, performing arts, and self-growth activities.
Help your child purchase relevant books on her hobbies. For example, a potential educator or writer might subscribe to Writer’s Digest, attend a book writing conference, join a local writers’ group, and participate in writing contests to explore a writing and teaching career and build a portfolio of work.
Support your child’s interest and registration in career events in your community. Take trips to sites that feature your child’s passion. For example, a family traveled to Ashland, Oregon to attend the summer Shakespeare Festival because their child was interested in majoring in English and later became a marketing executive for a technology company.
Help your child identify appropriate community service activities relevant to his interests. A child wanted to pursue a career in horticulture and participated with his parents in planting trees throughout the city.
Register your child in a professional organization relevant to her career interests. Examples include:
- American Educational Research Association for future educators
- Junior Achievement for work-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy opportunities
- 4-H for agricultural leadership experiences,
- Rotary Club Youth Exchange Program for leadership development, cultural understanding, and to become a global citizen.

Relevant Common Core Standards

Listed below are relevant California Common Core Standards for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects:

Grades 6 – 8 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short research projects to answer a question (including self-generated question), drawing on several sources and generating additional related, focused questions that allow multiple avenues of exploration.
Grade 11 – 12 Research to Build and Present Knowledge: Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.

Middle and High School Career Explorations Reading Activity

As our children start exploring various careers, you and your child can research together various career exploration websites by googling questions about specific careers. Included below are two educational articles that discuss the importance of having children consider and explore careers during their middle and high school years:

Career Discussion Questions

After reading the two website linked articles or two other relevant articles, discuss the following questions with your child when considering the information presented in the two different articles:

Think back about your favorite hobbies or passions in your elementary or middle school years. Share with your child any skills or career choices that you explored at that time and is relevant to what you are doing today. (e.g. I loved to make books and now I am an educator and author.)
What are your child’s passions? What can your child do to explore careers using these passions?
What middle or high school electives can your child take to expand a career exploration. (For example, a high school student wanted to learn more about being an architect. She attended a summer college camp for seniors at a premier university. During the three-week camp, she learned that she was artistic and creative, but would not be happy working alone for long hours designing homes, etc. This was an important discovery because she was planning on applying to an out-of-state accredited university which would have been very costly.)
Has your school provided any career exploration counseling, job fairs, or career planning courses? If no, what can you do to help your child further explore career interests in your community?
How can you support your child in pursuing his interests and dreams?
What financial guidance or information do you need to support your child’s career education
What else do you and your child need to learn about a specific career to map out a plan for a higher education degree or career training program? Write a reflection in the comments section for this blog.

Relevant Common Core Standards

Listed below are relevant California Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy that support middle and high school learners:

Grade 7 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Analyze how two or more authors’ writing about the same topic shape their presentations of key information by emphasizing different evidence or advancing different interpretations of facts.
Grades 11-12 Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g. visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.