Increasing graduation rates by keeping students engaged

Increasing Student Engagement

What it boils down to is finding ways to keep students engaged and interested in coming to school, says Anthony Bonds, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction and Technology.

Addressing graduation rate concerns became a high priority a couple years back and the district started paying very close attention to data collected on students, their achievement levels and gaps in achievement, Bonds said.

“The district started looking at that data and taking it to heart and what it could do to close the gap,” he said. “They started challenging themselves.”

At the high school, special attention was given to the data collected on incoming freshman students and where they stood academically, Bonds said.

The idea was to increase student engagement. Literacy was a crucial area. Students who weren’t reading at grade level were assigned an extra class to help them grow their reading ability and comprehension levels.

“We identified kids and put them in intervention classes for reading,” bonds said.

Improving Curriculum Alignment

Curriculum became more aligned to achievement levels, with the goal in mind to help students grow, improve and reach their appropriate grade level work by the time they graduated. Students who were not reading at a ninth-grade level started at the level they were at and were expected to get more proficient. They were graded according to their efforts at growth.

“The model is always about growth and trying to get them to grade level. We are looking for kids to grow; we expect some to grow at 1.5 years per year,” Bonds said.

The Beloit School District also has a large variety of classes from which to choose, which helps keep students engaged. That could be AP classes for the college bound students or state-of-the-art technical programming for those wanting a career in the technical or trades areas, Bonds said. They can take classes for credit at Blackhawk Technical College, apply for the Beloit College Porter Scholar program and earn college credits accepted by BTC and the University of Wisconsin-Rock County.

Classroom teaching also was examined as part of the focus to increase graduation rates and staff development occurred. The idea was to make classrooms more relevant to all students in a diverse student population. The district population is 40 percent white, 37 percent Hispanic, 30 percent African American and 3 percent made up of students from various ethnic backgrounds.

Connecting With Kids

As for core instruction, all staff have been asked to review, reflect and step up expectations, acknowledge where kids are and then to step up those expectations.
“The idea is eventually there will be fewer needs for interventions,” Bonds said.

Counselors are involved as well. “Counselors were to make sure we are really connecting with kids, especially the students at risk of failure.”

A couple times a week, students also check in for advisory time with a teacher where they can get help if needed. Advisory time is similar to homeroom time in years past.

“We want to get kids back on track; it’s been a real effort,” he said.

For some high school students, going to class in a school of 1,800 can be overwhelming. For those students, alternative educational programs have been put in place. At the former Wright Elementary School, the Beloit Learning Academy operates as well as a Virtual learning environment. Students also can earn a GED through the district and take credit recovery classes.

For young parents who are students, there also is programming to help them stay in school in the district.

For some students in the district, it’s also about basic needs such as housing, food and clothing being met as well as trying to meet academic requirements.

Setting Graduation and Post-graduation Goals

Graduation Coach Katie Smullen works with unaccompanied youth or those not living with a parent or guardian.

“These kids stay on friends’ couches or with relatives. We wrap services around them,” Smullen said. “I try to make sure basic needs are met.” That can include finding appropriate housing, taking care of food needs, health care needs and even obtaining Social Security cards, birth certificates and state identification cards or a driver’s license.

Sometimes that also means hooking kids up with tutors and helping them with credit recovery programs. And Smullen helps them set graduation and post-graduation goals. “If kids have a goal of what they want to do, they can do it. We just try to walk them through it and empower them, and help them get through it,” she said.

The four-block scheduling at BMHS also plays a part. It allows students to take classes for longer periods of time for one semester instead of shorter periods all year long. Should they fail a class the block scheduling allows them to make up the class without having to wait an entire year, Bonds pointed out.

For students who may have English language challenges, ELL teacher support staff is in place. Next year, at all four intermediate schools and three elementary schools, a bi-lingual program will be in place. Students will get a half day instruction in Spanish and half day in English. This will be open to all students regardless if English is their first language or not, Bonds said.

Overall, “We are developing a K-12 intervention system for all students, programming and staff at every grade level,” Bonds said.

The DPI’s recently released statistics for graduation at BMHS are:

• 4-year rate: 93.1 percent (state rate 88.4 percent)
• African-American rate: 96.1 percent (state rate, 64.0 percent)
• Hispanic rate: 91.1 percent (state 77.5 percent)
• Economically disadvantaged rate: 91.3 percent (state rate, 77.3 percent)

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