Middle School Aspire Network

“Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That’s a student every 26 seconds, or 7,000 a day.” – Partnering for Education Reform. U.S. Department of Education (2015) 

While data suggests improvement since 2015, we are still faced with the fact that nearly 7,000 students in San Diego fail to graduate on time each year. A leading cause of this is students entering high school are unprepared to engage in school successfully. 

Research indicates that strong student engagement during middle school dramatically increases student success in high school. However, student engagement during middle school isn’t where it needs to be to better equip students for success beyond middle school. Schools and districts need to find ways to improve student engagement in the educational process. 

The Aspire network includes middle school staff, administrators, and district leaders. There is no one better positioned to engage in solving this critical issue than those closest to middle school students, the middle school staff and administrators. District leaders must also engage in this effort to ensure that a wider system of support is in place to remove barriers and increase opportunities and access for all students, staff, and families. 

The network’s goal is to increase the number of students who have GPA of 2.75 or greater and pass their English language arts and math courses to ensure students are on track for success, paying close attention to historically underserved student groups. If middle school staff intentionally focus on building systems that nurture students’ sense of belonging, then there will be an increase in student academic performance as seen in their overall GPA, and grades in ELA and math courses, and students will be more successful now, in high school, and beyond. We do this by supporting school teams to build systems that nurture students’ sense of belonging. 

The Middle School Aspire Network utilizes the SDCOE Equity Blueprint, SDCOE Socially Conscious Leadership Framework, and the curb-cut concept to address the needs of historically marginalized student groups in support of the SDCOE North Star goal.

Participants will have a unique, interactive experience to gain knowledge and practical strategies for fostering student social-emotional resilience in order to empower them for success in high school, college, and beyond. Participants’ two-year commitment to the network includes:

• Four full-day convenings throughout the school year 
• Access to a data dashboard that provides real-time data to understand and improve student investment in their school experience
• Tools for measuring student impact
• Access and use of research-based approaches and practices to shift your practice

Schools:  

• Assemble an Aspire school team (including site leadership, counselor(s), and/or teachers)
• Members of the school team attend the quarterly convenings
• Identify a team lead who will champion the efforts at the school and attend monthly check in calls
• Team members implement the selected change ideas and collect and submit data
• School team meets weekly or biweekly to review data collected and learn from changes that they are making 

Districts:  

• Commit to actively supporting the schools’ work so that the district can ultimately develop a lasting district improvement strategy that can be leveraged beyond the initial Middle School Aspire schools
• Support school with requisite data necessary for the work
• Ongoing dedication of staff time and a commitment from district leaders to support the school’s efforts (e.g., provide necessary funding to support educators' time commitments)
• Maintain open communication and check-in with school leaders to learn about challenges or barriers, and commit to taking actions to remove these barriers (e.g., competing priorities/initiatives) 

Results

• Changes in weak and strong belonging per student survey results
• For focal students who received interventions, we saw a decrease in the percentage of students reporting weak sense of belonging by 35.8%, and a 11.36% increase in students reporting strong sense of belonging at school. 

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“As we engage in the Aspire work, we are being more thoughtful and intentional about creating conditions in classrooms where students feel a sense of belonging…. In every single classroom. We’ve really focused this year in trying to create conditions that allow students to feel that they are connected to the curriculum, connected to the other students, connected to their teachers, and connected to our school as a whole.” 

– Steve Mills, principal, Twin Peaks Middle School, Poway Unified School District 

See more in this Twin Peaks Middle School video:

To learn more, please contact:

Bernadette Nguyen
Executive Leadership Coach
    
Chris Vickers
Executive Leadership Coach

Greg Magno
Executive Leadership Coach