Students are voting with their feet. Through rising chronic absenteeism, increases in behavioral challenges, and declines in college enrollment after high school, many students are signaling that school is no longer a place they can or want to be. In short, they feel disconnected. To address this problem, high schools across the country are consolidating disparate student support efforts into a unified approach led by student success teams. State boards can support and elevate this work.
Fostering school connectedness is an effective, universal prevention measure that affects many important student outcomes. Students who are connected to school get better grades, attend more often, have fewer behavioral challenges, graduate from high school, and go to college at higher rates than their disconnected peers.
Centering School Connectedness
Also In this Issue
Getting Students Engaged in Learning
By Jennifer A. FredricksTargeted interventions and savvy classroom practices, coupled with supportive state policy, can draw disengaged students back in.
Centering School Connectedness
By Robert BalfanzHigh schools are creating student success teams that prioritize relationships and leverage actionable data to reconnect students to school.
Chronic Absence: A Call for Deeper Student and Family Engagement
By Hedy ChangConnecticut's experience underscores the value of a positive, systemic approach to improving attendance.
Understanding Who Is Missing and Why
By Hailly T.N. KormanThe pandemic only magnified chronic absence among students with the greatest needs and made the problem harder to ignore.
How State Leaders Can Stand Up for the COVID Generation of High Schoolers
By Robin Lake and Travis PillowFamilies need better data on students' academic progress; students need meaningful learning experiences and better information on postsecondary options.
Reengaging High School Students through Career Academies
By Edward C. Fletcher Jr.When built around four key elements, academies deliver rigorous, relevant learning tied to students' career aspirations.
Trauma-Informed Practices: A Whole-School Policy Framework
By Janet VanLone and Nicole ReddigState leaders can ensure that more school staff are equipped to help children deal with the effects of trauma.
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