Promising Practices in Transitions Programming: -Academic Considerations -Developmental Considerations -Systemic and Institutional Considerations -Promising Practices within a Social Justice Framework

1. Promising Practices in
Transitions Programming
SAFE PASSAGES ALL-TEAM TRAINING
MAY 4TH 2010, 9:00-3:00
OUTLINE:
ACADEMIC CONSIDERATIONS
DEVELOPMENTAL CONSIDERATIONS
SYSTEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
PROMISING PRACTICES WITHIN A SOCIAL JUSTICE
FRAMEWORK

2. Students in Transition:
Academic Considerations
DEFINITION OF TRANSITION
FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS TRAINING:
ACADEMIC- 5/6 AND 8/9
SOCIO-EMOTIONAL
DEVELOPMENTAL
FAMILIAL

3. Creation of Middle School Concept
1965: only 5 percent of middle-grades schools in the
United States were 6 - 8 or 5 - 8 middle schools
2000: 69 percent were 6 - 8 or 5 - 8 middle schools
Created to:
 Meet the developmental needs of young adolescents
 Create smaller teaching and learning environments
 Reduce overcrowding, poor facility use, and racial segregation*
* D. MacIver, A. Ruby, 2010. Education Encyclopedia: Middle Schools.

4. 5th / 6th Grade Transition
 The transition from elementary to middle school is where
test scores plummet, truancy increases and a commitment
to school and community erode (City of Oakland OFCY Strategic Plan).
 In 2009, 66% of California 4th graders scored proficient or
advanced in Math, compared to 43% of 7th graders. (California
Department of Education, 2009).
 By the time students reach 9th grade, their sense of
connection to the community declines and their
connections with caring adults diminish (California Healthy Kids Survey,
2009).
 It is in middle school that youth also feel the most unsafe
and the highest proportion of youth feel the need to carry
weapons (California Healthy Kids Survey, 2009).

5. 8th / 9th Grade Transition
 Instead of academically struggling in school like middle school students,
struggling high school students often drop out.
 In 2009, four public entities—OUSD, the Alameda County Probation
Department, Alameda County Social Services and the City of Oakland—
coordinated data in an effort to identify youth most in need of intervention, as
well as the most opportune time to intervene. The data indicated that over 800
youth living in Oakland were sent to the County Juvenile Detention Center at
least once during the 2007-08 school year. Among that population, only 370—
fewer than half—returned to Oakland public schools after release from
detention. Among those students, almost half were 9th graders.
 During the 2007-08 school year, 1,632 students were designated as drop-outs
in OUSD. Nearly half of these students (49%) were 9th graders.
 These indicators demonstrate an intense level of disconnect from the
educational process and an even greater need for academic and socio-
emotional support.*
* Safe Passages, 2009. All Rights Reserved.

6. What’s not working?
Lack of developmental knowledge of the needs of
middle school students
Lack of specialized teacher and principal preparation
for teaching middle school students
Lack of culturally competent, socially conscious
frameworks for the engagement and academic
success of all students
Need better communication along the elementary-
middle-high school continuum for struggling
students

7. What is working?
 “Structural changes in middle-grades education - how students and
teachers are organized for learning - have been fairly widespread and
have produced good results" (Anthony Jackson and Gayle Davis ,
2000)
 Focus on relationships- schools-within-schools, looping, subject
‘coring’, block schedules, and common prep periods.
 Such reforms have been found to increase students' well-being and
perceptions that their teacher cares about them and their learning, and
to strengthen teacher - student relationships. In turn, when middle-
grades students perceive their teachers care about them and their
learning, they are more likely to report that they try to do what their
teachers ask them to do and give their best effort in class, and they are
less likely to engage in risky behaviors.

8. Promising Practice # 1:
Improve the Teaching and Learning Environment
Recommendations:
• Create smaller learning environments and groups
• Form teams of teachers and students
• Assign an adult advisor for every student
• Teach young adolescents to think critically, be active citizens, and
develop healthy lifestyles
• Expand opportunities for learning, career guidance and youth service
• Give teachers greater influence in the classroom
• Designate leaders for the teaching process
• Ensure student access to social and health services
• Establish schools as health-promoting environments
• Offer families opportunities to support learning at home and at school,
roles in school governance and keep parents informed
• Augment resources for teachers and students*
*Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development on transforming middle grade schools. Turning Points: Preparing Students for the 21st Century

9. Promising Practice # 2:
Emphasize early identification and proactive intervention for struggling students
Recommendations:
 School leaders must pay close attention to the assessment and
careful placement of students who are learning english.
 Records of entering students should be reviewed thoroughly for
possible warning signs of academic vulnerability and need for support.
 Subject area teachers, intervention teachers and parents should meet
to develop and monitor student intervention plans.
 A comprehensive range of required and voluntary strategies
should be used to intervene on behalf of students who are two or more
years below grade level, or at risk of failure in the current school year.*
*Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades: Why Some Schools Do Better. www.EdSource.org

10. Students in Transition:
Developmental Considerations
ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

11. Promising Practice # 3: Use Youth Development Principles
Youth Development Framework for Practice
Developed by CNYD in collaboration with Michelle A. Gambone (YDSI) and James P. Connell (IRRE) 2003 CNYD. All rights reserved

12. Students in Transition: Systemic &
Institutional Considerations
DEFINITION: SYSTEMIC AND INSTITUTIONAL

13. How oppression affects teaching and learning
 Educators bring their unaware biases to their work and relationships with each other and
students. They relate to people differently as a result of these biases.
 Individual biases, values, and actions get institutionalized in policies and practices.
 Children internalize the messages and mistreatment they get from the society. These
messages undermine their confidence, install recordings of passivity and hopelessness,
and interfere with their inherent curiosity. We still deal with these messages as adults.
 The education system does not provide the support or time necessary for
(and sometimes actively impedes) the building of alliances between individuals
from different groups, e.g. people of color / whites / LGBTQ / immigrants / men / women
/ abled / differently abled, etc..
 Experiencing oppression diverts attention away from learning and interferes with
teaching and leadership.
 Policies, even those pronounced as being for the benefit of under-represented students,
often perpetuate the oppression because they have not been thought through.*
 Additional examples: Other People’s Children by Lisa Delpit
*Adapted by BayCES from National Coalition for Equity in Education (NCEE)

14. OUSD High School Graduation Rates
2007 OUSD Graduation Statistics:
OUSD graduates: 1,646
Graduation rate: 65.3%
12th grade enrollment graduation rate: 87.8%
Adjusted grade 9-12 derived dropout rate: 37.6%
Graduates with UC/CSU requirements: 37.8%
Number of students taking the SAT: 1,000
Average SAT score (out of 2400): 1279*
*Oakland Unified Website www.ousd.k12.ca.us

15. School to Prison Pipeline
 The phrase "school-to-prison pipeline" conceptually categorizes an
ambiguous, yet seemingly systematic, process through which a wide
range of education and criminal justice policies and practices
collectively result in students of color being disparately pushed out of
school and into prison. “Zero-tolerance” and academic tracking policies
illustrate how the intersection of education and criminal justice policies
leads to disparate minority student pushout and potential
incarceration.*
* Katherine May, By Reason Thereof: Causation and Eligibility Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

16. Promising Practice # 4
Adopt a Social Justice Framework
Do the personal work to raise your understanding of
bias and how it affects your work with students,
families and staff
Examine the data- academic, behavioral, disciplinary
 Sources: COST Monthly Data, Mid-Year Reports, CDE, CHKS,
AERIES
Help parents and students understand their
educational rights
Advocate, Advocate, Advocate

17. Promising Practices Summary
 Promising Practice # 1:
Help improve the teaching and learning environment
 Promising Practice # 2:
Emphasize early identification and proactive intervention for struggling
students
 Promising Practice # 3:
Use Adolescent Development Knowledge and Youth Development
Principles
 Promising Practice # 4
Adopt a Social Justice Framework

18. Students in Transition:
Promising Practices Summary
PROMISING PRACTICE # 1:
HELP IMPROVE THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
PROMISING PRACTICE # 2:
EMPHASIZE EARLY IDENTIFICATION AND PROACTIVE INTERVENTION
FOR STRUGGLING STUDENTS
PROMISING PRACTICE # 3:
USE ADOLESCENT DEVELOPMENT KNOWLEDGE AND YOUTH
DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES
PROMISING PRACTICE # 4
ADOPT A SOCIAL JUSTICE FRAMEWORK