MENTORING THE DISENGAGED STUDENT Elizabeth Wetzel, MSW Kim Schanock, MSW Building the Heart of Successful Schools 2012 December 6, 2012

IDENTIFYING DISENGAGED STUDENTS

Identifying Disengaged Students How do you identify students in your building who are disconnected or disengaged? Teachers’ reports or anecdotes Parental or student self-identification Behavior referrals or grade reports DOTS survey activity

DOTS Activity What is DOTS? A tool for identifying students who may not have close relationships with staff members at school “DOTS” meaning is unknown, but the greater the number of dots next to a student’s name, the more relationships the student presumably has

DOTS Activity Activity Set-up: There is no “one way” to set up the activity Hardcopy Excel Spreadsheet – Save and send back to compiler Electronic survey (e.g. Google Docs survey) Electronic surveys tend to be most efficient User-friendly – Link can be sent through Easier to compile data Can make responses completely anonymous (better for buy-in)

Staff DOTS Activity - Example Sample DOTS Activity – Juniors

Using Google Docs to Create Survey Google Docs Set-up: Must have a Gmail account “Drive”  Create  Form

Using Google Docs to Create Survey

Student (“Reverse”) DOTS Activity Purpose: To have students rate how well staff members know them To understand students’ perceptions of our relationships with them Set-up: Like the staff survey, there is no “one way” to set this up Can choose to have students identify themselves (i.e. By student ID #) If done with an electronic survey, data can be easily collected and shared with staff members

Student DOTS Activity - Example Students can: Select which year they are in school Enter Student ID # Select first period teacher from drop-down menu Rate how well first period teacher knows them Repeat for periods 2 – 8 Rate how well other staff members (e.g. Administrators, LMC Staff, Student Services Department) know them Give a shout-out to any staff member or coach who has had a positive impact on them

Using Data from DOTS Once students are identified as disengaged or disconnected:  Match students up with staff mentor  Send list of “un-dotted” students to entire staff and ask for volunteers to “adopt” those students  Reach out to individual teachers in the student’s schedule  Schools may choose to require each staff member to take on one student  Monitor mentoring can help track effectiveness of mentoring

Sample Mentor Monitoring Sheet December 2012 Student Name: _____________________ Staff Name: ________________________ = Greeted student/Smalltalk = Student came to staff with a problem = Connected w/student outside regular school day (i.e. Co-curricular event)

Using Data from DOTS After compiling data: Decide how many “dots” a student should have to be considered “connected” in your building. There may need to be a wider margin of error the first few times this activity is done (e.g. <4 dots = disconnected) Compare to YRBS data – do the results reflect what students are reporting? If not, where are there discrepancies? Share data with staff so they know what they are doing well and where they can improve Consider re-surveying disengaged students as a follow-up

Considerations Staff buy-in: Be specific about the purpose of the activity and your plans for how you will use the data collected! Is the activity user-friendly? 100% participation is ideal Friendly reminders may be helpful in getting staff to participate by your deadline Individual staff results on student survey should only be shared with the individual staff member May want to consider having an administrator collect these results

Considerations Student buy-in: Is the activity user-friendly? Will you have students identify themselves? 100% participation is ideal, especially since disengaged students may not be inclined to voluntarily participate May want to make this a required activity Need to decide on a reasonable timeframe

MENTORING DISENGAGED STUDENTS

Operation Graduation: Year 1 Project began in January 2011 via an AmeriCorps opportunity. The AmeriCorps focus was to provide an AmeriCorps volunteer who would mentor/tutor a case list of students. Our cost was $5000. Community volunteers to serve as mentors. They are put through the District background check. Students participated in a community service project.

Operation Graduation: Year 1 From Feb. to June 2011, 36 students were mentored. Twelve community volunteers were also brought in as mentors. Data focus: Attendance and grades (failures). Mentors commit to one hour/week minimum.

Year 1 Outcome Data: Grades 25/ %) had at least one improved grade 6/36 (16%) had two improved grades 5/36 (13.9%) had three improved grades 3/36 (8.3%) had four improved grades 2/36 (5.6%) had five improved grades

Operation Graduation: Year 2 Additional AmeriCorps/DPI mentors were requested. Focus of program had shifted and we were awarded one slot. Split position between Southwest and Preble. Mentor program from West was replicated. Program components remained the same. Program utilized Check and Connect for documents and data.

Operation Graduation: Year 3 Program was brought in-district. It is running at all 4 district high schools. Formalized student selection and referral process.

Referral and Selection Criteria Grade 9 2 or fewer Fs 80% or better attendance pattern Intervention is sustained for at least one grading period. Students enter and exit the program via the intervention process. Target is students not served by other programs. A community service project remains a component.

Current Data Mentors take a data snapshot of students at the grading period. Data points are grades, attendance, behavior and co- curricular participation. Dosage is 2X/week. Students: West-34, Southwest-22, Preble-17, East-6. Community volunteers: West-19, Southwest-11, Preble-8, East-0.

Going Forward Operation Graduation (OG) is highly valued by our schools. OG brings community volunteers into our schools to see our task. The most effective community volunteer recruitment occurs through relationships. OG provides our students with relationships not otherwise available to them. We have learned a lot and will share it with anyone.

Questions?

Contact Info Elizabeth Wetzel, School Social Worker Green Bay East High School (920) Kim Schanock, School Social Worker Green Bay West High School (920)