Many school district leaders in urban areas struggle to reduce dropout rates but find themselves overwhelmed by the problem. There are, however, a few districts making notable progress towards reducing their number of dropouts, including Portland, Oregon, Public Schools (PPS).

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Many school district leaders, high school administrators, and teachers—particularly those in urban areas—have struggled to reduce high school dropout rates but find themselves overwhelmed by the dimensions of the problem.

Research has shown that lack of preparation in elementary and middle school, long before students reach high school, is a key factor affecting dropout rates once these students are in high school. Moreover, improving the quality of teaching and learning in high school has proven to be a very difficult arena in which to make substantial progress. These challenges are further compounded by budget constraints that limit organizational capacity and by high turnover in district leadership positions

Despite the progress that the academic priority initiative was able to make in one year, there are important ways in which it needs to be enhanced and developed further. Several aspects of the district’s approach are worth calling out as lessons that could well be relevant for other districts seeking to launch ambitious change programs:

1. Act with urgency, even when it isn’t comfortable:

Part of this approach involves zeroing in on the key facts, no matter how brutal, and using them to drive change.

2. Carry out initiatives in ways that make it easy for schools to change—otherwise they won’t: 

In order for any initiative to take hold and result in positive change for students, the concept and process must first be understood and embraced by administrators and faculty. The first step here is to clearly communicate in a sustained and actionable way the nature and importance of the initiative to the schools.

3. Make data driven decisions: 

Regardless of the actions implemented at the school level, there was broad consensus among administrators that the data and the focus it provided was the most valuable component of the academic priority initiative. An administrator noted,

“What was so powerful about this process is that we were truly able to base decisions off of deeper evidence and not just what we saw on the surface.”

4. Focus on fostering great teaching and learning—for every student by name: 

This initiative was based on the premise that what was most important was the quality of teaching and learning in the classroom--where teaching and learning was rich and robust, academic priority students would flourish; where it was not, the academic priority students would struggle, no matter how extensive the network of external supports.

5. Involve the community:

The PPS initiative was grounded in the greater Portland community, as evidenced by the district’s collaboration with The Connected by 25 consortium. The importance of this “outside” link shouldn’t be overlooked. Outside connections, support from community groups, and the expectations that are communicated from these outside entities all help an initiative gain momentum.

And that broader support was an important buttress, which helped keep the community and the district focused on the dropout problem from one superintendent to the next.

Read the source article at The Bridgespan Group

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