There’s no “silver-bullet” solution or perfect curriculum for building an academically solid cohort of students. Instead, leaders ought to focus on these three areas that have helped several schools become “trajectory-changing schools.”
We’ve got lots of research for you this week, including a study of seven “trajectory-changing” schools around the country that have maintained academic growth for more than a decade. The report, conducted by PK-12 education nonprofit TNTP, explains that these model schools commit to doing three things very well: create a culture of belonging, deliver grade-level instruction and build a coherent instructional program.
For instance, schools aren’t always centered around the experiences of individual students. These trajectory-changing schools look beyond proficiency in a single academic year and instead help students reach grade level over time.
“Students have a clear path to improvement and confidence to walk it,” the report reads.
We encourage you to read the report to get a better understanding of what it takes to be a trajectory-changing school. In the meantime, here are four recommendations to achieve the results you want for your students:
- Create a supportive ecosystem: Leaders should incentivize the three focus areas and remove obstacles in their schools.
- Reorient to the student experience: Schools should look beyond nine-month learning periods and instead anchor decisions in the experience of the whole person.
- Choose a narrow entry point: Trajectory-changing schools do less and they do it better. Find a narrow focus that plays to your school’s strengths and improve step by step.
- Manage ongoing change: System leaders should create an ongoing, multi-year improvement plan. Top-performing schools use small “catalyzing” practices to implement new habits and propel students in the same direction.
The state of the high school counselor
“Burnout has caused several of us to become desensitized to certain situations. Being able to focus on how to help students obtain a bright future is honestly the only reason I remain in the field.”
This quote comes from new research from Appily, a division of the education company EAB, which surveyed more than 1,500 high school counselors about their numerous responsibilities and their desires for added capacity and improvements to professional well-being.
Here are a few of the report’s key findings:
- Counselors spend the majority of their time on non-college admission counseling duties: 65% of their time is spent on helping students with course scheduling, personal needs counseling and administrative tasks like substitute teaching, hall monitoring and lunch duty.
- More than half of counselors use generative AI: The most popular use of these tools includes writing recommendation letters, crafting lesson plans, helping students brainstorm essay ideas and drafting emails.
- Cost concerns shape students’ college-going behaviors: According to counselors, affordability is the No. 1 reason for public school students to not attend college, followed by career path uncertainty, doubt surrounding college’s value, the need to work following high school and a desire to take time off before college.
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