At-Risk Program Moving from Cognitive to Non-Cognitive

A guidance counselor and a special education teacher performed miracles and started an intervention program for at-risk students called Next Steps for Success last year at our school. There was no budget, but they were determined. We already had a program from the previous year that paired students with a teacher in the building that volunteered to keep a special eye out for them as a mentor. We had 32 students and 25 teachers in this program. Not a perfect 1:1 ratio, but close enough where kids and faculty had the opportunity to build a relationship. The students in the Next Steps for Success program were still struggling after being paired up with a mentor, and thus the next tier of help was needed. Like the mentor program, this program was entirely voluntary. Here were the basic steps we took to help the kids:

• Students volunteered to sign up for the program and were given the expectations in the form of a contract when they signed up. 
• Students were provided a breakfast that the teachers would purchase, which included healthy snacks and tasty snacks.
• Students were to arrive 25 minutes before the start of school to get help on their academics and also were given supplies to get through the day.
• Students had to come after school twice per week for a half hour as part of the program and stay for a core academic teacher two other days. 

We ended up getting positive results to some degree with all five students in the program. Two students completely turned around their attendance records, and all students saw some improvements in different classes. Despite the big picture gains, everyday seemed to be a battle. Instant gratification, executive function, and motivation were perpetual issues with the students. After the year was over, every teacher evaluated the program. Before giving my own feedback, I bumped into the book How Children Succeed by Paul Tough. And that completely re-shaped the way that I looked at how the Next Steps for Success program was run. 

We needed to shift our focus in the morning from keeping the students academically afloat to building their non-cognitive skills, which Tough lists as character, work ethic, and grit. As part of that, the morning curriculum should be built around stress management, neuroscience, the relationship between IQ and character, tangible examples of overcoming adversity, and goal setting strategies. It was encouraging to read yesterday that eight states agree and have taken steps to build social/emotional standards. 

It's no secret that students were better off if they could perform the academic skills on their own. The whole teach a man to fish and you'll feed him for a lifetime line applies, but we were spoon feeding these students because they did not know why it was important to fish. There comes a point where the good teaching practices of accessing prior knowledge, building curiosity, or having well-established routines are not going to work in moving students. Eventually any successful academic reaches a point of feeling overwhelmed or disinterested. They persevere because they see the value in education. These students eventually have to want it. And although motivation is a very hard concept to master, I came away from reading Tough's book feeling like motivation can be taught to some degree to at-risk students. 

We will begin year two of the Next Steps for Success program this September. And I'm sure many of the same battles we faced last year will persist. After all, the students are still coming from high stress environments, and will still be immature. That being said, I'm excited that we are going to confront these issues now instead of simply saying this is how to find the area of a square when you take out the area of a circle.