Fort Worth, Texas Action Plan to Help More of its Young People Graduate High School, Ready for College, Work & Life

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1 ACTION PLANNING WORKSHEET Fort Worth, Texas Action Plan to Help More of its Young People Graduate High School, Ready for College, Work & Life Name of Summit State or Community: Fort Worth, Texas Date and Location of Summit: March 30, 2009 Tarrant County College Trinity River Campus, Fort Worth, Texas Geographical Area Covered by Action Plan: Fort Worth Independent School District; Tarrant County, Texas Date Submitted: June 24, 2009 Main Point of Contact: Nancy Ricker, Executive Director Parent and Public Engagement, Fort Worth Independent School District, 100 N. University Dr., Fort Worth, Texas I. Building Knowledge: Understanding Your State s or Community s Dropout & College- Readiness Challenges (See Part 2 of Grad Nation, pp , for help with this area of planning.) 1. What is your state s or community s current graduation rate? (please cite the source and methodology) The report, Cities in Crisis 2009: Closing the Dropout Gap, showed the graduation rate at Dallas ISD increased from 38 percent in 1995 to nearly 51 percent in For the same time period, Fort Worth ISD's graduation rate increased to 57 percent, a 10 percent increase. 2. What does both national and local data indicate about your state s or community s graduation and college-going rates over the last few years (e.g. over the last 2, 5 and 10 years)? Have the schools rates been improving or getting worse? How do your local statistics compare with your state and the nation as a whole? Our graduation rates have increased in the last few years but still lag behind some urban and most suburban rates in the state and nation. 3. Please describe what efforts have or will be taken to better understand the issues from key perspectives, such as parents and young people themselves. Explain what data analysis, surveys, interviews or other efforts have or will be implemented to build your knowledge base of who drops out, from which schools, when, and why. What is known, and what do you still seek to learn? 1

2 Prior to the Summit, the FWISD posted an online survey for students to tell us what they saw as the causes of dropouts and what services they felt would help keep students in school. 5,000 high school students responded a record. That information helped us define conversation starters at the Summit and helped community members and parents identify key areas where they could help. We also surveyed adults, including parents, who were planning to attend the Summit and their data was used as well. The District has a very sophisticated data collection and reporting system for grades, absences, tardiness, etc. which is very student specific and helps us identify individual students that are at risk. Principals, teachers and stay-in-school coordinators monitor the data for follow up with individual students. A FWISD truancy court, overseen by a local judge, brings parents in for information sessions and assesses fines if absences are not curtailed. II. Rallying Your State or Community: Getting Buy-In to Address the Crisis (See Part 1 of Grad Nation, pp. 7-19, for help with this area of planning.) 1. What key data and message points have you developed around the issue to secure commitment from your community s and state s leaders? What s the impact of the crisis on your economy, state or city budget, social services, employers, post-secondary institutions, etc? If you don t yet have these data and message points, what are your plans to obtain them? The District developed and adopted a Strategic Performance Plan in 2005 after extensive input from parents and community members. The Plan calls for only three main goals: Improved student achievement, increased effectiveness and efficiency, and enhanced meaningful involvement of parents and community members in the education of all students. In the Mayor s remarks at the Summit, he told the audience, According to a recent study, drop-outs decrease the tax revenue in Texas by $2 billion every year. We re talking about revenue that could be spent on improving schools, cleaning our air, improving mobility, or other major initiatives. Youth that don t complete high school are more likely to be unemployed, be in poor health, or live in poverty or on public assistance. And even worse, people who drop-out are more than eight times as likely as high school grads to end up in prison. The impacts are great. Each and every drop-out is a tragedy. It s our challenge to prevent these tragedies to create a path of success and selfsufficiency. 2. Who is serving or can serve as your state s or community s champion and chief spokesperson around the high school dropout issue? If multiple spokespeople are needed, which leaders elected officials, business leaders, other local influentials will be recruited? The Fort Worth Mayor and FWISD superintendent have both committed to championing this issue. The Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, and the Fort Worth Metropolitan Black Chamber of Commerce have joined forces in appointing Stay-in- School Co-Chairs from their leadership ranks. Other leaders will be recruited as needed. 3. What is your state s or community s vision statement for your young people, related to their successful completion of high school and preparation for college and/or work? What are your quantifiable long-term goals (e.g. 2, 5 and 10 year) for your graduation and college-readiness challenges? 2

3 The Vision of the FWISD Board of Education as stated in the District s Strategic Performance plan is: The FWISD envisions a high performance learning organization in which all students achieve proficiency in rigorous standards of intellectual thought and knowledge. The District s Mission is: to provide and support rigorous learning opportunities which result in successful completion of a quality high school experience for all students. The performance plan for calls for a variety of specific measures that will increase graduation rates. They include specific percentage decreases in failure rates, decreases in the achievement gap, and a reduction in the number of seniors who fail to graduate because they haven t passed the state mandated TAKS test. For comprehensive detail, go to and search Strategic Performance Plan III. Identifying Solutions: Considering and Prioritizing Potential Solutions to Comprehensively Address Your Local Dropout Challenge The Alliance advocates four focus areas that we believe to be key in addressing the dropout issue at the state and local levels: transforming schools including through increasing curricular rigor and relevance, supporting young people through wraparound services, developing effective policies, and employing data systems as a dropout prevention tool. (See Part 3 of Grad Nation, pp , for help with this area of planning.) 1. Please identify your highest-priority strategies and/or reforms consistent with Grad Nation that your state or community will pursue in order to transform the schools that the majority of your local dropouts attend. For each priority, what would you need to do in the next 6-12 months to advance it? Is anything already underway locally to support it? What support or information would help you make better progress? Continuing to transform schools was mentioned by 5 of the 9 affinity break-out groups. The FWISD has already completed an initial transformation of our high schools through a grant from the Gates Foundation that includes smaller learning communities, increased rigor and relevance in curriculum, and increased support for student learning. A second iteration is planned for the fall. In addition, schools that have been traditionally low performing have been identified, restaffed and coached. Result: All schools report gains and one school, rated Unacceptable for four years and on the cusp of being taken over by the state, has now earned an Acceptable rating for this school year. Through this program (PEAK), teams of teachers will receive financial rewards for improving student achievement especially as it pertains to reducing the achievement gap. Additional supports will be put in place in the fall as Community Action Teams (CAT) reorganize with specific assignments based on feedback from the Summit. 2. Please identify your highest-priority strategies, programs, policies, and/or reforms consistent with Grad Nation that your state or community will pursue in order to support young people. How will more young people, particularly those most in need, receive wraparound supports in and out of school, such as tutoring, afterschool programs, mentors, social services, health care and others? For each priority, what would you need to do in the next 6-12 months to advance it? Is anything already underway locally to support it? What support or information would help you make better progress? Project Prevail was begun three years ago with the goal of including the entire community in moving all FWISD students to graduation. The three Chambers of Commerce have appointed Stay-In-School co-chairs; all are well-known and well-respected community leaders. Several programs are currently being implemented. The Fort Worth Chamber has recruited businesses to participate in a program, Distinguished Employers of Fort Worth Teens, where working students are encouraged to stay in school by their employers, rewarded for good grades, and not allowed to work past 10:00 p.m. on school nights. More than 75 employers have signed up to participate. CAT Teams, staffed by the Student Engagement Department, study other options for collaborating to keep students in school including the placement of Go Centers in churches and local 3

4 community gathering places. Go Center volunteers help students and parents utilize computers to find out about options for enrolling in college, obtaining scholarships and financial aid, etc. The District has programs too. Already underway are transition camps for students entering middle school and at the 9th grade year as they are promoted to high school. The camps build support and help students feel connected to the new school. The District and the City partner in an after-school program that provides homework assistance, sports, fine arts and other activities. There are four family resource centers and five school-based health clinics in the District that offer counseling, health care and other support to students and their families. Listed as the priority from the student group who participated in the Summit was to establish a coalition of student and community stakeholders who will strengthen the ability of upperclassmen to connect with lowerclassmen and mentor them. The group also feels that this coalition can work to improve relationships between students and teachers. A Walk to Graduation in neighborhoods with high dropout rates was held last fall with Board and community members walking door-to-door to re-enroll students who had not come back to school. The walk will be expanded this year to include all schools. A coordinated effort will begin this fall to move each of these efforts forward and to support new efforts as identified at the Summit. Our goal is to see that all students graduate prepared for work and/or higher education. 3. Please identify your highest-priority policies or reforms consistent with Grad Nation that your state or community will pursue in order to develop effective policies at the local or state level that encourage high school completion and college readiness. For each, what would you need to do in the next 6-12 months to advance this priority? Is anything already underway locally to support it? What support or information would help you make better progress? One high priority for the whole state of Texas was mandatory Pre-K for all children. We joined with other school districts to encourage legislation. It passed both the Senate and House during the legislative session that ended June 1, but unfortunately was vetoed by the Governor. It will be two years before the legislature meets again. From the Summit, elected officials prioritized the need for policies as follows: County Commissioners Funding for early childhood education and teen pregnancy; City Council Funding for comprehensive enrichment programs including additional after school and summer programs; School Board Development of programs to provide mentoring, job shadowing and other initiatives to make school more relevant. In June, the City Council and School Board approved plans for a jointly funded elementary school that will also be used as a community center. We believe that discussions at the Summit paved the way for this new venture. 4. Please identify your highest-priority strategies, programs, policies, and/or reforms consistent with Grad Nation that your state or community will pursue in order to employ data systems that identify those young people most at-risk for dropping out and drive appropriate supports and services. For each, what would you need to do in the next 6-12 months to advance this priority? Is anything already underway locally to support it? What support or information would help you make better progress? We have a sophisticated tracking system in place so that principals and teachers can access complete data on each student. In addition to tracking each individual student s performance, attendance, etc., it shows which teachers had the students so that principals can identify those teachers who may need support or coaching to increase expertise in teaching a particular unit. The previous year s data are evaluated each August before school starts at a principal s retreat. Principals then review the data with the faculty and teachers utilize the data all year to see strengths and weaknesses in each student and make plans with their teams to provide the support needed. We are in the process of developing software that will track a student s progress through college enrollment and a parent portal for our website so that parents can access students grades, absences, tardies, etc. 4

5 IV. Organizing for Long-Term Success: Getting the Right People on Board, Committing to Action, Ensuring Accountability, Securing Resources, and Tracking Progress over Time (See Part 4 of Grad Nation, pp , for help with this area of planning.) 1. What group or committee will coordinate and sustain the work outlined in this action plan? What leaders does it have from various sectors business, education, nonprofit, government, faith, etc.? (Please submit group s roster along with this plan.) Who else is needed? Who convenes the group, how often, and what sub-groups or committees does your effort need? Project Prevail, an initiative begun by the Superintendent, is the umbrella for the FWISD s multifaceted stay-in-school efforts. Under that umbrella, the FWISD employs a Director of Student Engagement who is charged with the task of coordinating many of the stay-in-school efforts. Follow up to the plan will fall under her direction and that of the Community Action Teams (CAT) that she coordinates. Teams meet all together four times each year to report progress and individually as often as needed to plan and implement strategies. Additional support will come from the Parent and Public Engagement Dept. with efforts to increase parent involvement and in interaction with the business community s Stay-in-School Co-Chairs. 2. What financial, human, and other resources are needed in order to begin acting on this plan? What resources are currently available, what will potentially need to be blended, and what new resources will need to be sought to do this work? Who might help secure additional resources to fill the gaps, and/or what funders (or others) may be approached? Are you setting a resource goal along with the outcome goal? We just need time to get organized, roll out a report to the community, and recruit additional members for CAT teams. We have a $400,000 grant from ATT specifically for dropout prevention and another from the Gates foundation for school transformation. We continually look for researched based programs that will help us and will seek funding from both local and national resources as we go. The truancy court and other on-going prevention efforts are funded through local tax dollars. 3. How will your community or state evaluate its dropout prevention efforts to ensure it is making a difference? What is the plan to monitor and track the progress being made on its developed goals? How will you maintain visibility around the local dropout prevention issue by reporting to the public on the progress being made? Our Strategic Plan mandates progress-toward-goal reports at mid-year and at the end of the school year. Cabinet and executive staff review the data with the Superintendent and recommend course corrections as needed. Data included in the drivers includes dropout prevention and is factored into goal achieved status. A status report is prepared for the Board, and the Superintendent meets with a District Advisory Committee to review progress in the early fall each year. A report to the community is planned for fall that will elaborate on discussions and priorities established at the Summit, and FWISD staff will continue to recruit partners, recognize them and communicate to the community through the web site, newsletters, the Superintendent s State of the School District annual address to the community in September, etc. V. Staying Connected to the America s Promise Alliance: Identifying Long-term Interests, Priorities, and Points of Alignment 1. Across its work, the Alliance has committed to paying special attention to certain strategic priorities. Together, we are always looking for states and communities that share similar interests and that may 5

6 provide effective models for policy and practice, investment opportunities and other points of alignment. Please describe if your action plan has strategies specific to: a. Focusing on the middle school years, especially providing service-learning and career exploration opportunities in and out of school. Vital Link is a program where seventh graders spend half a day for a week in the summer shadowing workplace employees and being mentored by them. Students are accompanied by a teacher and learn to connect skills learned in class with those needed for success in the workplace. Leadership Fort Worth members mentor middle school students in a LeaderKids program that teaches leadership and encourages academics. b. Improving young people s access to quality health care, including promotion of SCHIP and Medicaid public health insurance programs. School-based health clinics and family resource centers provide quality health care and promote low cost insurance plans to families. c. Creating community hubs (e.g. schools, afterschool programs, community centers) where coordinated wraparound supports are available to young people and their families. Ground will be broken for the first joint elementary school/community center in the fall with the school scheduled to open in Summer programs are coordinated from many community centers through funding from the City. d. Engaging parents and caregivers to increase graduation and college readiness rates. Go Centers are in every high school and are being developed in churches and other locations where parents will have easy access. I Dream, I Learn, I Win events are held where families learn how to encourage students to aim for college. A trip to the local community college helped parents learn how to apply for financial aid, scholarships, etc. A new program, Abriendo Puertas, is being investigated to increase involvement of Spanish-speaking parents to motivate their children toward graduation and postsecondary enrollment. e. Supporting young people in foster care so they graduate from high school prepared for college, work and life. State law prohibits access to information that would help us identify these youngsters. However, our counseling department receives grants and support to enable them to work with homeless students and/or others who identify themselves as in need of help. f. Developing young people s financial literacy. Family math nights are sponsored by businesses at every elementary school in the District. Many of the underwriters are banks who teach a simple financial literacy workshop as a part of the evening s activities. There are also courses that include a unit on personal banking to help students gain financial literacy. If your plan does not include any of the above but your state or community has strong interest in developing one or more of these strategies, please note accordingly. 6

7 2. How can the America s Promise Alliance best support your state or community with the implementation of this dropout prevention plan? The Alliance is interested in hearing how we can best assist you in your dropout prevention efforts, including resources we can provide, relationships we can facilitate, and any other needs your community may have. Please be as expansive and forthright as you can. We will use your feedback to ensure that the most useful resources are provided to our Dropout Summit states and communities through the website, training & technical assistance, and other means. We appreciate the resources that you have provided to us the research, the data, the best practices and we would very much like to continue to receive that information. Teleconferences and webinars have also been helpful. As time goes on, we would like to be able to contact you with specific questions or needs. 7