Every student deserves an education that promotes their progress – all the way to graduation day. But when students need help to stay on track, we don’t always have systems to recognize their needs or support their engagement. Continuous improvement can help us notice earlier, respond more effectively, and keep all our young people moving forward.
For students, graduation may not feel real until senior year. But we improvers know some of the most important opportunities to promote on-time graduation come much earlier. Eighth and ninth grade are pivotal for student growth, and those transitions aren’t easy to navigate – especially for students furthest from opportunity. And the work doesn’t stop there: To make steady progress, young people need steady support.
That’s why we improvers are reimagining what support can be: a powerful system that engages every student by name.
With continuous improvement, we can generate earlier warning signals and craft smarter supports. We can transform data – like attendance and course performance – into dynamic tools that tell us who our students are, how they’re growing, and what they need. We can create ways to scaffold progress, deepen connections, and promote belonging for all young people. We can build systems of care that scale, but still connect us to every student.
Together, our change ideas can keep all students growing toward graduation.
With the aim to increase the number of Black, Latino, Indigenous, and low-income students with strong academic identities who are on track in 8th grade to graduate high school and succeed in college and careers, the CARE network succeeded in reducing D/F rates by 50% and boosting students with a strong sense of belonging by 24% points.
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Over and over, folks in our networks, particularly classroom teachers, have come to us and said, Thank you. You don’t think we’re broken. You think we are the solution.
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Over and over, folks in our networks, particularly classroom teachers, have come to us and said, Thank you. You don’t think we’re broken. You think we are the solution.
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Looking at focus students, being able to identify trends and be able to apply very clear, specific change ideas is what I believe our school and teacher community needed to continue to grow.
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Looking at focus students, being able to identify trends and be able to apply very clear, specific change ideas is what I believe our school and teacher community needed to continue to grow.
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Spotlight Stories
Who else is working on this problem?
Who else is working
on this problem?
Across the country, improver organizations are finding new ways to keep students on track. The teams below are rethinking support systems to promote all students’ growth – from transition years to graduation day. Learn more and join in.
Improvers like you are driving change everywhere. See what’s working. Learn what’s possible.
Find tools to further your impact.
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