support; extra help courses;
behavior contracts; anger and
grief management classes;
and daily success monitoring
in which a designated adult
at the school checks to see
whether the student is in
school, understands his or
her classes, and gets along
with students and teachers.
Some students may need
more intensive one-on-one interventions, such as
working with a social worker
or receiving intense academic
tutoring.
Teachers use clear, data-based decision-making rules
to determine when a student
needs to move from one level
of support to another. These
rules typically are keyed
to key benchmarks. For
example, when a student’s
attendance drops below the
90 percent threshold, the
school assigns the student a
mid-intensity, small-group
targeted intervention. If the
student’s attendance drops
below 80 percent, the student
receives a higher-intensity,
case-managed intervention.
When the student’s attendance improves and appears
stable, the school reduces
the intensity of the supports
but continues to monitor the
student.
Diplomas Now—in Action
It’s the biweekly early-warning meeting at a high school
that has implemented the Diplomas Now model.
Assembled are an interdisciplinary team of four 9th grade
teachers, along with their City Year national service
corps members and the Communities in Schools site
coordinator. The Talent Development facilitator has just
given them a list of students who are demonstrating off-track indicators in attendance (they attended less than
90 percent of the time); behavior (they received three
or more office referrals); and course performance (they
received a D or an F in a core course).
The team quickly notices a spike in both the number
of students with declining attendance and the number
with increasing behavior problems. The teachers report
that part of the problem is due to their decision to move
several students from one class to another for instructional reasons; one unintended consequence has been an
increase in disruptive behavior.
As a first step, the teachers resolve to reintroduce
students to norms of classroom behavior and recognize
students who exhibit these positive behaviors daily. The
City Year corps members note that several students who
are getting in trouble are not on their focus list; they add
them to the group of students they mentor and support.
The Communities in School site coordinator notes that
sudden dips in attendance midyear can often be the result
of changes in a student’s home life; she volunteers to
talk with those students to determine the cause of their
attendance dip and, if needed, to provide them with case-managed supports.
Team members also note that several students have
improved their attendance. They resolve to examine at
the next meeting whether some are ready to move from
more active support to less intensive monitoring.
monitoring, tutoring and
mentoring, and homework
support. They also provide
the person-power to support
whole-school attendance and
positive behavior support
campaigns by managing
weekly incentive and recognition efforts. In addition,
they staff after-school tutoring
and enrichment activities
and organize service learning
projects. The City Year teams
are led by an experienced
program manager who is well
trained in the Diplomas Now
model.
The Communities
in Schools model uses
community-based integrated student supports—
interventions that improve
student achievement by connecting community resources
with students’ academic and
social service needs. Using the
early-warning tracking system
and a needs assessment, the
Communities in Schools site
coordinator organizes and
monitors sustained individual interventions that last
several weeks, months, or
possibly, years. These include
small-group anger and grief
management sessions, one-on-one supports from mental
health providers, and family
supports for homelessness.
The coordinator also brings
Element 3: Strategic
in community supports that
Deployment of “Near Peers”
corps members receive one month of
address schoolwide needs. These may
In the Diplomas Now program, City
training in relevant subject areas, such
include health screenings; college and
Year places teams of 8–15 highly trained as tutoring techniques and behavior
career fairs; and parent supports, such
national service corps members (young management.
as classes for the General Educational
adults up to 24 years old) in each school
four days a week, from before the
Each “near peer” works with 15 or
so students with off-track indicators.
Development (GED) diploma.
school opens in the morning through
the end of the after-school program.
In preparation for their assignment,
They build strong relationships with
students as they follow them through
the school day, providing attendance
Element 4: Team-Based Work
Diplomas Now changes the mission
of middle and high school teachers