Our Process
Are you a school administrator interested in partnering with Center for High School Success? Contact us today to learn more about our proven roadmap for 9th graders to finish the year on-track and graduate on time.
Timely, Actionable Data
- Data access
- Data literacy
- Data for improvement
Highly Effective 9th Grade Success Teams
- Establish foundational structures & conditions for 9th grade on-track work
- Establish systems & processes for operationalizing work of the 9th grade team
- Systematize 9th grade success by recruiting & engaging all stakeholders
Comprehensive System of 9th Grade Transition Supports
- Create a personalized & supportive environment for 9th grade students
- Provide early preparation for high school entry
- Provide proactive supports
Interventions
- Cultivate the right adult mindsets
- Establish data-driven intervention and referral systems & processes
- Implement proactive and high leverage intervention strategies
High Quality Instruction & Equitable Grading Practices
- Develop learning-centered professional communities
- Develop student-centered learning communities
Responding to the Pandemic
Reopening After COVID: Social Emotional Learning Support for High Schools contains resources to support as schools across the country prepare to welcome students back. Click here to download the guide.
Stand Stronger: Stand-Out Practices from the Pandemic is a guide built on first-hand witness of the many triumphs, as well as challenges, schools have experienced as they’ve attempted to educate students during the global pandemic. Click here to download the guide.
The Guide to Preventing a Lost School Year contains evidence-based actions school districts can take to keep the academic success and emotional well-being of students at the forefront following a disrupted school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Click here to download the guide.
Our Process
Center for High School Success (CHSS) partners with high schools committed to becoming communities where all students excel academically and race and socio-economic status do not predict success.
We help our partner high schools significantly increase the number of 9th graders who finish the year on-track to graduate on time with:
Testimonials
"The Center for High School Success has helped me become a better teacher and advisor. We've had deep conversations about interventions, equity, and student success. I want to be a part of the team because our work is meaningful, and the results are there to prove it."
Payton Parrish,
Physical Education/Health Teacher
Grandview High School, Grandview, WA
“Our team is having much needed deeper-level discussions about equity and it that truly looks like. We can tell from those conversations (and the follow-up actions we take) are working. We are finding that we have success with the students we work with, and most of our interventions appear to be helpful.”
Claire Hunter
9th Grade Team Lead / 9th Grade ELA Teacher
Grandview High School, Grandview, WA
“The coaching I’m getting from the Center for High School Success is making a tremendous difference. From helping me review my school’s data effectively, to observing our meetings and giving me feedback on how to run them more effectively, our coach has helped our staff achieve our school’s goal of keeping more of our 9th graders on track.”
Cicely Dunigan Brooks-Wright,
9th Grade Team Lead
Hamilton High School, Memphis TN
“The Center for High School Success helps us monitor student achievement data in real-time, creates opportunities and space for 9th grade teachers to collaborate, and provides supports for individual 9th grade students. The tools and techniques learned from the Center for High School Success have allowed us to unlock the potential in each of our 9th graders.”
Mike Anderson,
Assistant Principal
Reynolds High School, Portland OR
“The value of getting a comprehensive view on the importance of the 9th grade year - and the need for an equity lens to drive our work - was significant. The guided process of meaningful conversation, data work, and application gave us next steps for immediate action and make a difference for students at Poudre High School.”
Cassie Poncelow
School Counselor
Poudre High School, Ft Collins, CO
“Out of 201 Freshman, 189 passed all of their classes! That’s 94% passing rate for our Freshman! This just totally made my day! We are going to plan a celebration.”
Molly Lawson
Assistant Principal
Wahluke High School, Mattawa, WA
"The Center for High School Success has helped me become a better teacher and advisor. We've had deep conversations about interventions, equity, and student success. I want to be a part of the team because our work is meaningful, and the results are there to prove it."
Payton Parrish
Physical Education/Health Teacher
Grandview High School, Grandview, WA
“Our team is having much needed deeper-level discussions about equity and it that truly looks like. We can tell from those conversations (and the follow-up actions we take) are working. We are finding that we have success with the students we work with, and most of our interventions appear to be helpful.”
Claire Hunter
9th Grade ELA Teacher
Grandview High School, Grandview, WA
“The coaching I’m getting from the Center for High School Success is making a tremendous difference. From helping me review my school’s data effectively, to observing our meetings and giving me feedback on how to run them more effectively, our coach has helped our staff achieve our school’s goal of keeping more of our 9th graders on track.”
Cicely Dunigan Brooks-Wright,
9th Grade Team Lead
Hamilton High School, Memphis TN
“The Center for High School Success helps us monitor student achievement data in real-time, creates opportunities and space for 9th grade teachers to collaborate, and provides supports for individual 9th grade students. The tools and techniques learned from the Center for High School Success have allowed us to unlock the potential in each of our 9th graders.”
Mike Anderson,
Assistant Principal
Reynolds High School, Portland OR
“The value of getting a comprehensive view on the importance of the 9th grade year - and the need for an equity lens to drive our work - was significant. The guided process of meaningful conversation, data work, and application gave us next steps for immediate action and make a difference for students at Poudre High School.”
Cassie Poncelow
School Counselor
Poudre High School, Ft Collins, CO
“Out of 201 Freshman, 189 passed all of their classes! That’s 94% passing rate for our Freshman! This just totally made my day! We are going to plan a celebration.”
Molly Lawson
Assistant Principal
Wahluke High School, Mattawa, WA
Current 9th Grade Success Network
The Center for High School Success is currently partnering with 128 high schools in 50 school districts across five states to increase their 9th grade on track rates.
The Research
Students who are “on track” at the end of their 9th grade year — earning at least a quarter of the credits needed for four-year graduation and receiving no more than one “F” in a core course — are as much as four times more likely to graduate from high school than their off-track peers. In fact, the 9th grade on track metric is more predictive of a student’s likelihood of graduating than race, ethnicity, poverty level and prior test scores combined.2