Welcome to our monthly gallery of best practices and tools from your Center for High School Success partner schools in Oregon and Washington. Below, your coaches have collected timely tools and featured practices from across our region to help support you, your team, and your 9th graders! Please reach out to your coach if you have any questions, feedback, on input.
December, 2023
As we prepare to head into Winter Break, this month’s Snapshot highlights tools and practices to help you create the conditions for your 9th graders to make the most of their winter break, as well as the critical month of January! We encourage all of you to make sure that you’re able to enjoy some time away from work, and honor that this time of year can be a difficult one for many of us, and we wanted to share some resources to support those in your school community who may need some extra support.
IMMEDIATE SUPPORTS: TEENLINK is a confidential, anonymous help line where teens can speak with other teens.
- TEENLINK: 1-866-TEENLINK (833-6546, everyday from 6:00-9:30 pm.
- National Suicide Prevention Line: 1-800-273-8255
- Text ‘home’ to 741741
SUICIDE PREVENTION: While there is no single cause for suicide, there are risk factors and warning signs which may increase likelihood of an attempt. Learning them can save lives. Visit the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention website for more information.
- FOREFRONT Suicide Prevention Prevention at the University of Washington provides excellent training throughout the year. View their upcoming training opportunities here.
- The School Mental Health Assessment Research & Training (SMART) Center at the University of Washington provides a wide array of evidence-based mental health resources for school-based training and implementation.
CHSS and OSPI News:


CHSS Spotlight is launched! Please keep an eye out for a new monthly newsletter from our national team that will help you stay appraised of national CHSS network events and resources!
OSPI UPDATE: 9TH GRADE SUCCESS FUNDING BUDGET SESSION
OSPI UPDATE: Advocating for Full and Sustainable 9th Grade Success Funding
Stand WA, the Center for High School Success, and many partners are working hard to secure full and sustainable funding for the Ninth Grade Success Initiative in the legislature. Our shared goal is to return the grant funding to previous levels.
Our work is a top priority for OSPI, the State Board of Education, and we have strong sponsorship in the House and Senate. View a recent Senate K-12 Education committee work session here: watch it here!)
On January 8, the Legislature will convene for a short 60-day legislative session, to end in March. If you are interested in testifying in support of this funding, please contact Liz Trautman at etrautman@stand.org. We will also be reaching out to specific schools to share your stories of success!
OSPI Reminder: Monthly Billing
Please remember to update your 9th Grade Success grant expenditures on a monthly basis so OSPI can stay appraised of how schools are utilizing grant resources throughout the school year
Calendar
CHSS Spotlight Webinars: SE/Belaire Learn how Belaire went from a 57-88% On-Track Rate in three years!
Topic: Highly effective models for developing student-student & adult-student connections
JOIN US LIVE (90 mins). Registered participants will get a zoom link.
60-minute: School Presentation
30-minute: Optional follow-up Q&A with the school; Action planning with the CHSS team
OPTION 1: Tuesday, December 12, 2023 REGISTER HERE
1:45PT, 2:45MT, 3:45CT, 4:45ET
OPTION 2: Wednesday, December 13, 2023 REGISTER HERE
3:45PT, 4:45MT, 5:45CT, 6:45 ET
CHSS Winter and Spring Collaborative dates are here! These events are meant for whole teams to attend together. Please encourage your team to REGISTER HERE.
Virtual Session A: Tuesday, February 6 & Wednesday, February 7, 2024 3:30-5:00 pm each day. Open to all. Participants will receive a link to the zoom session.
Whatcom County: February 8, 2024, 8:00-2:30 pm. Exact Location TBD
Yakima, ESD 105: February 8, 2024, 9:00-3:00 pm
Virtual Session B: Tuesday, February 13 & Thursday, February 15, 2024 3:30-5:00 pm each day. Open to all. Participants will receive a link to the zoom session.
Puget Sound: Thursday, February 15, 2024 8:00-2:30 pm. Exact Location TBD SW Washington: Wednesday, February 28, 2024 8:00-2:30 pm. Exact Location TBD
Timely Tools

BELONGING & SUPPORT: Who are your BIG 3?
Heritage High school launched a campaign called BIG 3 where students identify 3 adults from the school community as their support network. The common language around support is helpful with conversations with staff, students and families.
Here is the lesson they used to introduce BIG #:
BIG 3 Lesson: Teacher Script (this has the Slide Deck embedded in this as well)
Here are the videos they sent out to students and families: BIG 3 Video: Student Version

ESTACADA WEBINAR Link Now Available!
CHSS partner school Estacada High School in Oregon joined us for a Webinar to share how they went from a 47% to 93% On-Track Rate in one year by transforming school culture through building (and quantifying) student-teacher relationships and developing essential student skills.
Ask your coach about the CHSS Relational Trust Inventory that Estacada used as a catalyst for improving student outcomes.

College & Career Competencies: Staff and Student Survey Templates
What skills should we teach first? To help you prepare to utilize the CCC free assessments we shared in our Fall Collaboratives, we have created these two Google Forms surveys that address each of the CCC competencies that link to your follow up assessments. This one is for staff, and this one is for students. Use these results to help you prioritize those competencies that seem most urgent to students and teachers.
Featured Practice
Interventions: Provide explicit instruction and ongoing supports to 9th graders on how to “do school” well. This month we highlight practices under our Interventions driver on the CHSS Roadmap.

SUPPORTING STUDENTS WITH 1-2 FS
What is unique about a student with 1 or 2 fails? Unlike students who are struggling in most of their classes, students with 1-2 fails usually look and act just like a student who is on-track. This means they come to school, they have many of the skills, habits and knowledge to pass all of their other classes, and generally blend in. They also often are just 1-2 assignments, projects or assessments away from passing. They are always happy that someone noticed that they need support! These tools and strategies bring awareness and support to students who have 1-2 fails.
Scripts for Families and Teachers:
1-2 F Communication for Families
1-2 F Communication for Teachers
Kelso Connection: Kelso HS has created a system to make connections with specific groups of students, and they have used it to focus on students with 1-2 Fails. Staff visit with students to have short, supportive conversations using this tool, students make a plan on this form. They track the Kelso Connections on a google form.
Hallway signs for bringing up grades: This tool, developed by Kayla Turner, 9GS team member and Language Arts teacher at Meridian High School in Whatcom County has been completed by each 9th grade teacher, and posted outside of their classrooms. The goal is to provide clear information for students on when/how to turn in late work, make up tests and quizzes, access extra help from teachers, and how frequency teacher grades are updated. This simple Google Slide deck also helps teachers see what other teachers are doing to help them clarify their procedures: modify with your school colors/mascot, make your own version, and off you go.
Previous SNAPTSHOTS
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT DECEMBERAs we welcome our incoming 9th graders, we are excited to share some inspiring work from across our region, focusing on creating spaces of belonging for all students. To support your work this year, we have two important resources from OSPI to share:
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT NovemberAs we welcome our incoming 9th graders, we are excited to share some inspiring work from across our region, focusing on creating spaces of belonging for all students. To support your work this year, we have two important resources from OSPI to share:
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT OctoberAs we welcome our incoming 9th graders, we are excited to share some inspiring work from across our region, focusing on creating spaces of belonging for all students. To support your work this year, we have two important resources from OSPI to share:
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT SeptemberAs we welcome our incoming 9th graders, we are excited to share some inspiring work from across our region, focusing on creating spaces of belonging for all students. To support your work this year, we have two important resources from OSPI to share:
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT AugustAs we welcome our incoming 9th graders, we are excited to share some inspiring work from across our region, focusing on creating spaces of belonging for all students. To support your work this year, we have two important resources from OSPI to share: