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.
September 2024
This September brings the excitement and energy of a fresh school year, with a brand new group of 9th graders, eager to make their way in our schools. CHSS has a suite of refreshed tools and resources to support your 9th Grade Success Team in their goal of all 9th graders passing their classes this year.
If your school is new to our network, you participated in a Summer Institute that introduced you to the foundational knowledge, ways of being and ways of doing 9th grade success work. You also met Benson, our example/model student who helps us see this work through the eyes of a student and his family.
If you are a returning partner school, you likely have reflected on the phased CHSS Roadmap and identified key drivers and secondary drivers that will guide your work this year.
No matter the stage you are in, participation in the CHSS 9th Grade Success Network will be a key resource to you and your team. Below is a photo from our recent Demonstration School Visit in Arizona! If you’re interested in attending an upcoming demonstration school in Portland, please see our Calendar below!

CHSS News:
Come visit a demonstration site in Portland!
Join the Center for High School Success for a Learning Lab at McDaniel High School, a CHSS Demonstration School. You’ll see best practices and strategies from our CHSS Roadmap for 9th Grade Success in action and collaborate with educators from across our CHSS National Network! October 17 @ 8:30 am – 3:00 pm, Registration information is below in our CALENDAR
Washington State OSPI Update:
The grant was released in the EGMS system, and schools are in process of completing the application. If you need any support completing the application, reach out to your coach and/or to Kefi Anderson at OSPI directly.
We look forward to our continued partnership and working together this year!
Calendar
Optional Training Opportunities (all on Zoom):
New Team Member Onboarding: Tuesday, September 24, 3-4:30 pm, Register here
2 part Team Lead Training: Monday October 7 and Thursday Thursday October 10, 3-4:30pm, Register coming soon.
National CHSS Events:
Learning Lab @ McDaniel HS, October 17 8:30am – 3pm. Learn more here and register here. Space is limited, register early.
Regional Fall Collaborations: Register for all Fall Collaborative here. Each member needs to register individually.
Central Washington #1(Yakima): Thursday, September 26
Central Washington #2(Moses Lake): Thursday, October 17
Puget Sound: Tuesday, October 22
NW Washington: Thursday, October 24
SW Washington: Thursday, October 24
Oregon: November, exact date to be determined
Virtual Option-October 28th and 29th, 3:30-5:00 PM
Regional Winter Collaborations: Registration links coming soon!
WA Virtual: Session A: February 25 and 26, 2025, 3:30pm – 5pm on Zoom
Session B: March 3, and 4, 2025, , 3:30pm – 5pm on Zoom
Oregon Virtual: Wednesday, February 18 and 20, 2025, 3:30pm – 5pm on Zoom
Regional Spring Collaborations: Registration links coming soon!
Central WA #2 (Moses Lake): Thursday, April 24
Oregon/Portland Area: Wednesday, April 23
Puget Sound: Thursday, May 1
Central WA #1 (Yakima): Tuesday, May 6
Northwest: Thursday, May 8
Southwest: Thursday, May 8
Timely Tools
Social Connectedness –> School Improvement
This article from Edutopia, How the Drive to Be Socially Connected Can Lead to School Improvement, highlights the hidden power of teams in our schools. There are implications to our work in the ideas presented, such as a key tipping point for sustainable and lasting change (hint: it’s 25%).
Strategies for Improving School Attendance
We know that attendance is a driving factor in passing courses and we know that attendance has not fully recovered from the pandemic school closures. Across the country, schools are exploring ways to get students to attend school every day. This article from the Seattle Times, Millions of Kids are Skipping School – Some Districts Lure Them Back, highlights some schools that have found effective strategies.
Tools for Motivating Young People
In his book, 10 to 25 – The Science of Motivating Young People: A Groundbreaking Approach to Leading the Next Generation and Making Your Own Life Easier, David Yeager lays out the most recent research in adolescent motivation. He explores effective approaches for coaches, parents and educators to reach young people in a wide variety of settings.
Featured Practice

Planning with the Outcomes in Mind: Year at a Glance
CHSS Year at a Glance was created to support your strategic planning across the year!
Many schools have asked us for a year at a glance document to inform key activities and milestones across the year to assist with strategic planning. Over the summer, our team of 20+ CHSS coaches and national staff collaboratively created this tool for your use! Here are a few notes for your use:
- This is a guide, and not a script: as we know, all implementation happens in specific school and community contexts, and we encourage you to consider this as ONE tool to inform your pacing and planning;
- Tasks by role: we have delineated activities by 9GS TEAM and TRIANGLE TEAM (team lead, administrator, and CHSS coach);
Please let your coach know if we can clarify any terms/concepts/acronyms, or share accompanying tools or examples.
Previous SNAPSHOTS
- 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:
- Northwest CHSS Student Success SNAPSHOT JuneAs 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 MayAs 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 AprilAs 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 MarchAs 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 January/FebruaryAs 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 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: