Teams

1. ESTABLISH FOUNDATIONAL STRUCTURES AND CONDITIONS FOR 9TH GRADE ON-TRACK WORK 

• ARTICULATE TEAM PURPOSE AND WORKING AGREEMENTS 
  Articulate mission-driven team purpose and working agreements.
• ESTABLISH A CALENDAR OF MEETINGS
  Establish a year-long calendar of sacred 9th-grade success team meetings. 
• ESTABLISH UNDERSTANDING OF 9TH GRADE SUCCESS RESEARCH
  Establish strong working command of seminal 9th grade success research in both the 9th grade success team and building-wide. 
• PARTICIPATE IN TRAINING AND NETWORKING
  Participate in foundational 9th-grade success trainings and schedule quarterly opportunities for structured collaboration with other schools around best practices and common challenges. 
• ESTABLISH A 9TH GRADE SUCCESS TEAM WITH CROSS-DISCIPLINARY MEMBERSHIP AND CLEARLY DEFINED ROLES
  Establish team membership with clearly defined roles (team lead, admin, success team members, support staff) and responsibilities. 
• APPOINT TEAM LEAD
  Appoint exceptional 9th grade Team Leads and provide them with a reduced teaching load or stipend.
• APPOINT DEDICATED 9TH GRADE ADMINISTRATORS AND COUNSELORS
  Appoint dedicated 9th-grade administrators at each high school. Appoint dedicated 9th grade counselors for each 9th grade academy or a 9th and 10th-grade counselor in a looping system. 
• SCHEDULE COMMON PLANNING TIME
  Schedule guaranteed common planning time (that is supported and monitored by school leadership) for 9th grade teams to meet at least 2x monthly to analyze and respond to student and systems level barriers to student success opportunities for advancing student success. 
• ESTABLISH A CALENDAR OF TRIANGLE MEETINGS
  Establish a year-long calender of triangle meetings between administrators, team lead(s) and 9th Grade Success Coach. 

2. ESTABLISH SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES FOR OPERATIONALIZING THE WORK OF THE 9TH GRADE TEAM 

• ROUTINIZE THE USE OF ACTION-ORIENTED AGENDAS
  Routinize the use of action-oriented agendas to guide the focus of each meeting. 
• UTILIZE DISCUSSION PROTOCOLS
  Utilize discussion protocols to structure constructive data analysis, kid talk conversations, and analysis/discussion of student work. 
• EXAMINE AND RESPOND TO TREND AND STUDENT LEVEL DATA
  Examine trend-level data (disaggregated and analyzed by course, gender, race, ethnicity, program identification- i.e. SpEd, ELD) to identify and respond to problems of practices (every 4-6 weeks). 
  Examine and respond to student level data routinely to identify student needs and refer students to the proper type and tier of intervention. The focus of the 9th Grade team should be on students who need Tier II level supports. (weekly). 
• ESTABLISH SHORT, MEDIUM, AND LONG TERM 9TH GRADE SUCCESS GOALS AND BENCHMARKS
  Establish 9th Grade Success and course performance goals and benchmarks (i.e. annual and quarterly goals) for 9th-grade on-track, student connection and team efficacy. 

3. SYSTEMATIZE 9TH GRADE SUCCESS BY RECRUITING AND ENGAGING ALL STAKEHOLDERS 

• IDENTIFY AND CONNECT SYSTEMS
  Identify other internal (e.g. School Improvement/strategic plans, Instructional Leadership Teams/initiatives, Student Support Teams etc) and external systems (e.g. outside agencies,families, and communities) responsible for student success and systematically connect the work of the 9th grade team with those systems.
• TRAIN ALL STAKEHOLDERS
  Articulate a plan to train all stakeholders around 9th grade on track metrics and importance. 

• COMMUNICATE GOALS AND PROGRESS
  Communicate goals and progress with stakeholders quarterly (at minimum). 
• CELEBRATE PROGRESS
  Celebrates [student, teacher, team, and school] on-track progress quarterly (at minimum).