Re-Enrolling Long-Term Suspended Students A large school district hired Edstar to evaluate the effectiveness of a federal grant-funded program designed with the goal of having long-term suspended students re-enroll and succeed in school after serving their suspension. The grant paid for Transition Counselors, to case-manage the students while they were out of school, connect them to services, and enroll them into the school system’s alternative schools while suspended so that they could earn credits, and not be so far behind. The school system contracted with a private firm that ran the alternative high school. A major objective of this program was to get the kids to enroll in this school. Although far more students were suspended than this school’s capacity, the alternative school was never even half full. The school system did not understand why. Although nearly all suspended kids could enroll in this alternative school, the Transition Counselors hired to case manage the suspended kids reported to Edstar that most of the them got letters from the school system that said “No Offer” next to the name of the alternative school. We confirmed with the office that sent the letters that with few exceptions, kids could enroll in this school. This was a mystery for the first year. The Transition Counselors were very frustrated. We were not communicating with the office that sent the letters in a way that they understood. We would ask why the students are being told they are not eligible for the alternative school. They would respond that no one is told that. At the end of the first year, the head Transition Counselor, an Assistant Superintendent, Edstar, and the head of the Office of Due Process met. The Transition Counselor brought a letter. The head of the Office of Due Process looked at it and explained how they use the No Offer field to indicate they are waiting on a response from the family. She hadn't look at the letters, as a secretary printed and mailed them. When the data system was designed, they had not realized they would need a field to keep track of whether the parents had completed the paperwork. When they realized they needed this, they were informed adding a field would be very expensive. Because they didn't expect to need the "No Offer" field, they just used it. This had been going on for years. Because no one talked to students once they were suspended, they had not realized that the kids and their families thought they had “No Offer” to enroll in the alternative school. These Transition Counselors thought the same thing when they saw the letters. We got this fixed after the first year of the grant. The alternative school, which had been mostly empty for years, then filled up. Another glitch that we uncovered later was that because the alternative school was a private school, the courses did not have the course codes used by the school system. In many cases, they did not get the credits they had earned because the data manager at their base schools did not know how to enter the courses. In some cases, the data managers were deciding how to translate them, and they were not doing it all the same way. In other cases, they simply told the kids they couldn’t have the credits. Edstar then worked with the school counselors and the data department to create a standard way to translate the course codes.Which beliefs are influencing their Equity Lens? Click to check your answer. B.1 Cause and Effect B.2 Expert vs. Evidence B.3 What At-Risk Means B.4 Desired Outcomes and Goals B.5 What is STEM and Why We Need to Fill STEM Pipeline Which skills are influencing their Equity Lens? Click to check your answer. S.1 Knowing What Can Be Known S.2 How to Identify Kids to Align Services S.3 How to Classify Things S.4 Working With Data S.5 Understanding Data Details S.6 Understanding Federal Data-Handling Laws BeliefsB.1 Cause and Effect NA B.2 Expert vs. Evidence NA B3. What At-Risk Means NA B.4 Desired Outcomes and Goals NA B.5 STEM Pipeline NA SkillsS.1 Knowing What Can Be Known NA S.2 How to Identify Kids to Align Services NA S.3 How to Classify Things NA S.4 Working With Data NA S.5 Understanding Data Details The office that generated the letters did not read them, and did not realize that they told families students had "No Offer" to an alternative school. No one knew that students were not getting credit for classes they took in alternative schools. Until the Transition Counselors, the students who re-enrolled had no advocates to help them navigate the system. S.6 Understanding Federal Data-Handling Laws NA
