On-Track Coaches Making A Difference For Students At Risk Of Disconnection

by Jamil Ragland

A new report highlights the difference that a caring adult can make in the life of 9th graders who are at risk of becoming disconnected from their education in Connecticut.

The report, released early Thursday morning and summarized here, looks at the success of the RISE Network’s On-Track Coaching (OTC) program. OTCs are youth development professionals whose goal is to help support 9th graders who have demonstrated a high degree of need, and a high risk of becoming disconnected youth – young people who have dropped out of school and are unemployed. The OTC program began during the 2016-17 academic year and has expanded to cover nine high schools in the eight districts which comprise RISE’s Core Network.

“The data and student testimonies in this report illustrate how OTCs are profoundly changing the trajectory of students’ lives and ensuring all students have equal access to success in and beyond high school,” Emily Pallin, Executive Director of the RISE Network, said in a statement. “As schools face resource constraints and increasing student needs, it is imperative that we replicate and fund evidence-based practices, including the OTC strategy.”

OTCs work as full-time members of the high school staff in support of students who demonstrated attendance, academic, social, and behavioral risk factors in middle school. OTCs function as coaches for students who may otherwise experience difficulty or become off-track by collaborating with students, educators, administrators, and families to ensure success.

“Based on the research that was done by the University of Chicago, completing 9th grade on time is the biggest predictor for whether or not a student will graduate from high school in four years,” said Karleka Norman, deputy director of Freshmen Success at RISE. “So the idea is that if we provide in-depth support to students and teach them self-advocacy and how to get help, and some basic skills in 9th grade as far as academics are concerned, then they are going to then finish 9th grade with all the credits that they need and carry those skills with them throughout the remaining grades.”

On-Track Coaches Evan Kelley and Sharina Jimenez pause for a photo at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk. Kelley and Jimenez are “on-track coaches,” a new type of counselor focused on helping 9th graders at McMahon and other high schools around Connecticut to stay on track to graduate. Credit: Contributed / RISE Network

Each OTC carries a maximum caseload of 60 students. OTCs have at least a bachelor’s degree and hail from a variety of professional backgrounds, including former counselors, teachers, social workers, coaches, and non-profit employees. Each school in the program has two on-track coaches.

The key to the program’s success is that students build a relationship with their coach and come to see them as a caring adult, not just someone hounding them to go to school and do their work.

“[The OTC] is that one person that a student feels that they can go to when they need support,” Norman said. “And students that have an OTC have named that their OTC is their trusted adult in their building. That is the person they feel most comfortable with. That is the person that they feel like they can talk to about anything. That is the person that they feel like will help them.”

While on-track coaches are tasked with assisting 9th graders, the bonds they form with their students often endure throughout the student’s high school career, Norman said. She said it’s not uncommon for students to continue going back to their OTC for advice even as juniors and seniors.

The results of the program have been strong so far. According to the report, of the 1,710 students who have received support through the OTC program, 85% ended their 9th-grade year on track to graduate on time. That matches the rate of their peers who have not been identified as at risk. Additionally, at risk students who are assigned an OTC also have grade point averages that are similar to their not at-risk counterparts.

Norman said that the restricted caseload for OTCs is another key component to the success of the program. As a former school counselor, she said she recalls being responsible for up to 300 students at a time.

“Having a small caseload of 60 students allows the OTC to really get to know their students, really dig deep into whatever academic concerns that they’re having, and be able to provide support to families because the caseload is so small,” she said.

Parents have been supportive of the program, she said, as they don’t see on-track coaches as prying into their personal lives.

The OTC program is inspired by the Success Coach model, outlined in Aligned Action 12 of the 119K Commission’s report Young People First. Both the report and the OTC program were funded in part by grants from Dalio Education and facilitated by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities. The program is currently transitioning to being fully funded by participating school districts.

Currently, there are 17 on-track coaches working in nine high schools across Connecticut, including:

• Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk
• East Hartford High School
• Hartford Public High School
• Francis T. Maloney and Orville H. Platt high schools in Meriden
• Manchester High School
• Middletown High School
• Naugatuck High School
• Westhill High School in Stamford

Dalio Education has been active over the past several years advocating for better educational outcomes. The nonprofit originally teamed up with Boston Consulting Group to study Connecticut’s youth population and it found 19% – or about 119,000 – of the state’s youth, ages 14-26, faced circumstances over the past few years that either put them at risk or entirely disconnected them from vital systems like education and employment. That original report was titled, “Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis.”