“Making transitions, from one building to another, or out of the school system at graduation often throws students off course academically, or increases social and emotional pressures that schools need to address in order to prevent course failures, credit deficiencies or other problems,” said Mary Kay Babyak, The Consortium’s Director of Initiatives. “Our Forum participants have been designing and implementing interventions to give students the support they need at these critical junctures. The retreat gave the teams a chance to examine their progress and reach out to other districts for ideas. ”

James Henderson, Ed.D., Director of Duquesne University’s Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program for Educational Leaders, gave the keynote address on leadership and social justice.

Among other projects that attendees heard about were an initiative at Chartiers-Valley School District to redesign the senior year and a Greensburg-Salem School District effort to improve students’ transition from middle school to high school.

An important part of the Chartiers-Valley senior year redesign involves giving students more ‘real world’ experience. For example, Middle-High team initiative and piloted “leadership assistantships” through which seniors have opportunities to assist faculty in teaching and tutoring younger students, doing research or helping with technology projects. The district plans to scale-up the program in the fall.

The intervention, along with an internship program also planned for next year, came in response to a senior survey in which students expressed a need for more real-world experience as they plan their futures.

Greensburg-Salem, which focused its Forum work on the transition to ninth grade, implemented a peer-mentoring program that engages seniors in helping freshmen adjust to high school. The program has had its growing pains and needs some tweaking — particularly providing more time for younger students to meet with their mentors and for mentors to meet with faculty, said teacher Ken Bissell. “But the good thing is, we laid the foundation, which I know wouldn’t have happened without the Forum.”

Bissell noted that the mentoring idea came from dialogue with another of the Forum’s participating teams, Trinity Area School District. “Working with those other teams and seeing what they’re doing has really benefited us,” he said.

The exchange of ideas between districts is one of the Forum’s goals, along with development of teacher leadership, improved planning and communications, collaborative leadership and shared long-term vision. In its inaugural two-year cohort, the Forum supported 14 districts. Most will be part of the second cohort, which begins in the fall and new districts are joining.