For SECONDARY SCHOOLS

Creating a Culture of Student Success™

Studies of high school models of reform indicate a compelling need to personalize the high school experience for students in such a way as to address their individual interests, goals, and academic abilities. Life Decisions Group, LLC has created a comprehensive and innovative program designed for middle schools and high schools to create cultures of student success by providing that personalized experience for every student. Schools that create cultures of student success can decrease dropout rates and increase graduation rates by surrounding their students with the necessary resources and support teams they need to succeed. By engaging students at all levels and focusing on the development and implementation of effective decision-making skills and the personal utilization of those skills, schools can create cultures that emphasize, encourage, and engender success.

Cultures of Student Success

• Emphasize respect, responsibility, independence, and integrity as the foundation for creating a culture of success
• Embrace the entire school population focusing on success for all students regardless of ability
• Engage teachers, staff, parents, and the community as stakeholders
• Address, establish, and publicize persistence and completion expectations
• Utilize a strategic developmental approach that evolves throughout a student’s school experience
• Create a positive school environment where students acquire and utilize effective decision-making skills
• Access school and community resources and support systems to help students create personal “success teams”
• Reengage students who have fallen behind in skills and/or attitude toward learning by providing bonding activities
• Focus on continuous academic and personal improvement utilizing Student Success Planners
• Provide reflection opportunities for students to continuously assess their changing interests and values

Student Success Tools

• It’s Your Decision for Teens: A Commonsense Guide to Making Better Choices is a concise 65-page workbook that provides the following tools students need to make good decisions regarding their academic, career, and life choices. Books are available directly from the publisher, AuthorHouse, www.authorhouse.com, 888-280-7715, at a non-profit rate of $6.88.
   
  • Student Success Planners assist middle school and high school students as they collect information they will need when making personal, educational, and career decisions. This Planner can also serve as a foundation for on-going discussions with students throughout their education.
  • Personal Development Checklists help students to keep track of the personal and career activities they have engaged in and those they have not yet completed. The developmental tasks that have been identified are those which will be most useful to students as they make academic and career choices while in school and after graduation.
  • Reflection Questions generate thoughts that can be captured in student journals, stimulate conversation between mentors and mentees, and allow for meaningful discussions in classroom and other group settings.
  • Success Team Inventories direct students as they create Success Teams of individuals who can provide them with the information and resources they need to address their academic and non-academic issues.  Students can look to their Success Teams for support as they make important educational and career decisions.
     
•  “It’s Your Decision” PowerPoint and Presenter’s Guide are used by school principals, teachers, and counselors to facilitate assemblies, classroom presentations, and parent meetings regarding the student success initiative.
   
• Post-Graduation Surveys allow administrators to assess the impact of the student success and decision-making initiatives by surveying their graduates as to the outcomes of their initial college and career decisions.