Michael Kennedy

EDAD 560
2 December 2014
Assessment Study: Student Engagement Committee

School Characteristics and Demographics

The Alta Vista Campus is home to Dubuque Community School Districts Alternative
Education programs. On Campus, there are two separate programs: The Alternative Learning
Center and the Connect Program. The Alternative Learning Center (ALC) is comprised of
approximately 110 students and 10 teachers. Students that attend the ALC are mostly high school
Juniors and Seniors who are recommended for the program because they are failing all or most
classes at either Dubuque Hempstead or Dubuque Senior. Nearly all students who attend the
ALC are considered At-Risk.
The Connect program is comprised of approximately 30 students with 4 teachers.
Students that attend the Connect program are either in the second semester of their 8th grade year,
or are freshmen in high school. The purpose of this program is to create a positive learning
environment for students who have not been academically successful in the past. Our ultimate
goal is to assist students in being successful at their homeschool, either Hempstead or Senior.
All students who attend classes at the Jones Building are technically students of either Senior or
Hempstead. In other words, neither the ALC nor Connect is a school, but rather are programs.
Other educational support staff that make up the Jones Building include 10
paraprofessionals, two social workers we call Life Coaches, a Guidance Counselor, a
Technology Coach, an Instructional Coach, and a building Administrator. These staff members

are shared throughout the building and do not belong to a specific program, whereas the teachers
do not cross program lines.
In looking at areas for improvement within the Jones Building, one major area we have
begun to focus on is student engagement beyond the classroom. The primary goal of our
programs have been to raise student achievement through alternative education. However, our
only measure of success for this goal has been class credits earned. The questions have been
raised by administration emphatically, How do we know if our program is successful? How will
we measure this? Looking at the number of credits students earn is a very narrow scope for
measuring success, and does not truly indicate the broader picture of success being painted by
our students. One indicator of success being generally ignored within our building has been
student engagement beyond the classroom.
Student engagement in activities outside of academia are vitally important to the success
of our students. According to Everson and Millsap (2005), Participation in extracurricular
activities in high school appears to be one of the few interventions the benefit low-status,
disadvantaged students. Because our program is not a traditional high school, and because
students are effectively removed from high school extracurricular activities, it becomes very
important for us to offer engaging activities for our students.
Studies have shown that students who are involved and engaged in activities improve in a
variety of success indicators. Johnston asserts that involvement in these activities will reduce
absenteeism, raise math and reading test scores, and increase the odds of earning a bachelors
degree or higher (2012). These are all areas the alternative programs in our building are looking
to improve upon.

Outside of the classroom, being involved in activities can help students in a number of
ways. According to Massoni (2011), individuals who are involved in activities outside of purely
academic endeavors are more likely to have higher self-esteem, and are more able to resist
unsafe behaviors such as alcohol and drug use. Fredericks and Eccles (2005) second this
assertion, identifying the effect that extracurricular activities can have on individuals as positive
adjustment. These are all areas that we have found to be concerning for many of our students.
By creating more engagement opportunities for all students, we hope to change in a meaningful
way.
Because we work with an at-risk population of students, it can be difficult to see students
become engaged in extracurricular activities. Even so, the Oregon Department of Education
(2000) discusses alternative activities that can be extensions to the work done during school. For
an activity to be effective and engaging for a student, it does not necessarily have to be a
traditional extracurricular activity. For example, looking at how parents and families are involved
in school, as well as other activities that occur throughout the school day can be considered
engagement initiatives and should be looked at as a means to raise student achievement.

Involvement
In an effort to better engage students and foster educational achievement within our
building, the Student Engagement Committee was created. The Committee is made up of eight
teachers, six from the ALC and two from Connect. At the beginning of the school year, our
building administrator asked that every contracted teacher be an active member of one of three
committees. The composition of our committee is based solely on this criteria.

Goals and Expectations

There are a number of goals and expectations that the Student Engagement Committee
member have agreed to. First of all, we identified what existing engagement activities have been
put into place already. Secondly, we prioritized what we believed was the most important
engagement activities to focus on throughout the school year. Next, we defined goals for the
engagement of our students. For the Connect program, our goal is to have 55% of students
engaged and involved in extracurricular activities. For the ALC, the goal is 25%. In order for a
student to be counted toward our goal percentages, the student must be involved in an activity
outside of school time. This can include athletics, school-sponsored activities, and schoolsponsored events.

Group Norms and Functioning

There are a number of norms that have been established within our group to help guide
our work:
Active Participation At the beginning of the year, every staff member was expected to
participate in one of the buildings committees. Because this is a mandatory obligation, it is
feared that some staff members will not actively participate with the committee. By addressing
this concern early in the year, we hope to encourage engagement and participation by everyone
involved.
Acceptance and Validation of Everyones Ideas Multiple group members expressed concern
that some group members could feel as if their ideas are not appreciated or accepted. We all
agreed that any and all ideas that are brought forth to the group would be given a fair amount of

time to be discussed and considered. It would also be expected that all committee members
would validate these ideas, even if they disagreed with them.
Make Whats Best for Students Priority - In the past, many of the initiatives created by the
Student Engagement Committee were less about student interests and more about staff interests.
Taking a best for kids attitude has been one area of focus for our group as well.

The Student Engagement Committee will be expected to meet once per week. Based on
the needs of committee members, meetings are held every Monday morning at 7:45am and end
promptly at 8:15am. At the beginning of every meeting, an agenda is provided. Meetings consist
of reports on past committee initiatives, updates of ongoing initiatives, and discussion of new
areas of work.
Student Engagement Committee members do not have specific roles or responsibilities
assigned to them. Rather, each group member has decided to take on a specific task or activity
throughout the school year. There are a number of different activities that we will offer to our
students, most of which only occur once a year. All members of the committee have taken these
existing activities and assigned each to a committee member. This way, each member is able to
take ownership of one particular engagement activity. This system has worked very well for our
group.

Theory of Action
The theory of action for our committee is linear. The end goal, as with most any school
initiative, is to raise student achievement. The Student Engagement Committee provides a means
to do so.

WhenBuilding teachers collaboratively work together as part of the Student Engagement

Committee
ThenStudent Engagement Committee members will decide which events/initiatives we

will promote for students to become involved in

ThenStudent Engagement Committee members will plan and execute events/initiatives

that students will be invited to participate in

ThenStudents will become more involved in school and school related activities
ThenOur building will raise student achievement

Assessment
To assess the work being completed by the group, we have used the 3-Is protocol. This
protocol is especially effective in identifying what committee members understand about our
major talking points, as well as helping to identify areas that may be unclear. The questions
within the protocol allow for a wide variety of feedback, which helps our group to be more
effective.
We have also used the Plus/Delta protocol for gathering group feedback. This was useful
in checking for the effectiveness of our group functioning. Committee members were able to
describe what was going well within our group conversations, as well as areas in which we could
improve. All of this information has been valuable to us for improving our practice.

Evaluation
The success of our committee will be evaluated in two ways. Primarily, we will evaluate
our success on how many students participate in activities. This information will be kept track of
throughout the school year. We will evaluate the success of each separate student engagement
activity, as well as a cumulative total of student participation in activities. Secondly, we will

evaluate the success of the committee based on how many activities we sponsor. The more
student engagement activities we sponsor, the more successful and focused the committee is.
The following are SMART goals put together for the Student Engagement Committee:

By the end of the 2014-15 school year, 55% of Connect Program students and 25% of
Alternative Learning Center students will be involved in at least one extracurricular

activity.
Throughout the 2014-15 school year, the Student Engagement Committee will sponsor at
least five activities that will facilitate or promote the engagement of students in
extracurricular activities.

Action Plan
The action plan for the Student Engagement Committee has been devised to lead the
group throughout the school year. Previously, everyone within the building read the book
Hanging In: Strategies For Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most (Benson 2014) and
received corresponding professional development. Through this professional development work,
we acquired meaningful knowledge on what strategies work well for motivating at-risk students.
Throughout our time with this committee, we have been applying information we obtained from
this professional development to create more engaging activities and programs for our students.
One way we have applied this knowledge is how we work with students. Previously, we would
tell students about engagement opportunities by putting them in announcements and on a bulletin
board, much like you would see at a traditional high school. We found that this did not work for
us. Instead, we now speak to students in small groups, using the relationships we have built with
them to increase participation in activities. This change of approach can be described as
grassroots, and was inspired from our professional development.

The timeline for our committee is based on facilitating certain activities when they must
occur. In other words, many of the engagement activities occur at different times of the year,
because they correspond with a holiday or other special events. Other events that are not tied to a
holiday or special event were spread out throughout the school year. The following is the
tentative timeline for the Student Engagement Committee:
August

Initial meetings with administration, committee members

Determining engagement activities to focus on
Creating a tentative timeline for activities to occur

September

Homecoming festivities

October

Options for improving parent-teacher conferences

November

Creation/implementation of student advisory board

Fundraising for Christmas for KIDS event

December

Spirit Week (ALC)

Christmas for KIDS event

January

Legacy Project

February

Continue to work on improving Parent-Teacher Conferences

March

Implement new Parent-Teacher Conferences initiative

April

Success Week (Connect)

May

Assessment of Committee/Activity success

Evaluation and recommendations for next school year

Technology
Technology is used within the Student Engagement Committee as a tool to provide
communication, collaboration, and data collection for the group. One particularly important tool
that has been used multiple times by our committee is an online survey creator and provider.
Surveys have provided our committee invaluable information about staff goals and student
involvement in regards to school. We also use the technology to collect and analyze student data.
Moving forward, we will use technology in a similar fashion. If there are new and innovative
ways to integrate technology to better our practice, we will do so.

Student Needs
Our committee is working to meet the diverse needs of our students by offering multiple
engagement opportunities. Our goal has been to diversify the engagement activities offered to
our students. We realize that not all activities are suited for all students. By offering a wide
variety of ways in which a student can be involved, the more likely that student is to be involved.

References
Benson, J. (2014). Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development.

Everson, H.T. and Millsap, R. E. (2005). Everyone Gains: Extracurricular Activities in High
School and Higher SAT Scores. College Board Research Report 2005-2. New York:
College Entrance Examination Board. Retrieved October 15, 2014 from
http://research.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/publications/2012/7/researchreport2005-2-extracurricular-activities-high-school-higher-sat-scores.pdf.
Fredricks, J., & Eccles, J. (2005). Developmental Benefits of Extracurricular Involvement: Do
Peer Characteristics Mediate the Link Between Activities and Youth Outcomes? Journal
of Youth and Adolescence, 34(6), 507-520.
Johnston, H. (2012) Extracurricular Activities and Student Achievement: Everyone Gains.
Education Pertnerships Inc. Retrieved November 1, 2014 from
http://gearup.ous.edu/sites/default/files/ResearchBriefs/ResearchBriefExtracurricularActivities.pdf.
Massoni, E. (2011). "Positive Effects of Extra Curricular Activities on Students," ESSAI: Vol. 9,
Article 27. Retrieved October 27, 2014 from http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol9/iss1/27/.
Oregon Dept. of Education. (2000). Keeping kids connected: How schools and teachers can help
all students feel good about schooland why that matters. Retrieved October 11, 2014
from http://www.ode.state.or.us/teachlearn/specialty/alt/keepkids.pdf.