The Road to Success: A Freshman Focus

“Freshman year is the most important year” is a phrase that Kelvyn Park High School (KPHS) is taking seriously, and the results are showing. Over the past two years, freshmen ‘on-track’ rates have been rising, from about 70% to well over 80%.
 

KPHS is working to help freshmen build relationships with each other, and with their teachers. Last year KP created Freshmen Academies, where students are part of a ‘house’ of students and teachers, giving them a home within the high school. This team of teachers meet weekly to compare notes about students and to intervene quickly when students have problems. At the end of the year, freshmen pick a “Small Learning Community” (or SLC) which will be their “home” until they graduate. KP started the SLCs this year. For example, the school’s Social Justice Academy program, which partners with LSNA, is now a SLC where students take all their subjects for the last three years of high school.
 

Kelvyn Park has embraced LSNA as a partner in working to keep freshmen on-track and to ultimately reduce the school’s drop-out rate. This year LSNA Parent Mentors who work with the KP attendance department to keep students in school, are focusing their efforts on freshmen at risk of falling behind. Their goal: to help build relationships with both the students and their families and to open lines of communication with the school. At a breakfast with new KP principal Isabel Téllez, parents were able to ask questions and share concerns about their children.
 

LSNA‘s VOYCE, a student group working to improve education, has also focused on incoming freshmen. In July, students put together an overnight retreat to help incoming freshmen ease the transition from 8th to 9th grade and begin building relationships with other students and staff at the school. Two more retreats will follow this year.  “Before, I wasn’t sure, but now I feel ready for high school,” said Fernando, who attended the freshman retreat. According to VOYCE’ research, one way to keep students in school is to make sure they have strong relationships with adults and other students, which also helps them get the academic support they need. 
 

LSNA and KP are dedicated to working together to ensure that students are receiving the support and resources necessary to be successful in high school and beyond.