At Mountain View High School, freshmen students are part of an innovative program to help them adjust to high school, to learn soft skills, to build community and to succeed in school and beyond.
The pieces of Freshman Academy — the accountability, the challenges and the support for students — are all intentional, designed to make the students interested in school and boost their achievement.
And, two years into the program, they seem to be working.
“It’s created an intentionality and student success from day one,” said Principal Jane Harmon.
“It’s all of these soft skills that students need,” she added, “and creating an environment where they feel comfortable doing that.”
A fresh(man) focus
With support from Harmon, assistant principal Don Kotnik and counselor Ryan Smith worked with staff members to create Freshman Academy. They shifted things around at the school, so Kotnik and Smith are dedicated to work with just freshmen, to offer them the supports they need.
They created a class called freshman seminar that groups the students into 14 smaller units, where they build community and identity, and where they learn about things such as budgets, relationships and coping skills, where they connect with one another and teachers. And where they have some say in what they want to learn, in what they think is relevant.
“It’s flexible,” Kotnik said. “It is what kids need now.”
The students complete service projects, together, and they are offered tutoring help when needed.
And they have fun with scavenger hunts, weekly challenges and prizes for the seminar class (one of 14, each with their own name and flag created by the students) with the most points, based on their grades, attendance, participation and competitions. The prize is the Melvin Cup, a traveling trophy named after the school’s mascot, a mountain lion named Melvin.
Staff members hold the teens accountable academically but also offer them added support. And the program pairs them with mentors among their older classmates.
“The goal is to make sure they graduate on time,” said Kotnik, who received a statewide honor and was named Thompson Education Foundation’s educator of the year because of the Freshman Academy.
Fewer students failing
This is only the second year of the program, but analysis of preliminary data and surveys of students show it is working, said Kotnik.
The year before the program launched, the freshman students logged an F-rate, the percentage of freshman failing a class, of nearly 17% the first semester and 14.4% the second.
Last year — the first of Freshman Academy — that dropped to 5.3% the first semester and 3.4% the second.
This year, the first semester F-rate was up to 9.4%, but it is still below 10% and lower than it was before the Freshman Academy launched, during a year when school has been remote much of the time and filled with additional challenges for students tied to the pandemic, Kotnik said.
Plus over both years, nearly 90% or more of the students reported in a survey that they “strongly agree” with each of the goals of the program — that they have a trusted adult to go to for support, that they feel a sense of belonging, that school is relevant to their futures and that their seminar class has built a sense of community.
“It was overwhelming, the positivity,” said Kotnik. “I can count the negative on one hand, out of 200 (responses).”
Over the two years, about 500 students have participated in Freshman Academy. When this year launched, the team was determined to build that same sense of community, offer those needed supports for students, even when the setting was remote.
Kotnik and Smith said they have been able to do that with virtual resources and a little creativity.
“Even with remote, they felt that sense of balance and connectivity,” said Smith, and Kotnik added, “They needed that lifeline during remote. They needed that sense of community more than ever.”
For Steve Frye, one of the 14 freshman seminar teachers, connection and healthy competition is key. Like, Kotnik and Young, he is visibly passionate about the program, dedicated to something that he says motivates and teaches the students, gets them involved and puts them on the path of success.
“We’re on such a big mission to build community here and everything is intertwined,” Frye said. “Everything we do is intentional.”
Built from scratch
Mountain View High School created its Freshman Academy from scratch to meet the needs of students at that school, to meet the challenge of increasing the graduation rate.
Principals at other high schools in the district, too, have created their own methods of focusing on freshmen to reduce the F-rate at their schools, said Theo Robison, director of secondary education for the district. At Loveland High School, for example, the school provides extra support for language arts and algebra, to make sure the ninth-graders finish the year with those credits, he said.
“The work looks different from place to place,” said Robison, stressing that the district challenged each of the building principals to create unique programs to close gaps and improve graduation rates at their schools.
“The big picture and the goal is not looking at it the same, but looking at your population and being strategic and thoughtful of what you choose to implement,” said Robison.
At Mountain View, the staff completely revamped structures to create Freshman Academy, an approach that Robison described as “phenomenal.”
Kotnik said the academy has truly affected the students — something they see daily in the students’ actions as well as in the surveys — but it also has inspired the teachers involved. He, Smith and Harmon spoke of how the educators have really bought into the program.
“They want to do the next piece,” said Harmon, explaining that teachers are asking to be involved in a level for sophomores. “They don’t want to do the same thing. They want to expand it.”
The Link LonkMarch 14, 2021 at 07:52AM
https://www.reporterherald.com/2021/03/13/a-fresh-focus-mountain-views-freshman-academy-helping-students-succeed/
A fresh focus: Mountain View’s Freshman Academy helping students succeed - Loveland Reporter-Herald
https://news.google.com/search?q=fresh&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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