What Do We Have to Learn from Odds-Beaters about College and Career Readiness?

By Kristen C. Wilcox, Director of Research and Development, NYKids

How do some schools beat the odds in preparing their diverse students for college and career? The latest NYKids study sought to find out. Read the full cross-case report.

Our research team studied two sets of high schools: One set was classified as “odds beating” because their Regents and Advanced Regents graduation rates among African-American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, English language learners and/or economically disadvantaged students exceeded predictions, while the other set was classified as “typically performing” because their graduation rates were predicted in comparison to all other schools in the state accounting for demographics.

The team visited rural and more suburban and urban schools around New York state to collect documents, tour schools, and conduct interviews and focus groups with district and school leaders, teachers, and support staff to identify classroom, school and district policies and practices related to preparing students for college and career. A school-wide culture and instructional practice survey was also administered to all staff.

These odds-beaters differed from typical schools in some unique ways—sharing these four qualities:

 The “Four C’s” of Odds-beaters

 1: Co-Constructing a Humanizing School Community

Educators at odds-beating schools promote the development of well-rounded youth through active relationship building across all school levels and encouraging young people to pursue their unique interests in and out of school. The climate of odds-beating schools is both egalitarian and familial as staff work collaboratively and relate to students and colleagues as family.

2: Collaboratively Defining and Achieving Success

At odds-beating schools, staff, students and parents work together to solve problems and achieve success. Rather than seeking to meet narrowly-defined student outcome targets and equating those to success, odds-beating educators endorse a progressive, future-oriented, and holistic view of student success aimed at developing young adults ready for life after high school.

3: Cultivating Culturally-Responsive and Inclusive Leadership

Emphasizing a team-based approach, leaders at odds-beating schools clearly communicate initiatives and seek input from all staff members. In order to meet the needs of their student population, leaders carefully choose staff who share a cultural and linguistic identity with students and feel and express a strong sense of community pride.

4: Customizing Innovative Programs and Practices

In keeping with the goal of developing well-rounded young adults, educators in odds-beaters find multiple ways to measure academic success and work tirelessly to customize their program offerings and instructional practices to the needs of each child they serve. These educators make genuine efforts to recognize and appreciate the diverse backgrounds and experiences of their students.

The Take-aways

This NYKids study offers practical strategies and lessons learned regarding how and why odds-beating school educators achieve better diverse student outcomes than comparison typical schools.

This set of findings is critically important because it provides a partial blueprint for what other high school educators can prioritize and do to facilitate the success of the greatest number of students, particularly poverty-challenged and culturally- and linguistically diverse ones.

Educators in these schools are relentless and seemingly tireless in their pursuit of the four priorities described above, and their collective efforts at three levels—district office, school, and classrooms—help to explain their successes and predict a positive trajectory for their students and their schools in the future. See ny-kids.org for individual school case studies and the detailed cross-case report.