Adapting Through Innovation and Collaboration

While the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally altered the educational landscape, RISE’s approach remains relatively unchanged, and our belief in the model has reached new heights. Prior to the pandemic, we had built skills as a networked improvement community to innovate and respond to specific needs and growth opportunities. While the pandemic presented multiple waves of new challenges and complexities, our community was uniquely poised to rise to the occasion. RISE’s core approach -- working together to use data to improve -- served us well in this time of crisis and uncertainty.

Deeper Collaboration

While public health conditions prevented us from engaging in regular RISE in-person gatherings and cross-district convenings this past year, the network learning community proved even more important and vibrant than ever before. Prior to the pandemic, educators engaged in back-to-school, fall, and springtime in-person convenings. During the pandemic, we shifted to virtual forms of collaboration and saw an increased demand for time together as a community to collaborate, process, and share successes and challenges. RISE launched new monthly role-alike collaboratives for school principals, Grade 9 leaders, On-Track Coaches, and college and career leaders. Additionally, educators engaged in virtual convenings and keynotes. In total, over 300 RISE educators engaged in network learning and collaborative activities last year.

Innovative Approaches to RISE by 5

In addition to deeper forms of network collaboration, RISE partners are continuing the RISE by 5 strategies and adapting these approaches to align with changing health conditions and student needs.

Rather than abandoning these strategies when schools shifted to hybrid and remote instruction, school teams looked to innovate. Educators are invested in the RISE by 5 strategies and know they work, so the question became how to deliver these supports in remote and socially distanced settings.

As one example, educator data teams continued to meet through Zoom, and those crossdepartmental meets served as a lifeline for educators navigating new challenges. One educator reflected, “Having our weekly data team meetings was the only constant thing about this year. It almost felt like a safe space, where we gathered as a team, and worked through challenges together, to get our students back on track.”

As another example, we know that students benefit from personalized goal-setting conversations, and one-on-one on-track conferences have become a quarterly tradition in RISE high schools. In 2020-21, nearly 40% of RISE high school students engaged in remote learning, so these in-person conferences required a new approach. Educators continued the practice by offering virtual and socially distanced conferences.

In preparation for the 2021-22 school year, schools also offered creative summer programming to help students prepare for the return back to school through Grade 9 Summer Bridge and College Prep Academy programs. In 2021, hundreds of students took time out of their summer vacations to prioritize their future.

Diana, a freshman at Westhill High School in Stamford, said the experience of the Summer Bridge program allowed her to understand what was to be expected of her in the school year.

“I felt really comfortable on the first day of school,” said Diana. “It motivated me. I understood the workload when I got here.”

“They walk with confidence. They are not lost,” said Khanisha Moore, an On Track Coordinator at Westhill High School, talking about students who were able to attend Westhill’s Summer Bridge program. “They are willing to embrace the school because they have that familiarity. For me, it is more about the connection being built.”