Overview
With the pandemic and school closures, students lost many of the in-person connections they previously had with teachers that helped to monitor and support their overall health and wellness. In addition, many of the support services students received also disappeared. In order to continue to connect with students and provide them with the necessary non-academic supports, Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School introduced success coaching, which provides each student with a staff member that checks in with them on a daily basis.
“Success coaching makes sure our scholars and families are able to say each morning, ‘I have an adult who's checking in with me,’ not just about school, but saying, ‘How are you today? How are you feeling? What are things that you need help with today?,’ and to have that adult be consistently the same person allows us to be able to talk to our community and to be able to start to see where the needs are. Success coaching has been one of the marquee adjustments we've made to center student voice, student wellbeing, and the impact of the pandemic." - Bb Ntsakey; Director, Academics - Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School
Approach
To support students and families as they navigate through the challenges of ongoing racial injustice coupled with the difficulties students and families have experienced as a result of the pandemic, staff members were assigned to each student at Brooklyn Lab to complete daily, one-on-one check-ins. As a Success Coach, staff members focus on developing relationships with students and helping them build the resilience needed to persevere through the pandemic and beyond. Success Coaches provide support in a variety of ways, including:
Addressing technical issues, such as logging into a class for remote learning
Solving transportation problems to help in-person students get to school, such as providing metro cards
Providing connections to community resources, including housing and food support
Offering guidance towards academic supports
Building relationships to provide students with a trusted adult to rely on
Setting goals to help students develop independence
After making contact, Success Coaches document the conversation and flag when additional supports are needed. Based on this documentation, a group of staff members meets on a weekly basis to review referrals and provide additional supports as needed. Depending upon the needs identified, students can be referred for tiered success coaching, which can include more frequent touch points with staff that have social-emotional expertise or individualized or group counseling.
This strategy is a part of TLA's Hop, Skip, Leapfrog release, which explores the concrete ways in which schools and systems pursued student-centered innovation during COVID-19. Explore the full guide to find additional strategies, insights, and resources.
Strategy Resources
Schools Need a Success Coach for Every Learner
Article from Getting Smart outlining how to build Success Coaching in schools and why it... Learn More
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Daily Student Success Coaching at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School
Bb Ntsakey, Director, Academics at Brooklyn Laboratory Charter School describes their Success Coaching program, which... Learn More