Graduation Coaching in a Rural District High School

• In Event: Poster Session 17
  In Poster Session: Cognition and Motivation in STEM

Abstract

"Graduation coaching" was evaluated as a promising intervention for rural high schools. The goal was academic improvement, particularly for students not passing core courses. An interrupted time-series design with a treatment group of at-risk students receiving coaching and three baseline cohorts as comparative control groups addressed this question. Results show graduation coached at-risk students performed almost an entire letter grade better than anticipated from comparative baseline studies. Well over 50% of the treatment students, all of whom were predicted to fail, actually succeeded well enough to be prepared to progress to the next grade level and appear more likely to remain in school. Coaching models appear to be a promising practice for both high-need rural and urban high schools.

Authors

• Pamela J. Zeller, Western Michigan University

• Shelly Carpenter, Western Michigan University

• Warren E. Lacefield, Academic Software, Inc.

• Brooks Applegate, Western Michigan University