GRADUATION COACH

Qualifications:

• Mississippi certification in the following areas: Teaching, Service (School Counseling, School Psychology, and/or School Social Work) or Leadership
• At least three years experience in one or a combination of the certificated areas above in secondary schools

• Successful experiences working with secondary at-risk students
• Working knowledge of appropriate strategies for reducing behaviors that put students at risk of not graduating from high school
• Ability to communicate effectively with youth and adults
• Ability to analyze, develop, implement, and track intervention plans and strategies
• Knowledge of and the ability to analyze data, including that available from the Mississippi Department of Education and from other sources
• An understanding of the multiplicity of social services available in the community to support students at risk of not graduating
• Knowledge of alternative education opportunities (e.g. Credit Recovery, Plato, Mississippi Virtual High School

Reports To:

Building Principal

Essential Functions:

The High School Graduation Coach shall work to improve graduation rates for all population subgroups within the school by performing the following duties and responsibilities.

• Utilizes the components of a profile of characteristics of potential dropouts to identify high school students with the high probability of not graduating
• Collaborates with feeder middle school(s) to utilize the components of a profile of characteristics of potential dropouts to identify middle school students with the high probability of not graduating
• Conducts an analysis that focuses on data for individual students and subgroups such as:
  • State Standardized Tests: Subject Area Testing Program (SATP)
  • National Standardized Tests: SAT and ACT
  • Local Records: attendance records, behavior records, records of teacher conferences, records of parent conferences, records of student conferences, TST meeting minutes, grade retention records, and records of credits earned
• Works with students to develop a graduation and achievement plan to include the best program to meet academic and post-secondary goals
• Develops and submit monthly progress reports to principal
• Coordinates a transition program for 9th graders to successfully adapt to the rigor of high school
• Develops a “Graduation Team” for each identified student that minimally includes an administrator, two teachers, a counselor and/or school social worker or a representative from a local support or mentoring agency
• Develops a local mentoring program with business partners and connect individual students with mentors
• Tracks the progress of individual and subpopulations of students as they progress toward graduation
• Provides training to parents of students identified as being at risk of not graduating
• Provides training to middle school and high school teachers on support measures that work with youth identified as at risk of not graduating and the youth’s parents/guardians
• Identifies and links area social agencies with youth at risk of not graduating and their parents/guardians
• Conducts quarterly vertical team meetings among elementary, middle, and high school faculty and staff to develop action steps to improve individual student and subgroup transition success rate
• Attends, participate in, and redeliver as appropriate all required high school graduation coach training provided by the Department of Education and/or its collaborative partners
• Develops partnerships with community organizations to support the goals of the high school graduation initiative
• Conducts and analyze on-going formative and summative evaluation data of program effectiveness such as:
  • What interventions were most utilized in achievement plans created for each at risk student
  • Number and percent of at risk students who met part or all of their goals in their academic plan
  • Number and percent of identified at risk students in the school compared to total school population and rationale for why the number/percent is higher or lower than the state average
• Provides and/or submit reports to the Department of Education as scheduled and requested
• Performs other duties as requested or assigned

Salary Information

Codes