Student Success Systems: Recapping 2024

On the heels of 2024, we took some time to reflect on our work supporting the design of Student Success Systems nationally. We would like to share the continuing and new partnerships for 2025. In 2024, TDS continued partnering with The Grad Partnership, Johns Hopkins University, Albuquerque Public Schools (APS), New Mexico Department of Education, Everyone Graduates Center, Rural Schools Collaborative, International High School in Louisiana and Annie E. Casey Foundation. We were excited to work with our new partners, PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network), and St. Helena Parish School District in Louisiana. We look forward to engaging with our newest partner, Carlsbad Municipal School District in New Mexico.

The TDS team continues to be led by Tara Madden serving as our ED with 30 years of experience. Sheena Lall, Raphael Curtis and Sonia Urban leveraged their individual areas of expertise with their in-depth knowledge of designing high quality student success systems to assist our partners with reducing chronic absenteeism and increasing graduation rates. Diane Wheeler worked to keep our organization’s finance and marketing strong.

TDS had multiple opportunities in 2024 to learn and share our knowledge at conferences and other venues. We facilitated a panel discussion at the Carnegie Summit in San Diego. The session, “Addressing Chronic Absenteeism through Student Success Systems” included panelists Dr. Candice Castillo, Deputy Secretary of Identity, Equity, and Transformation; New Mexico Public Education Department; Sheri Jett, Associate Superintendent for School Climate and Supports, Albuquerque Public Schools (APS); Rachel Vigil, Principal, Manzano High School, APS and Jeanie Stark, Manzano High School, APS. They shared the alignment happening at the state, district and school levels to foster conditions for the design of high quality Student Success Systems.

We were inspired by the amazing student-led design projects and learned from our interaction with students at the National School Redesign Showcase in Washington, DC. Bryan Garcia and Mark Garcia, district leaders from Albuquerque Public Schools, served as panelists during a White House convening highlighting promising practices that address chronic absenteeism. This event was hosted by the Department of Education. APS is aligning the Community Schools Model and Student Success Systems across their district. This is leading to stronger outcomes, including improved student attendance. TDS learned and enjoyed collaborating with the Grad Partnership Intermediaries at convenings in Denver, Colorado and Baltimore, MD. Tara Madden was featured in the Designing Education podcast with Bob Balfanz of Everyone Graduates Center. In the third episode of season three, Tara and Bob discuss the four essential components of a student success system: a focus on building relationships; holistic data and predictive indicators; a response system informed by students, teachers, and families; and a shared set of student-centered mindsets among adults and what it takes to provide all students with the supports and learning experiences they need to thrive in post-pandemic times. Check out the Designing Education podcast! Sonia Urban facilitated learning sessions during a PaTTAN conference focused on student success systems in Hershey, PA. TDS team members collaborated with our friends at the Everyone Graduates Center on Co-Designing with Students which offers learning from the On Track to Careers Success project supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. We look forward to additional open source resources being published and disseminated in 2025.

TDS was able to recognize 15 APS school staff members who earned micro certifications during their district wide Student Success System professional learning community. TDS facilitates Everyone Graduates Centers’ Student Success Systems certification process. We had a lot of wins that we’d like to share within APS. With TDS support beginning in November 2023 to a subset of APS schools, 8 out of 10 schools decreased chronic absenteeism and increased average daily attendance during SY2324. The average decrease in chronic absenteeism across 10 schools was 3.2%. The largest decrease was 7% at Manzano High School.