Inquiry Behind CONNECT

TREC has much to celebrate for the success it heralds as an alternate school. For some students, attending TREC will be their first time experiencing success in a school environment. TREC's annual Our School Survey indicates that TREC students want to be as successful as any other student in the district in order to improve their life chances (TREC School Learning Plan, 2021). To be sure that our learners are achieving the success they desire, we must continue to look for ways to improve our programs. Like all organizations, there is always some room for growth. The following document identifies two specific areas of concern for learners at TREC and how we have used these growth areas to design the CONNECT program.

TREC uses the Our School Survey to establish a consistent baseline for tracking student indicators of success both academic and social emotional, as well as indicating any concerning trends or problems. The survey is administered each fall and is anonymous and mostly quantitative in design. According to data released in the 2021 TREC School Learning Plan, TREC students are performing remarkably close to the Canadian averages in most areas.

DEWRS data indicated that our students perform, on average, at 71% in English/LA, 70% for Math, and 74% for science, with Canadian averages being 77%, 75% and 76% respectively. Our School based survey indicated that our students want to be as successful as any other student in the district in order to improve their life chances. 2. According to our student data, 58% of our students identify as engaged, interested and motivated in their education, which is up from 42% last year. In terms of effort, 67% of our students try hard to succeed in their learning, despite the significant challenges they have to overcome; an increase of 2% from last year. Overall, students indicated they are more intellectual engaged and see purpose in school and attendance. (TREC Our School Survey, 2021)

However, there is one area of growing concern related to student sense of belonging. As you can see in the following Figure 1.1., students at TREC score well below Canadian norms when it comes to student sense of belonging. Only 46% of students felt they had a high sense of belonging at TREC; whereas Canadian norms are 64%. Only 38% of students at TREC can identify people they can trust to encourage them to make positive choices; as compared to 75% in Canadian norms.

There is compelling research which suggests that, “motivation, drop-out rates, retention, and academic performance are correlated with sense of belonging.” (Laldin, 2016) Furthermore, scholars argue that without a strong sense of belonging, students will experience significant issues with emotional wellness (Bowen, 2021) Given that "39% [of learners] identify anxiety as the primary reason they attend TREC" (Our School Survey, 2021) and that many of our students experience complex and vulnerable backgrounds, it is paramount that we find meaningful ways to increase student sense of belonging in our school.

After some further research and discussion with TREC staff and students, we have identified that the individualized, self-paced model is at least in part responsible for students feeling disconnected from one another at school. Students have reported saying things like, "It's hard to get to know people at TREC." (Sense of Belonging Survey, 2022). However, learners have also identified that the self-paced, individualized model is one of the major reasons they like attending TREC. "69% identify self-paced programming and flexibility in timetabling as to why they attend" (TREC School Learning Plan, 2021). The challenge for us then to find a creative way to balance the two needs - the need for self-paced, individualized programing with the need for community and belonging.

As a result, we have created the following inquiry question to guide future programming at TREC:

Friday Fatigue

Let's face it - Fridays are hard for most of us! Some weeks it feels like we are just crawling to the end of the week, and this holds especially true for many of our learners in alternative education. Many students are refered to TREC because of attendance concerns and school avoidance in their former school. Although attendance problems can continue even once a learner transfers to TREC, the self-paced model does help alleviate some of the pressure from the learner, making it easier for them to reengage when they are ready or able. However, attendance data reveals that our learners chronically struggle to attend on Fridays. In fact, attendance records show that on average, attendance is 60% less on Fridays than it is the rest of the week.

Obviously, attendance and engagement in learning is a cornerstone of educational purpose. However, in alternative education, the wrap around supports which are a key component of our program and of our students' success are only available when students attend. The students themselves recognize the value of this approach when "According to our latest data, 73% of our students attend TREC because of additional support" (TREC School Learning Plan, 2021). We believe that students will be more successful in school, build more CORE competency skills and be better connected to their community and culture if they are attending school regularly - including Fridays. It is also important for students to form transferable work habits (a 5 day work week) as they work toward being healthier, contributing members of society better able to overcome the generational cycles of poverty, trauma, and addictions. So why are Fridays so challenging?

Historical Roots - Free Fridays

In response to poor attendance on Fridays back in 2016, the staff at TREC trialed a program called Free Fridays - where students could choose which classes they wanted to attend that day by creating an elastic schedule. For example, if a student wanted to work on an extended art project, they could stay in the art room for the entire day. The staff also tried to "entice" students to attend with a meal that is widely popular with teens - free pizza! Initially, the response to the flexible program was great. Attendance on Fridays steadily increased for two years, but then peaked. Prior to the arrival of COVID, we began to see Friday attendance declines again. It seems that a compounding problem developed in which students felt limited by their options. The two activities that dominated the Friday learning program were hands-on and experiential - art workshops and sports in the gym. Essentially the Art and PE teachers were the only teachers who would have students attending and it became an unequitable workload. The teachers also started to notice interest waning as the novelty of the activities began to wear off. Student feedback was generally positive about the free structure of the classes, but they wondered if there could be more variety of experiential learning options.

As a result, we have created the following inquiry question to guide future programming at TREC:

Resources

Bucher, L. (2022) Figure 1.1. Student Sense of Belonging. Retrieved from Lisa Bucher personal album.

Bowen, Janine. (Oct. 21, 2021) Why is it important for students to feel a sense of belonging at school? Retrieved from https://ced.ncsu.edu/news/2021/10/21/why-is-it-important-for-students-to-feel-a-sense-of-belonging-at-school-students-choose-to-be-in-environments-that-make-them-feel-a-sense-of-fit-says-associate-professor-deleon-gra/#:~:text=Gray%20said%20students%20who%20feel,be%20in%20the%20school%20environment.

Carmichael, C. (2021) Twin Rivers Education Centre School Learning Plan. Retrieved from https://www.sd73.bc.ca/en/schools-programs/resources/SLP/TREC_2021-2022.pdf

Laldin, Myra. (Feb. 11, 2016) The psychology of belonging (and why it matters). Retrieved from https://www.learningandthebrain.com/blog/psychology-of-belonging/#:~:text=Research%20has%20also%20shown%20that,correlated%20with%20feelings%20of%20belonging.&text=A%20study%20demonstrated%20that%20college,with%20academic%20achievement%20in%20college