WEBVTT

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[Music] Welcome to Students
Want to Come to School.

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I am Duane Clark.

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I am the graduation coach here

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at Davis High School
in Houston, Texas.

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The culture at Davis has
changed over time strictly

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by the expectations that
have changed in our students,

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our faculty, and our staff.

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Recently the culture has geared
more towards accomplishment

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of high expectations.

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Not only do students want
to come to school now,

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now they actually want to learn.

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By result, the graduation rate
has just naturally increased.

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One thing we have is our
weekly dropout meetings.

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The official meetings
happen once a week.

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It is comprised of
every administrator

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on campus along with
their clerk.

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It is comprised of
the counselors.

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It is also comprised of
the dropout specialist,

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our truancy officer, graduation
coach, parents from off campus,

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and our head principal.

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At these meetings
basically what we do,

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every week we have a
different agenda and we go

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through kids' files, determine
who it is that we really need

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to focus on this week.

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And also we look at kids that
we looked at the previous week

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that we got back in--
what are we doing

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for them once they are here?

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We find those kids the
first two or three weeks

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that they are back, talk
to them, make them feel

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like not only do we want
you to be back for numbers

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but we also want you to
be back for yourself.

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Because we put so much
effort into making sure

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when a student comes back
they have a program in place

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for them, the student sees
that there is a certain level

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that they are going
to have to reach.

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When a student comes back, it
is expected of them to do well.

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Currently we have two different
program systems that we use

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for credit recovery here.

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Both are hybrids;
they are online

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and written assignment
programs that we have.

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The online process
allows students to learn

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and gain credits in a
nontraditional manner.

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They can do it both here at the
school, they can do it at home.

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They can do most of those
anywhere they have a computer

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with Internet access.

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It has things in there that's
going to allow the student

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to catch up a lot faster, but
also it's going to be able

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to make sure that
they get the rigor

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and they get the content
that is necessary.

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A student can possibly make up a
full year along with the courses

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that they are taking if they put
in the work and effort for it.

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We tailor the credit
recovery programs

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to each individual
student that comes in,

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especially our dropouts,

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according to where
their strengths are

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and where their weaknesses are.

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So every time a student
comes into credit recovery,

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myself and the counselors
sit down,

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look at the child's
academic history,

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look at the child's current
schedule, where they are

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on their path to graduation,

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and individualize exactly
what courses will be taken.

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The credit recovery programs
have raised expectations

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of the students more
than anything

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because now they know they have
another opportunity to graduate.

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So now they feel that if I
am not automatically good

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in a class or maybe this process
is not working out for me,

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I don't have to give up.

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I have other options.

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At Davis High School we
celebrate everything,

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and those celebrations have
raised everybody's expectations

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to the maximum.

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Our principal, Jaime
Castaneda, celebrates everything

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from our soccer team making it
to the regional finals to one

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of our students winning
the dessert round

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in a cooking competition.

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We have ceremonies to give
jackets out to students simply

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because they make good grades.

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And that all in itself has
afforded the students a

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different look on high school.

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Because the students
can be celebrated,

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they can be cherished, they
can be recognized at any point

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in time, it gives them
all the reason to be here.

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When students feel like
everybody knows their name,

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the teachers know who they are,
and they feel congratulated

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on things, they want to
come to school a lot more.

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Everybody is invested.

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The teachers care,
so the students care.

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[Music] To learn more about
learning environments,

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please explore the
additional resources

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on the Doing What Works website.