Study of the Engage New England Initiative Cross-Site Learning Brief 4: Early Insights from Academic Case Conferencing

Abstract

The Barr Foundation launched the Engage New England Initiative in 2017 to support the development of innovative schools to serve students who are off track to graduate from high school. A key system of these schools is a primary person model, in which every student has an adult or primary person, they can rely on for academic and social-emotional support. In summer 2020, the technical assistance provider introduced academic case conferencing as a core function of the primary person. With academic case conferencing, the primary person helps students maintain academic progress through consistent one-on-one meetings focused on intentional goal setting. This brief describes the approaches schools used to support academic case conferencing and their implementation of key practices.

Keywords: Access and equity, High school redesign, Transition to postsecondary