Success Prep Conferences - guiding freshmen into the future

This post was originally posted on The Freshman Transition Network.

"If only someone had told me that when I was a freshman!"

What a sad statement to hear coming from a high school senior. High school is all about choices. As educators we must take every opportunity to help students and parents make better informed choices early on in their high school careers.

I would like to a recommend a model for doing this called Success Prep Conferences. Many schools – including Salem High School where I am an assistant principal – use this model. (At SHS we call these conferences Program Planning.) It’s a model that could be employed at every single K-12 grade level; however, id due to limited resources one year must be chosen, then 9th grade is the year I would recommend. Everything before 9th grade is sort of like practice. It’s hard to focus on “the rest of your life” when you’re not even in high school yet. Anything after the 9th grade could be too late. Students will have already made choices that will have closed off doors of opportunity.

The Success Prep Conference method consists of a half-hour conference with the parents, the student, a classroom teacher, a career and technical/elective area teacher, and a guidance counselor. During conferences the team works to create a plan for the next 3 years of high school that is based on the child’s interests and that will help them get the most out of high school so that they can be successful in the future.

The characteristics of a Success Prep Conference plan are:

1. Goal-oriented
We want students and parents to begin to form ideas about where they are going in life and what they want to accomplish both in and out of high school. Many students already have ideas about this, but many don't.
2. Realistic
Many students and parents don't understand the realities of transcripts, diplomas, graduation requirements, state test requirements, and getting into college. Often they have very unrealistic ideas of where their current level of effort will take them. Success Prep Conferences help students and parents better understand what it takes to go where they want to go. This in turn encourages them to work in the appropriate manner.
3. Challenging
Students need to expand their horizons, try new things, get involved with their schools, and challenge themselves. We advocate all students exploring the career and technical courses, and when appropriate match them up with a mentor from one of those areas. Students are pushed to get involved with extracurricular activies, clubs, and sports. We also advocate students looking for academic challenges. All students are encouraged to try rising above their current academic level and becoming the very best they can be.

The results of Success Prep Conferences tend to be:

• students and parents more focused on reaching goals
  
• students and parents having a more realistic understanding of how the system works
  
• students becoming more involved in school
  
• students taking a wider and more rigorous array of courses
  
• enrollments increasing in advanced and career/technical courses
  
• students challenging themselves in new ways
• students and parents knowing that the school is looking out for their best interests

Here are a couple of examples of what people have had to say about Success Prep Conferences.