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Spotlight: Connecticut RISE Network
The Connecticut RISE Network was recognized in 2020 with the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement for its work with schools across nine districts to significantly raise high school graduation rates through a focus on 9th grade on-track attainment. The network’s efforts are an example of collective action to use data to pinpoint needs, form hypotheses regarding potential improvements, and pursue ideas to advance student achievement.
While the vast majority of students and their families aspire to a postsecondary degree, too few achieve their dreams of a higher education. National research shows that grade 9 on-track achievement is the single best indicator of whether a student will graduate from high school within four years—more than test scores, family income, or race/ethnicity. Committed to disrupting its state’s multigenerational opportunity gaps, the Connecticut RISE Network represents a partnership between educators from 10 high schools and nine high-need, public school districts serving over 14,000 students. Founding RISE high schools have demonstrated a 20-percentage-point increase of grade 9 on-track rates from 64% in 2015 to 84% in 2020. Freshman success has also translated to high school success; the average graduation rate has increased from 78% in 2016 to 87% in 2019 within the context of statewide graduation rates remaining constant.
Access three different resources about the RISE Nework:
- Download the full profile of the Connecticut RISE Network.
- View this session, recorded at the 2021 Carnegie Foundation Summit on Improvement in Education, to hear RISE Network leaders detail what they did and how their networkwide “RISE by 5” strategies (summer bridge programming, on-track data teams, on-track coaching, college and career supports, and classroom innovations) and data tools drive on-track achievement:
- Learn more about the work of the Connecticut Rise Network and view a webinar in which network members and leaders discuss the strategies and practices that led to a rise in graduation rates.
The Carnegie Foundation launched the Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement program in 2017 to elevate clear and compelling examples of how the rigorous application of improvement principles, methods, processes, and tools solve educational problems. Each honoree has demonstrated quality in the enactment of improvement principles, methods, and tools applied to significant problems in education or to transform their educational systems or organizations.
