August 20 Student Investment Account Update

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SIA Update


Third Period Progress & Annual Reporting FAQs + Office Hours

As a reminder, the SIA team continues to host office hours to support grantees in the completion of the Third Period Progress Report and Annual Report. The sessions are designed to address individual grantee questions and provide technical assistance on the reporting dashboard. Below, you will find links to register for upcoming office hours: 

Additionally, this week, we’d like to highlight a few key questions that have been received in office hours to date: 

Q: Is there a required format for posting the Annual Report on the website and for presenting the Annual Report to the Board?

A: There is no required format.  You may use the Word document template provided from ODE, download the Annual Report sections from the SIA Reporting Smartsheet dashboard, or create your own format to present this information, such as a slide deck. 

Q: What happens if the Annual Report presentation occurs prior to the 9/30 deadline; however, due to Board Secretary scheduling, the meeting minutes will not be available until after 9/30?

A: Please submit what you do have to document that you presented the Annual Report before your Board prior to 9/30, such as a board meeting agenda, and we will work with you to complete your required submission once the board meeting minutes have been finalized. If you have any concerns about meeting the deadlines or requirements for Period Three or your Annual Report submission, please contact your District Grant Manager or SIAInfo@state.or.us to discuss a solution.

If you have been unable to attend one of the office hour sessions and have questions about your Third Period Progress and/or Annual Report, please reach out to SIAinfo@state.or.us and a member of our team will follow up with you.


This Week's Frequently Asked Questions

Q: We just received our SIA Subgrant Award Notification from EGMS. Does this allocation represent the entire award for the 2021-23 biennium, or is this just the allotment for the first year?

A: This allotment is the amount for the first year only. You will receive an additional allocation for the 2022-23 school year next July. Please keep in mind that due to a recent rule adoption (OAR 581-014-0004) grantees have until September 30, 2022 to spend the first year’s allocation, unless you opt out of the universal summer extension. If you have any questions about your allocation, please reach out to SIAinfo@state.or.us.


Resources We're Excited About

The ODE Mental Health Toolkit shared in the last SIA update works from this theory of action: If we create the conditions for authentic school community relationships with as-needed tiered support, then students will develop resilience to adversity needed not only to survive, but thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.  Here, we focus on those conditions by delving into this strength-based practice guide highlighted as a key resource in the Toolkit’s content area “Leading from Strength to Promote Mental Health.”

Contrary to a traditional problem-focused mental health management system that identifies what students lack in their behavior (which results in student dependencies), a strengths-based approach is a process that centers on harnessing the power of relationships to unleash each and every student’s potential for self-determination. Key principles for building a strengths-based school culture include:

  • Each and every student wants to learn and has the potential for success, regardless of race, socioeconomic status, language, ability, etc.
  • Authentic relationships bring forth challenges through active listening, validating feelings, recognizing strengths, and demonstrating that each student matters 
  • See student challenges as opportunities to explore their understandings, encourage perspective-taking on their strengths and capacities, and develop their own sense of values, hope and optimism
  • Harness student uniqueness, dignity, and goals when allocating supportive resources to promote resiliency

Promising practices:

  • Ensure all hands are on deck: Time and opportunities are available for all educators and community partners to engage in cooperative decision making about strengths based practices
  • Frame language to invite respect, curiosity and connection: Ask questions that attempt to authentically understand the student, foster collaboration amongst peers, recognize student improvement 
  • Utilize mentoring in your support system for students experiencing challenges: These role modeling relationships tap into students’ intrinsic motivations and help them to view adversity as impermanent and not indicative of their potential

Additional Resources

New Analysis in Support of Graduation Improvement

We are pleased to share a new research brief from the High School Success team, examining a range of academic and demographic data over three graduating cohorts.  This research demonstrates the importance of efforts to focus High School Success funds on 9th grade on-track rates, attendance, access to higher-level coursework, and CTE participation. The brief also identifies some areas of intersection that can be used to further focus supports for populations often disadvantaged by education systems, such as mobile students, students with disabilities, and students experiencing poverty.  The findings apply to all students and remain consistent for students of color. 

The findings include a more than doubled likelihood of graduation for students who are on-track as 9th graders. This remains consistent even after adjustment for other relevant factors. Other findings include a 60% increased likelihood of graduation for students who were not on-track but earned at least 0.5 credits in CTE (compared to other students who were not on-track), and a demonstration of the value of starting high school in Algebra I or a higher math course.  The brief also demonstrates the importance of attendance and absenteeism as a secondary risk indicator for students who are not on-track as 9th graders. A classification tree organizing three key predictors in a hierarchical structure for easier application is also presented.    

It is the hope of the HSS team that this research will be instrumental in supporting school and district efforts to improve graduation rates, narrow historical and present disparities, and provide targeted resources and supports to students.  We encourage you to examine these trends and relationships with your district and grade-level teams and PLCs.  We think they might also help inform local decision-making around goals, activities, and focal areas. 

Please send any questions or comments to Isabella Jacoby.

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Please send any questions or comments to SIAInfo@state.or.us

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