24 Ways to Improve Your Graduation Rate

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Peer mentoring can improve your graduation rate. So can other interventions, but Cara Vienna, 2026 NASSP National High School Assistant Principal of the Year Finalist says it starts in ninth grade. In today's show, she shares all of the ideas, the surveys, the vision, and how the whole school came together to work and help everyone graduate.

Cara shares 24 ideas to improve your graduation rate based on what they have done in her school that achieved a 100% graduation rate. You should find several to talk about with your school as well as programs full of ideas to help shift things culturally at your school.

What you'll learn:

  • Who struggling ninth graders listen to even more than their teachers and how to harness that relationship to help them improve and grow
  • The ninth-grade class that teaches students how to email a teacher for help
  • How often her team checks D/F lists, and what happens next
  • The most common reason students slip through the cracks
  • Why her counselors meet one-on-one with every single student
  • What her school does first when the survey data comes back

If this episode helps you, would you leave a rating or review wherever you listen? It helps other teachers find the show.

Full show notes, transcript, and resources: https://www.coolcatteacher.com/e1024


Check out this episode!

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