Students At Risk Mapping Tool

Deb Hull

Doug Smith

March 2007

Identifying Young People ‘At Risk’

Research

‘At Risk’ of what?• Not completing school?• Becoming totally disengaged from education,

training and work?• Youth offending?• Harm?

Does everyone in your school agree?

School-based indicators/behaviours

• Truancy• Behavioural issues• Low literacy level• Low numeracy level• Significant change in demeanour,

behaviour or performance• Attitude to schooling• Does not value school completion• Articulated intention of early school

leaving• Negative peer influence• Aggression/violence

Community and family risk factors

• Poverty

• Low income household

• Parental unemployment

• Australian-born parents, English-speaking background

• Aboriginal or Islander

• Refugee

• Fragmented/reconstituted family structures

• Separation from family

• Low parental education attainment

• Poor family management practices

• Poor parent-child relationships• Abuse• High crime neighbourhood• Incarcerated parent• Frequent change of

location/school• High number of people in

neighbourhood with vocational qualifications

Personal Risk Factors

• Poor health

• Low birth weight

• Ill health or disability

• Disruptive behaviours

• Passivity

• Low self esteem

• Low motivation

• Self-harming

• High level of aggression/violence

• Pregnancy/motherhood

• Offending• Substance misuse• Association with anti-social

peers/adults• Sex work• Social isolation• Male• Non-metropolitan• Working more than 5 hours of

paid employment per week, especially for males

• Primary carer for parent or guardian with illness or mental illness

School-based risk factors

• Unsupportive school culture

• Repressive discipline

• Large class sizes

• Unstimulating content

• Competitive exam-dominated assessment

• Negative student-teacher relationships

• Negative peer relationships in school community

• Absence of school counsellors• Lack of student participation in

decision-making• Poor school/home

relationships• Poor teaching quality• Lack of clear relationships

with the wider community leading to an absence of support and referrals

Pitfalls of identifying young people as ‘at risk’

• Encourages focus on young person rather than school improvement

• Pigeonholing does not allow for resilience

• No process to declare ‘no longer at risk’, no fresh start

Model 1: common practice

Some combination of:

• Referral from teachers• Referrals from parents• Self referrals from students• Review of literacy and numeracy levels• Review of school reports and assessment

outcomes• Review of attendance patterns

Model 2: surveys and checklists

• Detailed student survey(Time to implement and analyse)

• Checklist completed by teachers(Comprehensive? Good PD)

Model 3: staff-student connection

• School structure at centre• Each student has one staff member who is

responsible for their welfare, and for communication and maintaining positive relationship

• Staff member may ‘follow’ the student through successive years at school

• Staff member is first point of ‘at risk’ referral by teachers, parents, student

• School processes support action by these staff members

Model 4: SAR Mapping Tool

• Developed by Doug Smith – BMLLEN

• Draw down data from CASES21

• Provides preliminary list of ‘at risk’ young people

• Teacher input

• Goes further – ‘the whole package’

Judging a school by its outcomesDoE ACCOUNTABILTY

Destination Outcomes“EARNING”

“LEARNING” “BELONGING”

Extract from “Guide to MIPs”DoE requirements

The Compliance Checklist will include the following requirement:

“…an integrated model of careers and transition support, which includes:

• Planned and systematic processes for identifying students…who are at risk of early school leaving, or not making a successful transition…..and providing them with appropriate support, preferably employing case management approaches.”

Why bother with “Early Leavers”?• Youth not fully engaged in further education

or employment 6 months after school- 23% of Year 12 completers- 40% of Year 11 leavers- 45% of Year 10 leavers

• Young adults not fully engaged:- 16% of Year 12 completers- 33% of Year 11 leavers- 40% of Year 10 leavers- 50% of Year 9 or below leavers

- DSF figures quoted by Dr John Spierings

Risks to early school leavers

• Higher rate of unemployment, low income

• Poorer health• Higher risk of death for self and family members

• Ongoing job uncertainty and vulnerability• Higher risk of criminal activity

• Communities of disengagement, dependence on benefits, low self-esteem

What are the known indicators?

• LEARNING– Especially Literacy and Numeracy

• BELONGING TO THE SCHOOL– Poor attendance

– Bullying / anti-social behaviour

• FAMILY BACKGROUND/ ASPIRATIONS

Where can we find a working summary of student risk factors

...EASILY?

• In CASES21!• The information is usually scattered, but this Tool

extracts and displays all the relevant data about individual students on ONE spreadsheet

• Schools can access the data in TWO minutes, without additional data entry

• Let us look at planning tool itself………

Group Activity

What can the Tool tell you?

How to get the most out of the SAR Mapping Tool

• Leadership requirements– Someone senior responsible for overseeing the

whole process

• A planned whole school approach- including

– Use of teams in administration, Destination, Learning & Belonging areas

– Linked to school goals & targets– Policy formation & processes

Roll-out 2007

• Web resources

• Briefings

• CASES21 training in Excel and Seamless Views

• Primary schools