Giving Compass' Take:

• Data shows that supporting students through writing letters home is an effective form of positive feedback, particularly for low-income high achieving students. 

• What other ways can educators show support? How does this behavior and instruction encourage student empowerment?  

• Learn more about broadening student success to include mental health. 

What if a piece of mail could change a student’s academic trajectory?

Nothing in education is quite so simple, of course. But what if there were relatively straightforward ways that schools, districts and states could recognize and celebrate student success — strategies that could have a meaningful impact on students’ outcomes?

There are, and districts and states should start doing them right away.

We started considering these questions at EdNavigator after noticing a disturbing trend through our work with families over the last five years: Many students from low-income and minority families begin kindergarten well prepared and thrive for many years, rising to the top performance levels in their schools, districts and states. But over time, too many of them slip from that lofty trajectory. Their academic performance goes from outstanding to merely good or even mediocre — and often, no one even seems to notice. It is a heartbreaking pattern with real educational and economic consequences.

There are undoubtedly many causes underlying this pattern of academic slippage, among them less access to rigorous educational experiences inside and outside school. But we also hypothesized that one reason could be something as simple as parents, teachers and even students themselves not being fully aware of how well they were doing. Maybe simply recognizing talented students and helping others become aware of their accomplishments could make them more likely to be challenged, to seek out learning opportunities or to raise their expectations for themselves.

We wanted to find out if there was a way to disrupt this pattern for individual students — right now, and at relatively low cost. So we partnered with the Louisiana Department of Education to test one possible strategy.

Read the full article about supporting student success by Timothy Daly at The 74.