October 28, 2024
Kameron Burnham is the principal at Southeast Lauderdale High School in Meridian, Mississippi. As a member of The University of West Alabama’s GRAD Partnership school cohort, Southeast Lauderdale has been receiving support in implementing a student success system from Talent Development Secondary (TDS). The GRAD Partnership recently checked in with Kameron to learn about what led to her school’s decision to work with TDS to launch a student success system, and the impact of their efforts to date.
What led to Southeast Lauderdale’s work as part of The University of West Alabama’s GRAD Partnership cohort?
As a smaller, rural school, student connectedness ranks very high on our list of priorities each year; however, funding efforts such as school celebrations & incentives, targeted student field trips, and new campus sports/activities can often be difficult. When we were presented the opportunity to become a member of the UWA GRAD Partnership, we knew this was an opportunity that we could not pass up!
What were some of your initial concerns?
Like numerous other schools and districts, we face challenges with chronic absenteeism, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our high school students, who are also from economically challenged families, found themselves working day-time hours post-pandemic in order to simply make ends meet at home. Our goal has been to help these students, and others, find a balance between necessary working hours and school hours.
What specific action steps did you all take?
Initially we polled students on their interests inside and outside of school to get an idea of what areas needed our focus. We used this information to communicate with students, teachers, and community members to build stronger relationships and dive into student connectedness. Through these efforts, we have been able to connect students to school activities that have increased their school attendance as well as connected students with community businesses that have constructed positive pathways to successful student futures.
What are some of the outcomes that you all have seen since starting this work?
Through our efforts and collaboration with the GRAD Partnership, we have increased our student participation to 76%!
Southeast Lauderdale High School deeply appreciates all parties involved in increasing our student connectedness and decreasing our chronic absenteeism. We look forward to creating more and more student success stories!
Southeast Lauderdale High School is one of the GRAD Partnership’s spotlight schools. Spotlights are national examples of how to implement and sustain one or more of the four components of student success systems. Learn more about all our spotlights here.