Monday, May 11, 2020
Woodland High School’s Positive Academic Support System (PASS) continues to support struggling students with remote learning during the statewide school closure. Woodland High School introduced PASS in 2017 to help ninth graders who were at risk of failing one or more of their classes. The members of the PASS team work one-on-one with the students, acting as their “school parents” to make sure they get the support they need to engage with their learning.
Providing students with the support they need as early as possible may be key to their overall academic success. “Studies show that students who end their ninth year on-track by passing all of their courses are about 3.5 times more likely to graduate from high school than peers who fail one or more classes,” said Assistant Principal Dan Uhlenkott. “With the Core 24 requirements, students do not have much wiggle room to fail even a single class and still graduate, much less fail a core class.”
Students in PASS may need additional support for a variety of reasons. “Often, poor performance in school is a symptom of other issues occurring in a student’s life,” said Dan. “Our PASS staff members act as ‘school parents’ to help freshmen navigate academics, attendance, discipline, class changes, independent course curriculum; pretty much any aspect of high school.”
The PASS Program Team (photograph taken pre-closure): Catherine Pulliam, Keitra Curnutt, Cyndy Grayson, Mary Ann Sturdivan, Dana Preston, and Stacy Gould
The PASS Team includes Stacy Gould, the program’s coordinator, along with Keitra Curnutt, Cyndy Grayson, Dana Preston, Catherine Pulliam, and Mary Ann Sturdivan. In order to support the program financially, WHS Principal John Shoup and Stacy applied for and received a grant from InvestEd which provided $5,000 for PASS each year for the past two years.
During the statewide school closure, the PASS team delivers school supplies as well as a variety of other needs including Chromebook chargers, musical instruments, and quarantine essentials, too. “We miss engaging with our students, so seeing them from a socially-distant appropriate distance has been wonderful,” said Stacy Gould, PASS coordinator. “We’re also able to help them by answering questions about online learning, connecting with their teachers, lining up the right materials for home learning, and providing them with any other assistance they need.”
The PASS team is excited to see their students during deliveries... if only at an appropriate distance due to social distancing guidelines.
Nearing the end of the school year has been particularly challenging for the PASS team. “This is the time of the year when we would get to see how much our students have grown throughout their first year in high school and have become members of our community,” said Stacy. “It is tough not being able to see their progress in-person.”
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