City Year’s new student success coach playbook helps schools launch SSCs

City Year’s “Why We Matter” podcast explores the vital role of education and mentorship in empowering young people. Through interviews with educators, student, and community leaders, the podcast delves into the transformative impact of student success coaches and the importance of supporting systemically under-resourced schools, which serve disproportionately high numbers of students living in lower income households and students of color.

Read excerpts from our latest episode where we interview City Year Vice President Jennifer Boyce, who oversees technical assistance for student success coaching, about City Year’s new Student Success Coaches Playbook for Program Developers.

Would you mind sharing with our listeners a bit about yourself and your work at City Year?

This is my 13th year at City Year. I started out at City Year Chicago, where I was leading the impact side of the house, helping to support teams of City Year AmeriCorps members serving in Chicago Public Schools. Best job I’ve ever had at City Year! Now, I am working on the Education Policy and Systems Change team at HQ. My work really is around thinking about how City Year approaches expanding the work of student success coaching outside of City Year’s direct service footprint in hundreds of schools across 29 U.S. cities. We know places that City Year doesn’t serve also can benefit from student success coaching.

It’s our hope that by adding critical capacity to systemically under-resourced schools, student success coaching will come to be understood and leveraged as a key element of a healthy, thriving, equitable school ecosystem. We’re thinking about what student success coaching can mean in the sense of expanding educational equity.

We are also one of the lead partners with NPSS, The National Partnership for Student Success, an initiative put together by the Biden-Harris Administration to make sure that we get enough and more adults in front of young people. City Year is the lead partner of NPSS for schools, districts and youth-serving programs that want to incorporate student success coaches into their programs.

Can you talk about the new student success coach playbook you’ve just released for educators who develop school programs?

This is a tool for educators and youth development folks who are interested in thinking about how they can create a more equitable space for the young people they are serving. It is a tool that talks about the “why” behind why do we want student success coaches? What’s the value of student success coaches?  What’s the research behind this approach? How can student success coaches create a more equitable learning space?

And the playbook is also a bit of a “how to” guide. It’s is intended for folks that are on the ground doing the work – and also for those interested in learning the value and research behind student success coaching.

This is a way for people to be introduced to what student success coaching looks like in the way that City Year and our partners think about it – for folks to look at if they want to incorporate student success coaching in their school or in their youth-serving program.

Could you share some highlights from the Student Success Coach Playbook for Program Developers?

There are two things that I think are really important:

1. The first is the research behind student success coaching. One of the things that we have learned at City Year is that it takes more than just thinking about how students are performing academically, although that’s the ultimate goal, right?  We want students to thrive academically, we want them to do well in school. But what we realized was that there is an increasingly large amount of research and work by City Year and many other organizations and institutions behind what it means to build authentic relationships with students and to support their social and emotional development alongside their academic growth.

We work with Search Institute and use their developmental relationships framework when we train our AmeriCorps members. We worked with the Science of Learning and Development (SoLD Alliance) on what it really means to holistically support young people and create environments where they can thrive.  We are inspired and influenced by the work of these and many other organizations, such as CASEL, MENTOR, The Everyone Graduates Center, and many more.

2. Second, there’s also work around what this all looks like. What are the questions I should be asking if I’m a program designer, if I’m a school leader, if I’m a district leader? What are the questions I should be asking around “how do I actually create a space that incorporates student success coaches?” In the playbook you’ll find not only what’s the research behind it, but why is it valuable? You’ll also find some practical tips that help you think about “what should I be thinking about if I want to think about student success coaches in the program that I’m running in the school that I’m operating?”

How are student success coaches working to create more equitable learning environments?

By adding capacity where it’s most needed and by helping to personalize the school experience for all kids in ways that make them feel connected and like they belong.

Schools are asked to do so many things, and students are bringing so many different cultures, backgrounds, language, abilities, the way that they learn, how they like to learn. It is difficult for one teacher in a classroom, with however many kids, to be able to address all those different needs. And too many of our schools don’t have enough resources—in fact, have never been designed or resourced—to meet all the needs of their students. So, adding additional capacity to these schools can be a way to expand equitable learning environments across the country, where they are most needed.

Another part of what we think about when we think about equity in the classroom and equity in education is helping schools and teachers to give every student the opportunity to feel a sense of belonging, to feel a sense that they have voice, to understand what it means to feel like “I belong here.” And so, creating that space where a young person connects with an adult—which can be one of our student success coaches—who says, “I take you as you are. Whatever you bring, I will help you to get what you need to thrive.”

That is part of what we mean when we’re creating a more equitable space, because we understand that not every student fits the mold of coming to school on time, ready to learn, having everything they need to be successful.

Sometimes there are things that young people need that they look for when they come to school. And without that additional support, sometimes it’s difficult for schools to give every student what they need. Part of creating that equitable space is saying, “I see, you, young person.”

We know that some students are able to connect with their classroom teacher, or paraprofessional, or someone else in the school. But educators today are stretched so thin and the schools where we serve are systemically under-resourced. Sometimes some students need even more caring adults in the school building to reach out to them, notice their ups and downs, bring an extra moment of levity or empathy into their school day.

Our student success coaches at City Year are really trained and developed to understand how to connect and build authentic developmental relationships with students so they feel a sense of belonging and like they have time and space to be themselves and learning in a way that works for them.  And often that has to happen before they can tackle tutoring or academic support. That positive relationship is really important to student success coaching.

Listen to Jennifer’s full episode here to learn more about the playbook and the importance of student success coaching.

To learn more about the playbook and NPSS you can reach out to Jennifer directly, jboyce@cityyear.org.