Murrieta Valley Unified School District Our Mission

1. Formative AssessmentBreakthrough Student Assistance Program &Carpe Diem (Alternative to Expulsion)

2. Murrieta Valley Unified School District Our Mission To inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care.

3. Problem • We remain extremely concerned about the substantial and persisting investment in reactive and punitive approaches…as a primary strategy for addressing the challenges presented by behaviorally at-risk youth…such approaches are ultimately doomed to failure…unless they are counterbalanced with comprehensive prevention efforts… Walker, H.M., & Shinn, M.R. Structuring School-Based Interventions to Achieve Integrated Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Prevention Goals for Safe and Effective Schools. In M. Shinn, H.Walker, & G. Stoner (Eds.), Interventions for Academic and Behavior Problems: Preventive and Remedial Approaches. Bethesda, MD: NASP.

4. Expulsion Data

5. Binge Drinking

6. IOM and SAP ComponentsContinuum of Services = Comprehensive SAP • Intensive • Internal Referral Process and Services • Individualized Family Conferences and Family Action Planning • Suicide Prevention and Intervention • Targeted • Educational Student Support Groups • Parenting Workshops • Support Groups • Universal • School Board Policy • Staff Development • Prevention Lessons • Integration with Other School-based Programs • Cooperation and Collaboration Communitywide • Classroom Curriculum and School-wide Events • Crisis Team Response

7. RTI Pyramid

8. Who Do We Serve?

9. Contributions by Gender

10. Who Participated?

11. Number Served

13. Impact of Breakthrough Program by Participation in Family Conference

14. Impact of Breakthrough Program by Participation in Family Conference

16. 40 Developmental Assets

17. 40 Developmental Assets Empowerment

18. 40 Developmental Assets

19. 40 Developmental Assets Commitment to Learning

20. Self-referral Concerned school staff, parents, peers, coaches Suspended students Gifted and Talented Programs Student Study Team School Attendance Review Board and similar programs Parenting Programs Juvenile Probation Child Protective Services County programs including ATOD Tx. wanting support for children of clients in treatment YAT/YAB Referral Sources

21. Carpe Diem

22. Carpe Diem

23. Carpe Diem: Best Practices for Keeping Students Engaged in School • Individualized academic instruction • Positive classroom management (level system) • Informal interactions and low pupil-teacher ratio • Instruction in interpersonal, self-control, and social skills • Service learning • Flexibility • Parent involvement Tobin, T. & Sprague, J. Alternative Educational Programs: Accommodating Tertiary Level, At-Risk Students.In M. Shinn, H. Walker, & G. Stoner (Eds.), Interventions for Academic and Behavior Problems: Preventive and Remedial Approaches. Bethesda, MD: NASP.

24. Carpe Diem • 52 students were eligible to return • 42 did return (10 moved out of district) • There has been an average GPA increase of one full point for returning students at end of 1st semester of return. • Parents comment that students are more focused and eager to learn. • Fewer discipline problems upon return.

25. Need for Alternatives • Financial cost of incarceration of juveniles and rehabilitation of adolescents and adults. • If dropout prevention programs were widely used at all levels and cost comparisons were based on all programs that taxpayers support, “The benefits of dropout prevention would exceed the costs by a ratio of 9:1” (Altenbaugh, Engel & Martin, 1995, p.170) • Even if students don’t graduate, every year of schooling is valuable: “Each added year of secondary education reduces the probability of public welfare dependency in adulthood by 35% (National Research Council, 1993).

26. Murrieta Valley Unified School District Inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care.