Resources
Sustainable gains in graduation rates happen when school systems replace isolated fixes with clear data, shared ownership, and consistent execution. Grounded in nearly four decades of field research and district partnerships, the toolkits below provide K–12 leaders and educators with actionable blueprints, practice guides, and research briefs to tackle chronic absenteeism, elevate classroom engagement, and build lasting cultures of student resilience.
Attendance
The Attendance Success Blueprint
Addressing chronic absenteeism takes more than letters home and truancy notices—it requires an aligned system. The Attendance Success Blueprint provides K–12 leaders with a practical, research-grounded framework to stabilize attendance by strengthening engagement across three core domains: People, Activities, and Instruction. Download this free blueprint to learn how to identify attendance barriers early, connect at-risk students to school culture, and turn daily attendance into a sustainable graduation lever.
Guiding Principles for Improving School Attendance: A Research and Practice Guide
Improving attendance isn’t about one-size-fits-all fixes or random incentive days. Developed by the National Dropout Prevention Center and Successful Practices Network, this research-backed practice guide gives school and district leaders a clear, practical roadmap to identify the root causes of chronic absenteeism.
Post-Pandemic Data & Trends: Understand changing attendance patterns, key grade-level transition spikes, and the real impact on school funding and graduation rates.
Step-by-Step Strategic Framework: Learn how to build a school-level attendance task force and replace quick fixes with targeted, long-term interventions that work.
Improving Attendance by Reducing Suspensions: A Practice Guide
Out-of-school suspensions directly drive up chronic absenteeism and pull vulnerable students off the path to graduation. This practice guide helps K–12 leaders examine local discipline data, assess underlying school beliefs, and replace exclusionary discipline with restorative, highly effective alternatives that keep classrooms safe and students engaged. It includes a readiness assessment instrument to help your administrative team identify where disciplinary practices unintentionally fuel absenteeism and implement targeted solutions that keep kids in school.
Effective Strategies goes for Graduation Improvement
Effective Strategies & Services for Graduation Improvement
Grounded in nearly four decades of field research, the Effective Strategies Blueprint translates proven dropout prevention practices into four actionable domains: collective responsibility, supportive relational networks, engaging instruction, and high-impact learning pathways. This field-tested guide gives K–12 leaders a clear roadmap to diagnose root causes, strengthen student belonging, and ensure every learner reaches graduation.
Effective Strategies & Services for Graduation Improvement: A research Brief
Authored by Dr. Bill Daggett and Dr. Sandy Addis, this research brief modernizes the National Dropout Prevention Center’s landmark 15 strategies to reflect today’s schools and post-pandemic challenges. Organized across four actionable domains, the paper synthesizes decades of empirical evidence and field studies to show K–12 leaders how collective responsibility, supportive networks, engaging instruction, and high-impact pathways drive lasting graduation gains.
Engagement
Driving Student Engagement: A Soulutions Blueprint
Student engagement is the single greatest prerequisite for consistent attendance and on-time graduation, yet schools often find themselves managing downstream symptoms rather than root causes. Grounded in the core triad of People, Activities, and Instruction, the Driving Student Engagement Solutions Blueprint gives K–12 leaders a practical, systems-based roadmap to assess district needs, reverse attendance loss, and create classrooms where students actively participate and stay on track.
Resilience
Growing Resilient Students
Preparing students for an unpredictable future requires developing the mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility to overcome adversity and reach graduation. Grounded in the Five Factors of Resilience—Connection, Belonging, Achievement, Autonomy, and Fulfillment—the Growing Resilient Students Blueprint provides K–12 leaders with a systemic roadmap to move beyond isolated initiatives and cultivate a lasting culture of student persistence.
The Rigor-Relevance-Resilience™ Learning Model
R³ Instructional Excellence Solutions Blueprint
Preparing students for a rapidly evolving future requires moving beyond traditional teaching models to bridge the gap between classroom coursework and modern workplace expectations. Built on the foundational pillars of Rigor, Relevance, and Resilience, the R³ Instructional Excellence Solutions Blueprint provides K–12 leaders with a practical roadmap to elevate critical thinking, empower teachers, and equip learners with the adaptability and problem-solving skills needed to thrive beyond graduation.
