What is the GRAD Partnership?
The GRAD Partnership for Advancing Student Success Systems is a new national initiative that encourages and supports communities in efforts to use high-quality student success systems that empower schools to graduate all students ready for the future. Student success systems build on what already exists in schools to help educators, families, and community organizations identify patterns in well-being and learning needs, prioritize the supports and strategies that will have the greatest impact, and continually improve until success is achieved.
The GRAD Partnership is led by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University and includes the American Institute of Research, the BARR Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation for College Success, the Schott Foundation, Talent Development, and Rural Schools Collaborative. The project has received funding and support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. For this initiative, organizations partner with schools, districts, and community organizations to create the conditions for shifting the use of evidence-based student success systems from a new practice to an integral part of a school’s work.
UWA is one of two organizations nationwide that has partnered with Rural Schools Collaborative to bring a rural perspective to the national platform. We are currently working with schools in the Black Belt Region, while North State Together works with schools in Far Northern California.
UWA’s Partner Schools
UWA has partnered with ten schools in the Black Belt region for the GRAD Partnership. Partner schools will receive a grant of $10,000 over the course of two years to support their development of high-quality Student Success Systems. We are excited to be working with the following schools:
Amelia Love Johnson School (Thomaston, AL)
Demopolis High School (Demopolis, AL)
Francis Marion School (Marion, AL)
Kemper County High School (De Kalb, MS)
Southeast Lauderdale High School (Meridian, MS)
Sumter Central High School (York, AL)
The University Charter School (Livingston, AL)
Pickens County High School (Reform, AL)
Greensboro High School (Greensboro, AL)
Hale County High School (Moundville, AL)
Resources
- GRAD Partnership National Cohort Website, run by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University
- Defining Student Success Systems: GRAD Partnership Community of Practice featuring the work of Rural Schools Collaborative, North State Together, and UWA
- GRAD Partnership Rural Cohort Newsletter
- GRAD Partnership National Newsletter
- GRAD Partnership Year 1 in Review
Press
- “Rural Schools Collaborative Regional Hubs Launch GRAD Partnership Pilot Networks”
- “20 Rural Schools Launch Student Success Systems: Updates from the GRAD Partnership for Student Success”
- “GRAD Partnership Names Southeast Lauderdale High School a Spotlight School”
- “The Value of the GRAD Partnership Intermediaries”
Stories
- “University of West Alabama: RSC GRAD Partnership Black Belt Visit”
- “GRAD Partnership Rural School Spotlight: Demopolis, AL”
- “Spotlight School: Southeast Lauderdale High School”
- “GRAD Partnership Rural School Spotlight: Meridian, MS”
- “GRAD Partnership Black Belt Cohort Celebrates a Successful Year One”
