Cedar Springs — Connections are being made at Cedar Springs High School, thanks to a program that aims to ensure no student goes unseen, unheard or unknown.
As part of the Every Student Known initiative, developed and implemented by high school counselor Danielle Paoni in 2022, each student’s name is printed on a paper chart. Teachers are then asked to consider if they know the student or not, and if so, how.
Next to students’ names are columns containing different criteria by which they might be recognized. If a teacher knows what that student looks like, they jot down a dot. If they know something scholastic about the student, that’s another dot. They add another if the teacher knows something personal about the student, and yet another if they’re confident the student would feel comfortable coming to them for help.
‘I feel like more teachers reach out since the program started. They get to know you on a deeper level instead of just a kid in class or a kid in the hallway.’
— senior Kaitlyn Reyburn
The goal is for each student to have at least one trusted adult who places “dots of connection” in every column, Paoni said. So far this year, about 80% of students do, and that percentage should increase as the year continues.
The Every Student Known data is converted into a spreadsheet and analyzed to determine which students need more attention, and who’s going to lay the groundwork for that.
“I think it’s made safer schools,” Paoni said. “It gives students something to hang on to. There’s always somebody championing you.”
Feeling Heard and Seen
The initiative has had promising, positive results and led to deeper and more substantive relationships between students and staff, according to seniors Kaitlyn Reyburn and Alyssa Balcam, who’ve been around since its inception.
“I feel like more teachers reach out since the program started,” said Kaitlyn. “They get to know you on a deeper level instead of just a kid in class or a kid in the hallway.”
“I’ve had more teachers talk to me,” added Alyssa. “I’ve always had connections with teachers I’ve had for class and stuff, but now I’ve talked to more teachers that maybe I haven’t had as a teacher or a coach.”
Both seniors said the initiative has made school a more welcoming place.
“I think it’s just important to feel heard and seen,” Alyssa said. “I know for some people, they don’t necessarily have that at home, so they come to school and it’s just a safe place to have those feelings, and to just know they have a trusted adult.”
Kaitlyn echoed that sentiment.
“If kids don’t feel comfortable talking to their parents, I feel like, if you do have that trusted adult here that reached out to you and that you have a connection with, you can tell them anything.”
Students newer to the high school are giving the program rave reviews too.
“Connections with teachers are really important, especially when you’re a new student to the high school — a freshman, like me,” said ninth-grader Draven Alexander. “It’s always important to make new friends and know new people in case you need someone to fall back on.”
Positive Effects
Students fill out questionnaires in the program as well, but their version asks if they think teachers know them based on the same criteria in the teachers’ portion.
Every teacher in the school has been deemed a trusted adult, said Paoni. Kaitlyn, Alyssa and Draven each count World History teacher Dave Stuart as an ally, even though not all have had him as a teacher.
Stuart is a champion of the program himself.
“When students are in an environment where they sense that they are valued, known, and respected, it is easier for them to believe that they belong (and) that school is a place for them,” said Stuart, who has written books on connection and motivation in education.
Stuart said Every Student Known is benefiting staff and students alike.
“Our students seem to find us more credible as we each seek to let them know we value, know and respect them,” he said. “There is just something about getting through to a young person that you really see them, and that’s what we’re trying to get done with these moments of genuine connection.”
Paoni said other positive results include better attendance, improved academic performance, fewer write-ups for disruptive behavior and an easier path to help for those who really need it.
“We have teachers who will call students to get them to school in the morning because they’ve made that connection,” she said. “I’ve asked students who reach out for help how they got here (to the counseling office), and usually it’s a referral from that trusted person.
“It’s kind of scary to go to the office for help, through a door, ask for help again, through another door, ask for help again, and then meet somebody. So I think trusted adults (are) a conduit for more students getting the level of support that they need.”
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• Four years after pandemic, chronic absenteeism still a problem
