Ohio Department of Education Families

The Crossing the Bridge program was undertaken to increase collaboration between the school and community. This activity decreases the student drop-out rate; enhances positive behavior in students; and increases student achievement and social skills, as well as parent involvement.		Contact: Joan Pack-Rowe Organization: Hamilton County Family and Children First Council District: Cincinnati Public Phone: (513) 363-5650    Transitioning ninth-grade students and their families Students’ prospective high schools Once a year, two weeks before school begins
In half-day sessions during the two weeks before school began, incoming ninth-graders addressed academics; learned study skills; became acquainted with school procedures; found their way around the building; and tackled social skills such as conflict management, healthy relationships and decision making. Parents and guardians were included during the second week of the program, attending a  family dinner and orientation. Parents toured the building, met teachers, and learned about extracurricular activities and academic issues such as grade-point averages and requirements for earning course credits. The program continued when school started. Ninth-graders who wanted a big brother or big sister were paired with older students who acted as mentors. All ninth-graders continued to meet throughout the school year for team-building classes. Social service providers taught these sessions focusing on social skills, conflict management, goal setting and violence prevention.
Of students surveyed, 92 percent indicated that they felt better prepared to begin high school after attending the two-week session. All parent comments at the family dinner were positive. We saw statistically significant improvements in the four measured areas of the Teacher-Child Rating Scale, which we administered at the beginning and end of the school year. These improvements were in task orientation, behavior control, assertiveness and peer social scales.
Convincing students and their parents of the importance of beginning school two weeks early We met this challenge by asking upper-class, leadership-team students to call incoming ninth-graders to talk about the program and invite them to attend. The direct phone contact was very successful.
We gauged the program’s success by asking students to complete questionnaires at the beginning and end of the two-week summer session. We asked parents for their opinion of the program in small-group settings following the family dinner. The Teacher-Child Rating Scale was administered randomly to ninth-grade students before and after the school year. We also compared the grade-promotion rate with rates from previous years.
Program partners were the Hamilton County Family and Children First Council coordinator; principals; teachers; social services providers; leadership team students in 10th, 11th and 12th grades; General Electric and Ohio State University engineers; and a University of Cincinnati forensic anthropologist. Funding and resources for this activity were provided by Hamilton County Family and Children First Council, Cincinnati Public Schools, General Electric, University of Cincinnati and Ohio State University. .