In every interaction with — or discussion about — students, educators address students’ academic, emotional, social, and physical needs. Teachers work to better understand and build on students’ strengths, proactively address the non-academic reasons why they may fall behind in school, and identify what they need to thrive.

BARR’s professional development focuses on building strength-based relationships to ensure every student thrives. BARR educators participate in yearly in-person trainings and coaching and receive unlimited remote support throughout the school year focused on the importance of building student-teacher relationships and using relationships to enhance achievement.

In-person training topics include BARR model implementation, promoting equity, reducing substance abuse, increasing meeting effectiveness and addressing trauma. These trainings begin prior
to implementation and continue with daily, weekly,
and monthly team meetings and coaching.

I-Time is a weekly lesson that students take with others in their cohort as a supplement to the school curriculum. Facilitated by the cohort’s core-subject teachers, I-Time’s social/emotional focus helps students build strong relationships with teachers and each other — and practice essential life skills, such as communicating effectively and setting personal goals. I-Time also addresses important issues for adolescents, including grief and loss, bullying, and substance use.

In the BARR Model, students take a group of core courses as part of a block, or cohort. Each cohort typically has three core-subject teachers (typically math, English, and science or social studies), and the teachers’ and students’ schedules are aligned so the students take these three core subjects only with other students in their cohort.

This structure helps educators cultivate connections — with students and with each other — that allow for more effective education. For example, in a school with an average of 30 students per class, a cohort typically would include three teachers and 90 students. Each of the three teachers (English, math, and social studies, for example) would teach three 9th grade sections of his or her class — 30 students per class to make up the cohort of 90 students. In some schools, cohorts have
four teachers.

The teachers in a cohort have a shared meeting time. Teacher team meets weekly to discuss each student in the cohort using student-level data that is updated weekly. The teacher team evaluates each student’s progress as well as academic and non-academic barriers to learning. In these collaborative sessions, teachers identify students who are struggling and determine how to intervene to support them as well as students who should be accelerated. Each teacher provides a unique lens on the student and these perspectives combine during the meeting to create
a more holistic view of the student.

Cohort teacher teams identify the most at-risk students and move them into a structured Risk Review process that engages the community to determine the most effective response.

This team includes the school’s BARR coordinator, a school administrator, a school social worker/counselor, and other professionals as needed. They are trained to use this process to identify and execute interventions to get essential external support for these students. Moreover, because the highest-risk students are getting additional support, the cohort teachers have more time for their students who need support but
are not in crisis.

BARR improves communication with families, treating them as active partners. Families are invited to participate in an initial orientation and a parent advisory council. Teachers also regularly call and meet with the families or guardians of students who need more support so the educators and families can share successes, assess challenges, and work together more effectively.

As a school implements the BARR Model, administrators learn how they can integrate BARR into their school culture and use it to reach their specific school goals. Throughout the school year, administrators regularly communicate with and provide ongoing support to the BARR teams in their schools.