Bryan Adams High School Leadership Academy has been selected to become part of the next cohort of the federal Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation Grant for scaling the Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) program. The mission of BARR is to improve educator effectiveness and the performance of all students in secondary schools by creating positive relationships among students and staff and using real-time, student-level performance data to guide instruction.
For the next two years, Bryan Adams will receive $130,000 to strengthen its schoolwide approach to social and emotional learning (SEL) through implementation of the BARR program. Yearlong training and resources will enable teachers to better apply strategic interventions to support student learning throughout the school day.
“We have been implementing SEL for the past few years,” explained Bryan Adams principal Richard Kastl. “It is such an honor to have the opportunity to further scale our work and to receive additional assets and coaching through this grant to make our approach to student interventions even stronger.”
Freshmen at Bryan Adams will be divided into multiple cohorts that take the same academic classes and receive weekly lessons on social and emotional skills from core content teachers on topics such as stress response strategies, self-awareness, and time management. One cohort of 9th graders will begin the BARR program at Bryan Adams during the 2016-2017 school year.
Bryan Adams is one of ten schools that have been identified by the Public School Choice Initiative, which provides Dallas ISD families with options that tap into students’ interests, aspirations and learning styles. The district goal is to have 35 Choice Schools by 2020. For more information about Choice Schools, visit the website. Go here to learn more about Bryan Adams Leadership Academy. To learn more about BARR, please visit their website.
