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Connected Relationships and Culture: Dropout Prevention Framework
Overview
Foundational practices are focused on proactive systems-level efforts to engage students fully in learning. Foundational practices provide the groundwork for the implementation of the four dropout prevention strategies and are important structures to engage students. They are built off of and align to school improvement and student success efforts in Colorado including Colorado’s Four Domains of Rapid School Improvement; Multi-Tiered System of Supports; Landscape of Well-Being (coming soon); and Family, School, and Community Partnerships.
Connected Relationships and Culture:
This practice means that students feel belonging in their school, feel physically and emotionally safe at school, have strong relationships with others at school, and stay connected to school experiences. Schools that intentionally foster authentic and positive relationships with students help them feel empowered to direct their own learning and explore pathways forward. On the flip side, schools that are consistently rated as having a poor school climate by students and families tend to have more disengaged students who may be at an increased risk of disengagement and dropping out.
Full Documents
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Dropout Prevention Framework: This document includes the full framework, with foundational practices, prioritized strategies, and research citations.
Implementation Spotlight
- This section will be updated during the 2025-26 school year.
Implementation Guides
There are numerous resources that support aspects of school connectedness and provide resources and models for implementation.
School Climate Measures: Surveys of students, staff, and families are common ways to better understand school experiences and inform strategies.
- Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado survey is a biannual survey of teaching staff in Colorado.
- Assessing School Climate Using Multiple Measures is a CDE resource that provides guidance and examples of measures and assessments of school climate.
- ED School Climate Surveys includes resources and sample surveys developed by the National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments.
Connectedness and Belonging: CDE’s Landscape of Well-Being and School Climate Improvement Strategies include concrete actions schools can take to foster connections and relationships among students, teachers, administrators, and staff to increase student investment in the school community.
Safety: Physical and emotional safety are important for students' connection to school and ability to engage in learning.
- CDE’s Bullying Prevention and Intervention Resources provides tools and resources that help schools, students, and their families support the development and implementation of bullying prevention strategies.
- The Colorado Office of School Safety organizes efforts, provides trainings, and coordinates efforts to improve school safety (Resources for Positive School Climates At a Glance and School Safety and Crisis Resources).