At Skowhegan Area High School (SAHS), student relationships are made paramount by utilizing the eight interconnected strategies of Building Assets Reducing Risk (BARR). Educators are able to create a structure of support that not only aids freshmen in their transition to life at SAHS, but helps them to create trusting relationships with their peers, teachers, counselors, administrators, and parents. These connections lead to academic and personal success; SAHS’s BARR model has proven to reduce the freshmen failure rate by approximately half.
In this session, presenters will focus on how they utilize BARR’s eight interconnected strategies to create structures of support for students. Specifically, presenters will discuss their school’s BARR structures to support freshmen, BARR team member roles and meeting formats, methods for utilizing a strength-based approach, and strategies for parent outreach.
By the end of this session, participants will have an understanding of the Building Assets Reducing Risks (BARR) basics and the highly successful programmatic implementation model utilized at SAHS with all freshmen.
