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26 HARTFORD BUSINESS JOURNAL | MAY 2024 | BUSINESS PROFILES Address: 700 State St., Suite 301, New Haven, CT 06511 Phone: (203) 535-0320 Website: https://www.ctrise.org/ Product or Service: Education nonprofit Top Executive: Emily Pallin, Executive Director No. of Empoyees: 37 Year Founded: 2015 High School Success for All Students S uccess in any career rests on a solid foundation of education and preparation at the secondary level. For many students in Connecticut and beyond, the first steps in building that foundation are supported by the RISE Network, a nonprofit founded in 2015. RISE works with educators to ensure students graduate high school with a plan and the skills necessary for postsecondary success, RISE partners with public high schools across the state and region, fostering collaboration and applying data-driven continuous improvement practices to help students remain on track. The nonprofit supports schools in three focus areas: • investing in school conditions, structures and systems that support excellent and equitable student outcomes; • building capacity among educators to lead and sustain continuous improvement efforts; • creating community, sharing learnings, and promoting on-track and postsecondary practices across schools and districts. "We believe deeply that we can do more together," said Emily Pallin, Executive Director of the RISE Network. "Networks are critically important to advancing ideas and sharing what works. When educators collaborate with other educators from across schools or districts, breakthroughs happen." RISE's efforts focus on students as they transi- tion into high school. Research shows that stu- dents who are on-track in ninth grade are three and a half times more likely to graduate high school on time, making on-track achievement a better predictor of on-time graduation than test scores, household income or race/ethnicity. However, many students face challenges during the transition into high school, with 19% of all Connecticut ninth-graders off-track in the 2021- 2022 school year, the latest year for which data is available. The rates are higher for students of color and those in high-poverty high schools. Schools in RISE's longest-standing network have partnered with RISE to address these challenges and are seeing impressive gains. Overall grade nine on-track rates across the network have increased 19 percentage points compared to the start of the partnership with RISE, with even larger gains among students of color, multilingual learners and students with special needs. RISE also focuses on supporting students as they envision their lives beyond high school. In Connecticut, 70% of jobs require some education beyond a high school diploma. RISE provides coaching and a network community for educators who support students in their postsecondary planning, and ensure all stu- dents are completing the milestones required to achieve their plan. It can be challenging for educators, school leaders and counselors to monitor the multi- tude of inputs across disconnected data sys- tems for on-track status and postsecondary plans. To ease the workflow, RISE collaborated with educators to create its own custom-built tool called the RISE Data Hub. Unveiled in September 2022, the Hub helps educators understand in real-time how many students are on track to graduate. It also allows users to identify students in need of support and develop action plans to get them back on track. In addition, the Hub centralizes information about students' postsecondary plans and charts their progress toward reaching them. "We're seeing firsthand how communities of educators, equipped with high quality tools and professional learning, are improving outcomes for students in our state," Pallin said. RISE team members and network educators in action.