Trousdale County Fosters
Success with Personal Attention
and Innovative Use of Data
When students at Trousdale County High School
see graduation coach Shelley Cook waiting for
them after class, they usually know what brought
her there.
Maybe it’s a course grade starting to slip below
passing, or a substantial assignment that wasn’t
turned in. Trousdale County High – which is the
only high school in SCORE Prize-winning district
Trousdale County Schools – uses the PowerSchool
system to track attendance and grades, and Ms.
Cook logs in first thing each morning to check for
any signs of trouble.
Whatever the problem, Ms. Cook is ready to help.
She tutors, communicates constantly with teachers
and coaches, gets to know individual learning
needs, and makes sure she understands situations
or responsibilities at home that could create barriers. She works closely with juvenile courts and
truancy officers and helps students find their way
through credit recovery when necessary.
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Ultimately, she makes sure most students don’t
drop out.
“It’s just not an option,” Ms. Cook said. “For me,
it’s personal.”
With a district-wide graduation rate of 97 percent,
it’s clear that dropping out of Trousdale County
Schools really is an uncommon occurrence. This
small district’s combination of individual attention,
high academic expectations, and close monitoring
of data delivers big opportunities for students.
Trousdale County Director of Schools Clint Satterfield says the district’s defining practices aren’t
“rocket science.” Leaders work hard to identify
the best moves for students, and then make them
happen no matter what.
“We don’t feel that we’re smart or that we’ve
cornered the market,” Mr. Satterfield said. “We
do think we’ve kept students at the forefront of our
conversations. We want to have the courage and
the will to do what’s best for our students.”