PROGRAM & RESULTS

THE RFL PROGRAM INCLUDES FOUR CORE COMPONENTS:

• Academics: We work to close the achievement gap and dramatically prevent students from dropping out of school.
• Social-Emotional Growth: We build the foundations of character by developing self-esteem, self-awareness and self-advocacy.
• Community: Our program is designed to raise students’ sense of responsibility to their community.
• Parent Involvement: We encourage parents to be partners and advocates in their students’ success through frequent communication and workshops that address current issues such as sexual health, drug abuse, saving for college, etc.

THE RFL PROGRAM FEATURES:

• Students enter the program voluntarily (and the overwhelming majority of students remain the program through graduation).
• With guidance from RFL teachers, students create Individual Growth Plans that are used throughout their time at RFL. Growth Plans typically include both academic and social-emotional components.
• A focus on academics includes after-school supports, MCAS prep, tutoring, etc.
• Students go on full-day and over-night Retreats which focus on community service and/or social-emotional growth.
• Service Learning Projects, initiated by small groups of students, that educate a public audience about a social cause.

DEMOGRAPHICS AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT:

RFL STUDENTS HAVE MANY CHALLENGES. 100% of our students are defined as “High Needs” by the Massachusetts Dept. of Secondary and Elementary Education. Additionally, our student composition represents a large concentration of the most challenged sub-groups in Framingham.

DESPITE THESE CHALLENGES, OUR STUDENTS EXCEL.

DROP-OUT RATE: Less than 1% of RFL students dropped out in the last 5 years, compared with a state-wide average of 8.5% for the high-needs population in 2015.

ATTENDANCE: Chronically absent students were out of school on average 32 days of the school year prior to joining RFL. After joining RFL, that number dropped to only 8 absences per school year on average. (Chronic absenteeism is the single biggest indicator of academic failure.)

GRADES: Students with GPAs of less than 1.0 before joining RFL, raised their GPAs by approximately 1.5.