RISE Network

Founded in 2015 in partnership with Barbara Dalio and Connecticut educators, the RISE Network is a standalone non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure all RISE high school students graduate with a plan and the skills and confidence to achieve college and career success. RISE facilitates improvement networks across schools and districts by bringing teachers, counselors, and administrators together to ensure all students experience success as they transition to, through, and beyond high school by using data to pinpoint needs, form hypotheses, and pursue ideas to advance student achievement.

Through RISE’s core and most comprehensive network, RISE partners with eight high schools serving over 10,000 students in seven districts, including: Norwalk, Middletown, Meriden, Naugatuck, Hartford, East Hartford, and Manchester. Increasingly, RISE is pursuing opportunities to scale the organization’s impact in additional communities. During the most recent school year, RISE reached 60 high schools and more than 35,000 students through various partnerships, replicating proven aspects of the model in new communities.

RISE’s evidence-based programmatic strategies are deeply rooted in data and accountability for results. RISE provides educators with user-friendly, interactive data dashboards and custom-built web apps that provide information necessary to personalize support for each student and measure the implementation and efficacy of programmatic strategies.

As an improvement network, RISE facilitates cross-school learning and improvement, offering a variety of high-quality professional learning opportunities for educators across schools and districts, supporting them in learning with and from one another to increase student achievement.

“The RISE Network has been one of the best things that has ever happened to our school. They provide endless help and support along with opportunities for professional growth, information that helps us know how to better support our students, and the chance to collaborate with other dedicated educators who believe all of our young people can excel.”

– Liz Matthews, English Teacher, Hartford Public High School

Since 2015, RISE partner schools have achieved double-digit gains in Grade 9 on-track achievement, four-year graduation rates, and postsecondary plan identification, while decreasing subgroup achievement gaps across all indicators. RISE’s impact and approach were recognized in 2021 when the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching awarded RISE its annual Spotlight on Quality in Continuous Improvement.

Learn more about the RISE Network at www.ctrise.org, keep up to date with the latest news and learnings through RISE’s blog, and follow RISE on social media (@ctrisenetwork).