RISE On-Track Mentors
The research on Grade 9 On-Track
Earning a high school diploma is a critical milestone for individuals, impacting both economic and health outcomes. Unfortunately, this is a critical milestone that many Connecticut youth are not successfully achieving. A 2023 report from Dalio Education and the Boston Consulting Group found that one in five young people in Connecticut are either in danger of dropping out of school or have already dropped out and are unemployed. Research from the University of Chicago shows that Grade 9 on-track achievement (i.e., whether a student earns enough credits to promote to Grade 10 after their first year of high school) is the best predictor of whether a student will graduate from high school within four years.
The On-Track Mentor role
RISE’s On-Track Mentor (OTM) program is a student success initiative in partnership with Serve Connecticut and AmeriCorps designed to ensure more students stay on track to graduate from high school and pursue postsecondary opportunities. Through this partnership, AmeriCorps members serve as On-Track Mentors in RISE partner high schools, each supporting a caseload of students who may face challenges during the transition into Grade 9. RISE launched the program during the 2025-26 school year with four high schools across Hartford and New Haven serving as inaugural placement sites.
