AAA Pathway

Started during the 2018-19 school year, AAA Pathway provides mentoring and resources to student athletes throughout Cincinnati Public Schools. This could include tutoring or mentoring, mental health counseling, or study groups. In addition, AAA Pathway helps 11th and 12th grade students prepare for post-graduation, with trainings such as ACT Bootcamp and athletic-specific college resources.

Background

During the 2018-19 school year, ABC and CPS developed the AAA (Athletic and Academic Accountability) Pathway program, a comprehensive student athlete development program designed to provide CPS athletes the supports needed to achieve success in both their academics and athletics. AAA Pathway includes career coaching, academic support, nutritional guidance, and mentoring. The ultimate goal is for every student athlete to graduate prepared to lead a life of choice, whether that’s more education, employment, or enlistment.

AAA Pathway provides mentoring and resources to student athletes throughout Cincinnati Public Schools, 80% of whom live below the federal poverty line and 75% of whom are African-American. Through AAA Pathway, the GPAs of all student athletes in grades 7-12 are monitored regularly. If a student athlete is at-risk, AAA Pathway coaches step in to help the student build a pathway for success. This could include tutoring or mentoring, mental health counseling, or study groups. In addition, AAA Pathway helps 11th and 12th grade students prepare for post-graduation, with trainings such as ACT Bootcamp and athletic-specific college resources. ABC and CPS have partnered with Strive Partnership to collect and analyze data on student athletes to ensure that AAA Pathway is effective and improving year to year.

ACT Bootcamp

A key piece of the AAA Pathway program is the ACT Bootcamp, a free, six-week intensive small group training focused on developing the skills required for ACT success through practice, lecture discussion, guided mentorship. ACT Bootcamp is designed specifically to provide additional ACT support for student athletes who are actively being recruited to accept a scholarship.

Prior to COVID, ACT Bootcamp was hosted at three schools for students within a certain geographic radius. Each six-week session included an average of 12 student athletes, with 56 students completing the program during 2019-2020.

Due to COVID, this year’s ACT Bootcamp kicked off Monday, July 27 as a virtual class. Students meet with the instructor via Google Classroom twice per week, two hours at a time, with homework in between. ACT Bootcamp includes a practice test and an instructor who is available at any time throughout the six weeks. Thirteen students from Taft, Schroder, and Aiken are participating in the first ACT Bootcamp of the year.

Check out the video below, created by our partners at CPS, for more content on the ACT Bootcamp.

SALT (Student Athlete Leadership Team)

Another element of AAA Pathway is SALT (Student Athlete Leadership Team). Here are two videos showcasing the student athletes and the work they do to improve our communities through SALT:

Success of Program (Proven Through Data)

We are proud to share the following successes from AAA Pathway’s first years in CPS schools. This data compares the 2018-2019 school year, which is when AAA Pathway launched, to 2017-2018.

Students receiving ACT tutoring increased their composite score by an average 3.5 points
There was a 4% increase (100 students) of students earning at least a 22 on their ACT, which is considered “remediation-free” and “college-ready”
Compared to the year preceding AAA Pathway, 54 more student athletes earned at least a 2.0 GPA, and 80 more earned at least a 3.0 GPA
AAA Pathway helped over 20 student-athletes identify plans to achieve NCAA academic eligibility (through weekly one-on-one mentoring, coursework evaluation and redirection, and targeted ACT prep)
Because student athletes were less likely to lose their eligibility due to academic performance, CPS athletics saw an overall increase in retention
At Dater High School, 50% of football, 60% of volleyball, and 46% of soccer student-athletes who required academic intervention earned their way off of probation by working with their AAA Coaches to improve their grades
At Shroder, the AAA Coach implemented a mentoring program with student-athletes to keep them engaged in after-school activities out of season
At Withrow, there was a 10% reduction in students requiring academic intervention and a 5% reduction in students losing eligibility due to academics. The returning AAA Coach said many student athletes now see themselves as school leaders and mentors, adding, “AAA Pathway is the culture shift we’ve been needing to take our athletics to the next level.”

National Recognition

AAA Pathway has also received local and national recognition as an innovative and unique approach to helping student athletes be successful academically and athletically. Most notably, the national publication Education Week wrote an article featuring AAA Pathway:

https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/02/26/like-college-athletes-these-high-school-players.html

In the article, Jill Ruby, an AAA Pathway coach was interviewed, saying “It has been the highlight of my year so far, getting to connect with kids and getting them to grow academically and persevere through the struggles they’ve been having.”

At Hughes STEM High School, she has a caseload of about 30 athletes whose grades and attendance patterns she checks on a weekly basis. If any of them have an F or two D-level grades, she devises a plan with them to pull up those marks—including attending after-school study sessions, prompting them to communicate with their teachers about making up missed work, or putting them in touch with someone who can tutor them on a tough literature concept. In her coaching role, Ms. Ruby has helped students apply for colleges and even fill out the FAFSA.

Cincinnati Bengals Lend Support to AAA Pathway

Since the program launched in 2018-19, the Cincinnati Bengals have donated $130,000 to help support AAA Pathway. In addition to their financial support, the Bengals have donated school supplies to CPS students in AAA Pathway.

During the 2020 pandemic, while students in AAA Pathway have been meeting virtually, various Bengals players have joined virtual ACT Bootcamp calls to lend their support to the students. Bengals players, such as offensive lineman Michael Jordan, join the video chat, and answer any questions they have about college, the ACT test, or other various topics.

ABC and Cincinnati Public Schools are incredibly grateful to the Bengals for their support of AAA Pathway!

Learn More

To learn more about AAA Pathway, or to see how you can get involved, please contact Colleen Cheek, the program manager. Reach out by email at cheekco@cpsboe.k12.oh.us, or by phone at 513.281.9870