According to a survey, in Washington, DC, only 69 percent of public school students graduate from high school on time. Many factors influence that low rate. One of the most important ones is whether the people around the students expect them to succeed.

So, for the past 40 years, a DC organization has stepped in to give around 10, 000 students the support and positive environment they need to thrive. This organization, called Higher Achievement, provides students with a welcoming space, help with class work, and caring teachers. More than 95 percent of students who complete Higher Achievement graduate from high school on time.

Katherine Roboff is the group's executive director in the DC area. She gives several reasons for the group's success. One is timing. Higher Achievement does not work with students who are already in high school. It works with students in middle school. They start High Achievement at fifth or sixth grade-in the US, that is usually age 11 or 12.

Roboff says research shows that if students are doing well academically in eighth grade — around age 13-they will have a greater chance of graduating from high school and going to college. In other words, what happens in middle school has a huge effect. The years between ages 10 and 13 may affect a student's future more than anything that happens academically in high school.

Roboff explains that students participate in Higher Achievement after school and during the summer, when public schools take a break of about two months. High Achievement students do homework, have community meetings, and work one-on-one with a mentor.

The purpose of the program is to help them use those after school and summer hours to become better prepared academically and to develop their leadership skills and confidence so that by the time they get into eighth grade they are ready to get into some of the top high schools.

Recently I read a passage saying that kids need 12 hugs a day. The idea is that kids who are hugged that much are probably being shown and told how valuable they are. And let’s face it, not all kids get the same loving kindness at home, which affects their ability to lead full lives not just at home, but also in school. After all, when kids lack love, how can we expect them to do well in school?

That’s the question one school principle in Winterport, Maine recently wondered. Her brilliant solution? Self-talk mirrors.

Several weeks ago, a series of brightly colored mirrors with positive self-talk phrases appeared on the walls throughout the Leroy H. Smith School in Winterport. The elementary school’s principal. Dawn Moore, was inspired by a similar project she spotted online that aimed to promote different kinds of learners. Moore took this idea, adjusted it, and now it's the talk of the town.

Moore says the mirrors allow students to literally remind themselves of their worth and their abilities every single day, “It is not reflective of how you did in class,” she says, “but reflective of whom you are and what you can be if you believe in yourself and love yourself.”

The mirrors all hang at eye-level with the students and were fixed in common spaces throughout the halls. And so far, the experiment has been a huge success with both kids and teachers. The hope is that they will remain a permanent fixture in the school.

What do the kids think of this project? At first; the students loved looking and making faces and silly actions but after the novelty of ‘look at me' was over, many students have been observed looking at themselves, proudly, reading the sentence above the mirror.

The staff at Leroy H. Smith plan to mix up the messages every few weeks in order to keep things fresh.