"<< Background >>Combating Early leaving from education and training “although reduced in the last decade, remains a challenge, particularly when thinking of the expected consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic” (2021/C 66/01, p.5), and it’s one of the five priorities to be pursued over the next decade in the Strategic Framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond. The recrudescence of the phenomenon highlights how formal school dropout is accompanied by the so-called ""functional school dropout"", due to the lack of acquisition of skills for the exercise of active citizenship. An effective comprehensive and integrated approach against ESL requires a broadening of the perspective related to the processuality of ESL and the heterogeneity of ELET, including ""in-school dropouts"" (SickKids, 2005), those who remain in school but fail to graduate, and ""low-achiever pushouts"" with unsatisfactory educational outcomes (Kronick & Hargis, 1998). They constitute at-risk groups that are also strongly affected by socioeconomic background: according to OECD-PISA data (2019-Vol.II), disadvantaged students underperformed by 89 points in reading compared to non-disadvantaged peers. Family context has direct and lasting effects on students' schooling, attitudes toward learning, and academic achievement; as highlighted in the Assessment Report (2019)of the Implementation of the 2011 Council Recommendation on Policies to Reduce Early School Leaving, in contexts where social and family perceptions of the role and value of education are more positive ESL rates tend to be lower, and vice versa (p.31).Based on these considerations, the project partners carried out an internal analysis of the issues, informed by both the NESET Indicators for Inclusive Schools (2017) and the Evaluation Report on the Implementation of Measures to Combat School Dropout (2019), which highlighted:1) low participation, disengagement and removal of responsibility, of parents, especially of migrant and disadvantaged origin, with respect to the educational path of their children;Low parental participation, especially in disadvantaged settings, is a multifocal problem: -of families, who need to have greater trust and higher expectations of schools and to self-perceive themselves as important and adequate to support their children in their schooling; -of headmasters and teachers, who need to acquire a mindset whereby parental involvement is not perceived as a residual task or disconnected from the educational function. 2) Large pockets of students in functional school dropout status, in its multiple dimensions, with poor academic achievement and insufficient basic skills. Insufficient basic skills, especially in reading literacy where the context of origin has the greatest impact (OECD, 2019), represent a risk factor and lead to various forms of school dropout. 3) Absent system for intercepting, even in a predictive function, the different types of school dropout and difficulty in assessing the protective factors present or mobilizable to balance the risk; 4) non-existent system for quality assessment and continuous improvement of strategies to reduce ESL at the institutional and territorial system level.<< Objectives >>A.C.C.E.S.S. UP project aims to improve the quality of preventive and intervention strategies against early school leaving in a systemic perspective, through the involvement of the players of the school community and territorial educational agencies.The TARGET GROUPS of the project are: students of the first two years of upper secondary schools; parents; teachers.The SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES pursued are:1) expanded participation of parents of at-risk students through the Home Visiting Playbook (R1) which will allow teachers to approach them into their daily life contexts and mobilize them;2) improved student reading proficiency as a prevention tool against ESL through the Digital Educational Game (R2);3) Increased schools' ability to intercept types of ESL and dynamically assess students' risk based on balancing risk and protective factors, with the WebApp (R3);4) increased the culture of quality in territorial actions to tackle ESL, with the QA_ESL System (R4).A.C.C.E.S.S. UP project is based on a differentiation of approaches to reduce ESL (ET2020, WG-ESL, 2013) through preventive measures (in its declinations of universal-selected-indicated strategies) and intervention at both institutional and individual levels (2011/C 191/01). The ""leverage points"" of the project are:A.INDICATED PREVENTION STRATEGIES FOR HIGH-RISK STUDENTS1) active involvement of parents, especially of students from migratory and/or socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds;B.UNIVERSAL PREVENTION STRATEGY2) improvement in students' basic reading literacy and interconnected key ""enabling"" personal and social skills;C.INSTITUTIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL INTERVENTION STRATEGY3) identification of the heterogeneous ELET galaxy and dynamic risk assessment based on risk and protective factors;D.INSTITUTIONAL LEVEL INTERVENTION STRATEGY4) development of an evidence-based system for quality assurance and continuous improvement of integrated actions against ESL (ET2020 Working Group Schools 2017; 2018; 2020); 5) strengthening the network among public bodies with governance role in the field, families and schools, in order to implement nested territorial strategies to combat ESL.<< Implementation >>The project is divided into the following four macro-actions aimed at the development of as many relevant results.A1-ELABORATION PLAYBOOK FOR HOMEVISTING (R1) This action is aimed at developing a Home Visiting Program to reach families, especially disadvantaged, of students at higher risk of ESL. It consists of a development phase, a testing phase, and the final review phase, broken down into the following activities:A.1.1(A) Implementation of Focus groups to facilitate the identification of structural barriers and elements to leverage for new engagement actions.A.1.1(B) Analysis of best practices in parental academic socialization as a form of parental involvement and support;A.1.2 Development of parent outreach and involvement methods and tools for each of the phases of the Home Visting Program;A.1.3 Development of training materials for teachers;A.1.4 Local training to teachers at partner and associated schools; A1.5 PILOT TESTING A1.6 Development of Guidelines based on the evidence from the pilot testA2- DEVELOPMENT OF THE ACCESS_UP DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL GAME The second action intends to create a digital educational game aimed at improving reading literacy as a preventive measure against ESL. It consists of an elaboration phase, an piloting phase and a review final phase, divided into the following activities:A2.1 Design workshops in each PP Country to define learning outcomes and authentic assessment criteria;A2.2 Development of activities and tasks according to the game-based approachA2.3 Construction of game-based e-learning environmentA2.4 Development of gamification featuresA2.5 Pre-testing and reviewA2.6: PILOT TESTING A2.7: Revision A3- DEVELOPMENT OF A DYNAMIC ESL RISK ASSESSMENT WEBAPPThis action is functional to the development of web-based App aimed at intercepting the forms of ESL and make a weighted and evolving risk assessment based on risk factors and protective factors of each student. There will be a phase of development of the conceptual framework at the base of the system, a phase of development of the technology to support it and a testing phase.A3.1 Conceptual Framework Development A3.1(A) Co-design workshop through a Peer Learning Activity among partners and a 'co-design activity of conceptual determinants;A3.1(B) Literature analysis of extracurricular and protective risk factors;A3.1 (C) Definition of risk thresholds and intensity levels of protective factors; A.3.1 (D) Territorial workshops for an initial sharing of the framework among the relevant stakeholders in the school system.A.3.1 (E) Structuring of the overall risk weighting system based on the indicators developed.A3.2 Development of the technological framework and its componentsA3.3 Pre-testing of the prototype A3.4 Local training addressed to teachers A3.5 PILOT TESTING A3.6 Elaboration of a brief guide to use, as a result of the experimentation.A4- CREATION OF A QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM FOR STRATEGIES TO COMBAT ESLThe objective of this action is to create a system of quality assurance of measures to contrast ESL carried out by the school and that involves all local actors in the evaluation. The activities that will be carried out are:A4.1 Definition of areas and points of attention of the system.A4.1 (A) Carrying out a survey aimed at internal and external stakeholders of the school system.A4.1 (B) Review of best practices on QA systemsA.4.1 (C) Data analysis and development of areas and points of attention of the systemA4.2 Territorial workshops for sharing A4.3 Elaboration of indicators for each area and point of attentionA.4.4 Development of the QA_ESL systemA.4.5 PILOT TESTING A.4.6 Review Continuous and transversal actions of project management and dissemination of results will be carried out.<< Results >>The Project expects the development of four tangible resultsR1: PLAYBOOK FOR HOME VISITINGThe Playbook consists of: 1) a Home Visiting Program for use by teachers to promote the participation of parents, especially disadvantaged ones; 2) Guidelines for use by other schools in order to expand its transferability. The Playbook proposes a Home Visiting Program, reversing the traditional process of school/family interaction. It is aimed at promoting the involvement of parents at home in support of the children and in a specific form which is the academic socialization of parents; the latter: (1) proved to be more appropriate to the educational needs of adolescents (Wang et al. 2014); (2) capable of enhancing parenting life skills that take on great importance also in relation to migrant families which, researchs show (Crosnoe & Fuligni,2012; Cooper & Smalls,2010 etc..), often use creative strategies to manage their children's education and provide unique experiences of academic socialization using cultural beliefs and resources to promote their childrens' academic development.R2: ACCESS_UP DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL GAMEACCESS_Up digital educational game is an educational game that combines the advantages of learning in a multimedia and simulation environment with the approach of game-based pedagogy, not only attributable to gamification but to authentic and situated learning activities that incorporate processes and dynamics of the game.The ACCESS_Up digital educational game is aimed at improving reading literacy skills in a preventive way against the different types of functional school dropout. It will be available for both iOS and Android devices and will contain: 1) learning units structured through games; 2) problem solving challenges; 3) a gamification system; 4) a collaborative section and for sharing information, results, images, videos, simple messages.R3: DYNAMIC DROPOUT RISK ASSESSMENT WEBAPPThe Web app is a tool aimed at intercepting and dynamically assessing students' ESL risk conditions based on the interaction among risk factors, differentiated by types of functional dropout, and protective factors. The Web app will be structured in two Sections;1) The monitoring section that will contain indicators of personal and contextual risk factors; indicators of present protective factors; indicators of present but to be reinforced protective factors. 2) The dynamic evaluation section in which the data will be processed through measurement criteria and will return, through a graphical interface of immediate understanding, a dynamic assessment and a weighted risk based on the interaction among risk factors and protective factors. The Webapp will be usable from any device (pc, notebook, tablet ) with internet access. In addition, a Guide will be incorporated to facilitate its use.R4 QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM FOR STRATEGIES AGAINST ESL.ACCESS UP's quality assurance system is designed to identify areas of improvement and strategic priorities for the full implementation of the comprehensive approach against ESL. It focuses on the processes and actions of prevention and intervention against ESL implemented by schools , internally and with the whole territorial system. The QA_ESL system will allow: 1) the collection of data referring to actions and resources/processes/results related to ESL; 2) the transformation of data into information, through their evaluation in terms of effectiveness of what has been achieved and implications for further improvements; 3) the elaboration of Recommendations to implement concrete strategies for improvement. It will be structured in Areas, Focus of attention, indicators."