Saturday, June 4, 2005 Schools, state try to lower high school dropout rates By Tim Martin / Associated Press LANSING -- Claire Wilson's academic future was in doubt when, at age 14, she got into trouble for chronically cutting class at a Lansing high school. Rather than becoming a high school dropout, Wilson eventually got a second chance in an alternative education program focused on individualized instruction and vocational training for students who have struggled in traditional settings. She graduates with her class this spring and plans to study nursing in college. "This program gave me a chance to succeed," Wilson, now 18, said of the Lansing School District's Community Connections program. "Most kids do not want to become dropouts. They want to do something with their lives." But many drop out anyway. Thousands of Michigan students who should be graduating this month won't be because they were kicked out of school or left voluntarily. The state says Michigan's schools had an 85 percent graduation rate in 2003, the latest year for which figures are available. The statewide rate has swung between 77 percent and 86 percent since 1997. But some say the Michigan rates, like those of many other states, are inflated because they are based on unreliable data that is self-reported by districts. A study by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research pegged Michigan's graduation rate at 78 percent for 2002, better than the national average of 71 percent. About 25 percent of the state's 136,000 eighth graders are at risk of eventually dropping out, in large part because of poor reading skills, according to the Alliance for Excellent Education, a national policy organization focused on helping at-risk high school students. Michigan wants to improve its graduation rates in part because a high school diploma is the foundation for training needed to get a job. The state needs a better-educated work force to attract employers, a problem more evident recently as Michigan's jobless rate -- 7 percent in April -- is highest in the nation. "There are no jobs left for dropouts," said Doug Stites, chief executive of the Capital Area Michigan Works agency. "Employers are screening them out. We have got to find a way to make education more relevant so they stay in school." School districts are attempting to add programs aided at improving graduation rates. State lawmakers have their own ideas, including a proposal to boost the legal dropout age from 16 to 18 and tying school attendance to driver's license privileges. Lansing schools in the last few years have added alternative programs aimed at improving the district's 70-percent graduation rate. All the programs feature smaller class sizes with personalized counseling or instruction. One program provides students with instruction even after they have been expelled from traditional schools. A "success academy" for ninth graders focuses on reading, math and career-focused classes to keep students motivated to stay in school. Students are targeted for the program when they are struggling in eighth grade. Community Connections, a high school program, features flexible scheduling and a credit recovery program to help students catch up and graduate. The program, in its fourth year, graduates 40 students this spring. "If this hadn't been available, I doubt they would have finished," said Bersheril Bailey, director of alternative programs for Lansing schools. Stephanie Leland, 17, is one of them. She graduates this spring and will enroll in community college to begin studying to become an orthodontist. Joy Gore, 16, expects to graduate next year. She was distracted and struggling at one of Lansing's bustling, large high schools but has flourished in a smaller program with more one-on-one instruction. Kalamazoo schools received $1.3 million in foundation grants to train teachers and staff from bus drivers to secretaries on how to work with students in crisis in six schools. The Starr Commonwealth training program, called No Disposable Kids, is designed to reduce bullying, racism and other behavior that upsets children. The theory: a healthy, positive environment in school will help keep students in class. The program is in its first year. The best programs to prevent dropouts recognize that students have diverse ways of learning, experts say, and target at-risk students early in their educational careers. "Students don't drop out just because of something that has happened in high school. It often starts out way before then," said Mary Reimer, an information specialist at Clemson University's National Dropout Prevention Centers. "The sooner you get kids on the right track the better off they are." State lawmakers and Gov. Jennifer Granholm are also studying ways to raise graduation rates. Granholm announced a pilot project last year to lure dropouts back to school. The Learn to Earn project, though struggling because of lack of funds, was on track to graduate about a dozen students this spring in Saginaw. State Rep. Brenda Clack, a Flint Democrat, sponsors bills designed to influence children to stay in school by denying them driver's licenses if they aren't attending classes. Students that land in court because of "willful and repeated absence" from school would face a six-month suspension of their licenses. State Sen. Liz Brater, an Ann Arbor Democrat, has sponsored a bill that would raise the legal dropout age from 16 to 18. "You have to give kids the message that they are expected to stay in school," said Brater, who expects the bill will get a hearing in the Legislature within the next several weeks. Even supporters of the bill, such as Michigan Children's Law Center director Fred Gruber, acknowledge that raising the mandatory age won't solve the dropout problem by itself. "You still have to do things to keep students motivated to learn," Gruber said. http://www.detnews.com/2005/schools/0506/04/schoo-203267.htm |