The question of the week last week was “What can we do to encourage ‘at-risk’ students to stay in school and graduate.” This is a terrific point of discussion as it indicates schools are accepting their responsibility as historic maintainers of the status quo; but, they are also ready and willing to take on the mantle of leadership in affecting change in the communities in which they operate. Hooray!

Towards this effort, there are some things successful schools are doing that can be applied to practically any campus:

1. Make learning a priority. Where testing is the number one priority, parties lose sight of the fact that learning is the true objective.

2. Commit resources to students. Teachers and administrators need to realize that school isn’t a 7:45-2:45 job and then everyone leaves for the day. If you have a large population of students with special issues, its very likely you’ll have to commit staff, time and funding to insure that counseling/tutoring/mentoring/teaching activities happen before and after normal hours–even on weekends.

3. Take your message to the streets. Unless YOU are the student’s parent/guardian, you don’t know why parents/guardians aren’t coming in for teacher conferences, open houses, science fairs, etc. You can guess all you want all day long, but you’re very likely not going to be on target (never assume your parents/guardians aren’t “interested” or have “lied to you”–you do yourself and your students a disservice when you make these assumptions without actual knowledge). Put on some tennis-shoes and head into the community. Knock on doors, shake hands and hand out information (make sure that it’s in a language your student’s parent can understand) face-to-face.

4. Involve the community in the educational process. It doesn’t matter to me whether or not you buy into the “it takes a village” theory or not. What’s important is that administrators and teachers realize that the community is a valid stakeholder in the education of the young people that live within it. These young people are very likely to remain in and/or return to the communities of their youth after graduation and college. They will be the community’s future residents, workers and leaders. If residents, employers and local/regional governments want educated and involved participants in future, then they need to be involved in the process of educating their youth.

5. If your students need services your campus doesn’t or can’t provide (day-care, health-care, employment assistance), invite in those social agencies in your area that CAN provide these services. Give them space on campus one or more days a week so that the students who need services can access them.

6. Make learning flexible. If you want to retain students that have to work to help suppor their parents, siblings or children, you need to make it possible for them to come to school AND work AND manage family. Sound impossible? Its not. Don’t ship your students off to “alternative campuses” because you’re not flexible. Create flex scheduling–a.m., p.m., and evening block classes on your primary campus. There’s no need to push students off the regular campus and punish them because they’re trying to cope with reality the best way they can.

7. Give students exemplars/models of success. Its not uncommon for students who have completed a college degree to return to the communities of their youth. These are success stories. Find them in your community and ask them to participate in mentoring programs. Ask local business and community leaders to work with you in setting up work co-operatives, internship programs, job shadowing, tutoring, etc.

Where can you find examples of successful schools? Look around you! They’re all over the place. Look first at your local urban exemplary/blue-ribbon schools and those with the highest retention and graduation rates. If you still can’t “find any,” contact the state administrative agency for PreK-12 ed. in your state. Believe me, that agency will be happy to point out to you which schools have done well in these areas!

Until next time!

Lynn Byrne

Preparing for college admissions? Trying to find direction? Need a little help with the planning? Check out my college planning series:

• College Planning Made Easy--the planning and preparation workbook for the take charge, college-bound student,
  
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• The Great Scholarship Search--my guide for students and parents researching and applying for scholarship funding.