By Jennifer Jacob / staff writer
Mississippi is in the middle of a huge drop-out prevention effort.
Not only is an awareness campaign, dubbed "On the Bus" well under way, but Mississippi Superintendent of Schools Hank Bounds has been bringing together school districts, students, teachers, parents, and the community at large to address the troubling drop-out problem in the state.
The Meridian and Lauderdale County school districts are both eager to join the fight. Both districts have taken part in drop-out prevention meetings on the state and local levels, and superintendents from both districts have recently sent drafts of their drop-out prevention plans to the state superintendent's office.
Meridian Superintendent Sylvia Autry said plans were not yet finalized, but were sent to Bound's office so state officials could make sure they were "on the right track."
The plan submitted by the Meridian School District included an intervention strategy that is designed to give struggling learners an opportunity to seek academic help before, during, and after school, and a longer school day, which she said will provide teachers with more valuable instructional time.
Autry also wants to try to get parents more involved, and said the district has set up a parent resource center, aimed especially at parents of young children, at Frank Barry Courts.
In August, Meridian High School will begin using a Small Learning Community (SLC) curriculum, in which students will choose between several educational concentrations, such as the arts or vocational studies. Autry said that other school districts who use SLCs have a minimal drop-out rate.
Lauderdale County Superintendent Randy Hodges said his district's plan was mailed Monday, but that he was most excited about a meeting with school officials, parents, social workers, teachers, and members of the business community, which was held Tuesday.
"What we felt like was good about that meeting is we broke into sub-groups and had a work session," he said. "We're taking it very serious and we want to make sure the plan that we submit to the state department is a realistic one."
Hodges said the sub-groups were: arts integration; health, wellness, and social needs; vocational; education committee; and community and faith-based.
He provided some examples of ideas generated by the sub-groups, saying that the community and faith-based group suggested having church officials form mentoring services within their churches, and that the educational committee touted early intervention and increased parent involvement.
"Our charge from the State Department," Autry said, "is to develop a community-wide plan." The idea that entire communities need to work together to lower drop-out rates is an integral part of the state department's drop-out prevention effort.
Hodges said the county has a special problem to address in the fight to keep kids in school — three of the four county high schools have graduation rates that exceed 90 percent, but Northeast Lauderdale High School has a graduation rate of only 78 percent. Hodges said school officials have not yet determined why Northeast's graduation rate is so much lower than those of other county schools, but that they are currently trying to identify students that dropped out of Northeast in the past in an attempt to learn why students there tend more to drop out.
Both superintendents said they do not feel their districts will suffer in the near future from the recently announced policy of the United States Department of Education that all states will soon be required to use a standardized formula to report drop-out rates.
"Mississippi is a little ahead of the game," said Autry, "because last year we adopted a totally new way to calculate drop-out rates."
She said the state calculates its rates by counting the number of students to enter ninth grade against the number to graduate twelfth grade four years later.
Additionally, she said, the new federal formula for calculating graduation rates won't be tied into accreditation until schools have had time to adjust to any changes. However, Autry said, it will eventually be part of what determines federal funding to schools.
Graduation rates in Meridian and Lauderdale County
Graduation rates for the Meridian and Lauderdale County School Districts are formulated by putting the number of children who enter ninth grade against the number who graduate high school four years later.
Lauderdale County 2005-2006 school year rates:
Clarkdale Attendance Center: 92%
Northeast Lauderdale High School: 78%
Southeast Lauderdale High School: 94%
West Lauderdale High School: 97%
Meridian 2006-2007 school year rates:
Meridian High School: 87.1%
