2010 High School Graduation Initiative Awardees List
MS WORD (150K)

2010 HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION INITIATIVE AWARDEES

PR/Award #: S360A100136
Grantee: School District of Palm Beach County (FL)
Contact: Alison Adler
Phone: 561-982-0900

The School District of Palm Beach County, through the My Grad Plan Project, will implement dropout prevention and recovery activities at Forest Hill, John I. Leonard, Palm Beach, and Boynton Beach High schools. A graduation coach, social services facilitator, and efficacy specialist will be assigned to each school to work with students at-risk of dropping out to develop individualized graduation plans. Out-of-school youth will be contacted and given support and assistance in re-enrolling in school. All students will be given the opportunity to enroll in the Education 2020 Credit Recovery program to earn credits they need to graduate. The project will implement a two-week summer transition program for entering ninth grade students who are at-risk, providing participants with educational services, mentoring, and counseling services. Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) programs will be established at each school. My Grad Plan is collaboration between the school district, Palm Beach State College, Workforce Alliance, Take Stock in Children, and the Community Partnership Group.

PR/Award #: S360A100121
Grantee: San Antonio Independent School District (TX)
Contact: David Udovich
Phone: (210) 554-2270

San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) will use HSGI grant funds to build upon and expand its dropout prevention and recovery initiatives. The project will expand the Attendance Improvement Management (AIM) intervention that provides immediate, intensive, and personalized support and coaching to chronically truant middle and high school students. Communities in Schools (CIS) will offer its comprehensive services to overage students attending SAISD’s 14 middle schools. To address the academic needs of overage middle school students, SAISD will offer a new, intensive academic acceleration program, Student Opportunities for Academic Results, at each of the city’s middle schools. Grant funds also will be used to address service gaps at Cooper Academy, an innovative alternative high school program that principally services dropouts who have returned to school. SAISD’s collaborating partners include Girls, Inc., San Antonio Youth Centers, the City of San Antonio, and Alamo Colleges.

PR/Award #: S360A100028
Grantee: Syracuse City School District (NY)
Contact: Michael Puntschenko
Phone: (315) 435-5840

Syracuse City School District will implement several dropout prevention and recovery activities at the district’s four high schools (Corcoran, Fowler, Henninger, and Nottingham) and fourteen feeder middle schools. A transition case manager and dropout prevention specialists from Contact Community Services, Inc., a community-based agency, will reach out to students who are chronically absent or who have dropped out to develop and implement individualized graduation plans. Students who have been identified to be at-risk for dropping out, and youth who are reentering school, will be paired with an adult mentor. Alternative options to earn credits, including a twilight academy and a virtual school program, will be offered to returning and other students. Professional development will be provided to teachers to strengthen their capacity to identify and assist students who are at risk of dropping out and youth who are reentering school.

PR/Award #: S360A100040
Grantee: Board of Education of the City of St. Louis (MO)
Contact: Linda J. Riekes
Phone: (314) 345-2465

St. Louis Public Schools will implement a comprehensive dropout prevention, intervention, and reentry program at each six of its largest high schools: Beaumont, Gateway, Roosevelt, Soldan, Sumner, and Vashon. The project will provide intensive assistance and support to cohorts of entering ninth graders at each school who have been identified by middle school counselors as having the greatest risk of dropping out. These students will be required to enroll in a 120-hour summer transition academic skill-building program. Through a program similar to Check & Connect, a two-person team will follow each student closely during the first two years of high school, intervening with the student and his or her family to address attendance, behavior or academic issues when they arise. As the school year progresses, and other 9th grade students present the initial signs of dropout risk, they, too will be added to the team’s caseload. St. Louis also will seek to improve the quality of instruction through a new customized training program developed by Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) that will help teachers implement such AVID strategies as Cornell note-taking and group collaboration in their classrooms. To help students plan and prepare for careers and postsecondary education, the district will implement College Summit’s Launch Program curriculum for all 11th grade students. The project also will support the implementation of the A+ Schools Program, which provides free college tuition at a Missouri public community college or an eligible career or technical school to students who meet certain attendance, academic and community service requirements. The St. Louis Public Schools Foundation is collaborating with the district in implementing the project.

PR/Award #: S360A100174
Grantee: Allentown School District (PA)
Contact: John Clark
Phone: (484) 765-4163

Allentown School District (ASD) will collaborate with the Lehigh Valley Workforce Investment Board (VWIB), Lehigh Community College (LCC), and others to implement a comprehensive dropout prevention and reentry initiative. The project will serve William Allen High School, Louis E. Dieruff High School, and their four feeder middle schools—Raub, Harrison Morton, South Mountain, and Trexler. ASD will provide teachers professional development in analyzing and acting on data produced by ASD’s early warning system and set aside time for teachers to review the data during weekly teacher collaborative planning meetings, biweekly instructional leadership meetings, and quarterly, half-day staff data review meetings. All of the schools will be reorganized into smaller learning communities to provide greater personalized support to students. A Newcomer Academy for recently-enrolled English language learners will be piloted at one of the schools. ASD will increase instructional time at the high schools by adding 50 minutes of instructional time during the school day and replacing elective study halls with academic instruction. Additional tutoring and a Saturday enrichment program will be made available to students attending both the high schools and the middle schools. Incoming freshmen will participate in a new summer transitional program that is designed to orient them to high school and better prepare them academically for the classes in which they will enroll. Counseling services will be expanded at the high schools with the addition of dropout prevention counselors, postsecondary planning counselors from LCC, and youth workforce coordinators provided by LVWIB who will provide career counseling and assist youth in obtaining work-based learning opportunities. In addition, ASD will create a new dropout recovery program in partnership with community agencies.

PR/Award #: S360A100030
Grantee: School District of the City of Pontiac (MI)
Contact: Robert Martin
Phone: (248) 451-6852

The School District of the City of Pontiac's Strengthening the Odds for Success project will seek to reduce the dropout rate at Pontiac Middle School and Pontiac High School by strengthening academic and counseling supports for students and increasing opportunities for students to enroll in dual credit courses. Two academic coaches will provide direct instruction to struggling middle school students, four new counselors will work with high school students, Vantage Learning's My Access writing program will be implemented at the high school, and Compass Learning's Odyssey program will be provided at both the middle and high school. Working with Welcome Missionary Baptist Church and other community organizations, a Reentry Team will organize door-to-door visits to locate dropouts and encourage them to return to school. Dual credit opportunities for high school students will be expanded through partnerships with Oakland and Rochester Universities, Baker College, and Oakland Community College.

PR/Award #: S360A100049
Grantee: Colorado Department of Education
Contact: Judith Martinez
Phone: (303) 866-6125

The Colorado Department of Education will provide technical assistance and support in implementing comprehensive dropout prevention and recovery activities to 30 high schools located in Adams, Denver, El Paso, Montezuma, Pueblo, Sedgwick, and Weld Counties. Of these schools, 15 will receive intensive assistance to develop and implement early warning systems, implement research-based best practices, and strengthen community collaboration. The remaining 15 schools will receive technical assistance and support to improve their capacity to implement a comprehensive dropout prevention and recovery strategy. All schools will participate in local and statewide trainings and receive technical assistance in data collection and analysis. Collaborating partners include the Governor‘s Office, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, the Colorado Department of Labor, Youth for a Change, the Colorado Children‘s Campaign, and the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

PR/Award #: S360A100099
Grantee: Clark County School District (NV)
Contact: Tamra Rose
Phone: (702)799-5272

In collaboration with the Clark County Eighth District Judicial Court, the Clark County School District (CCSD) will implement Youth Experiencing Success, a comprehensive, school-based truancy diversion program at eight high schools and their largest feeder middle schools. Coordinated by social workers at each school, the project will provide counseling and other personal supports, as well as comprehensive, “wraparound” social, health, and other services, to remove barriers to students’ regular attendance at school. Tutoring and other academic supports also will be provided. Through a parallel program, Back on Track, the social workers at the eight high schools will seek out youth who have dropped out and provide assistance to them in resuming their education at the schools from which they dropped out or through other district alternatives. Partners and supporters of the project include Court Appointed Special Advocates, the Department of Juvenile Justice Services, and the League of Women Voters of Nevada.

PR/Award #: S360A100155
Grantee: The School Board of Broward County (FL)
Contact: Laurel Thompson
Phone: (754) 321-2490

The School Board of Broward County will expand and enhance several existing dropout prevention and re-entry program components into a coordinated and consolidated program that will serve at-risk ninth graders at Boyd Anderson and Plantation High Schools. Through the Mentoring Tomorrow's Leaders program, students will be assigned an academic coach who will be responsible for supporting their academic progress throughout their tenure in high school. Academic coaches will use Success Highways and College Summit's Clean Slate curricula as the framework for monthly advisory sessions for students. Junior and senior students will be recruited and trained to serve as mentors to the students. Partnering organizations include Broward College, Ready by 21, the Jim Moran Foundation, Broward Education Foundation, and One Hundred Black Men of Broward County.

PR/Award #: S360A100054
Grantee: Los Angeles Unified School District (CA)
Contact: Tawnya L. Perry
Phone: (213) 241-3844

The Los Angeles Unified School District Diploma Project is an integrated, dropout intervention, prevention and recovery initiative that will serve Belmont, Huntington Park, Fremont, Gardena, Dorsey and San Fernando High Schools and six of their feeder middle schools. A summer bridge program for incoming, at-risk ninth graders will offer academic instruction and give students an opportunity to earn high school credits before entering high school. The project will offer a complementary Parent Bridge program during the summer that provide families with information about such topics as the transition to high school and graduation requirements. Utilizing a targeted case management approach, Graduation Promotion Counselors will monitor the attendance and grades of students who have been identified as at-risk of dropping out and coordinate the delivery of comprehensive services and support to help them stay on track to graduation. Re-Entry Graduation Promotion Counselors will focus their efforts on the recovery of students who have been absent from the six high schools for 60 or more days, offering these youth assistance in accessing social and employment-related services and in identifying an appropriate option to continue their education. Collaborating partners include City Year, the City Attorney’s Office, Alliance for a Better Community, and United Way of Greater LA.

PR/Award #: S360A100068
Grantee: Hartford School District (CT)
Contact: Christina Kishimoto
Phone: (860) 695-8860

Hartford School District will create Student Success Centers at Hartford High School, Bulkeley High School, and Weaver High School. Staffed by graduation coaches and a team of teachers of academic core subjects, the Student Success Centers will provide off-track students and returning dropouts individualized support and academic instruction to help them stay on track to graduation. The Centers will give students the opportunity to recover credits at an accelerated pace through small-group instruction and online coursework. Paid and unpaid internships, as well as work readiness classes, also will be offered to students. To identify and encourage dropouts to return to school, Hartford will carry out a communications initiative that will include public service advertisements, posters, and outreach to community organizations. In addition, the project will strengthen the summer bridge programs at each school to help ensure that students transition successfully from eighth to ninth grade. Capital Workforce Partners, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Hartford, the Compass Youth Collaborative, and the Village for Families and Children are among the collaborating partners.

PR/Award #: S360A100142
Grantee: Mobile County Public School System (AL)
Contact: Martha Peek
Phone: (251) 221-4154

The Mobile County Public School System will implement a systemic middle and high school dropout prevention, intervention, and recovery initiative at Ben Cato Rain High School and its feeder school, Palmer Pillans Middle School. At Pillans Middle School, a Graduation Advocate will provide academic guidance and support to at-risk students and intensive, supplemental instruction in reading and mathematics will be offered to struggling students. A summer bridge program for incoming ninth graders will strengthen students' transition from Pillans to Rain. Mobile will reconstitute B.C. Rain High School, requiring its staff to re-apply for their positions, and implement a more engaging and rigorous academic program that integrates the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies and College Board's SpringBoard curricula and that includes Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses. The district also will work with the Commonwealth Corporation and the Mobile Area Education Foundation to create a new Diploma Plus program for over-age and under-credited students. Other collaborating partners include the City of Mobile, Bishop State Community College, Mobile Works (Workforce Investment Board) and the Region 9 Southwest Workforce Development Council.

PR/Award #: S360A100105
Grantee: Sunnyside School District (WA)
Contact: Opal Krauter
Phone: (509) 836-8713

Located in rural Yakima Valley, Sunnyside, Mabton and Mt. Adams School Districts will work together as a consortium to carry out a comprehensive dropout prevention and recovery project that will serve Sunnyside, Mabton, and Mt. Adams High Schools and their feeder middle schools. To identify students who are at the greatest risk of dropping out, the consortium will implement the Dropout Early Warning and Intervention System developed by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Case managers will work with at-risk students and their families to address social and health barriers impeding students' ability to learn, while Graduation Coaches will monitor each student's academic progress and provide support and intervention when needed. School-based mental health services will be provided by a local behavioral health services organization. To create more options to engage students who have already dropped out of school, the project will create a school-within-a-school that will provide returning students with close personal academic and social support to aid them in recovering credits and earning their degrees. Collaborating partners include the Northwest Community Action Center, Comprehensive Mental Health, Dependency Health Services, Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic, and Behavioral Health Services.

PR/Award #: S360A100058
Grantee: West 40 Intermediate Service Center #2 (IL)
Contact: Karen Tiemann
Phone: (708) 544-4890

The West 40 Intermediate Service Center #2 (West 40) will work with the Institute on Community Integration to implement the Institute's research-based Check & Connect dropout prevention and intervention program in Proviso East and West High Schools in Maywood and West Leyden High School in Northlake. Students will be given the opportunity to recover credits they need to graduate through both teacher-led courses offered after-school and online, self-guided programs. Four-week summer bridge programs will be provided to incoming, at-risk ninth grade students. West 40 will partner with local organizations to provide students and their families with access to mental health and substance abuse services. To provide a more flexible high school completion option for students who have already dropped out, the project will create an evening program that will combine online courses with direct instruction and offer opportunities for skill and career training. Youth Outreach Services, the Children's Clinic, and Pillars Community Services are among the partners that are collaborating with West 40 in the initiative.

PR/Award #: S360A100132
Grantee: Pasadena Unified School District (CA)
Contact: Sonia Rodarte
Phone: 626-396-3600

Pasadena Unified School District will use HSGI grant funds to advance its comprehensive strategy to reduce the dropout rate. The project's focus will be Rose City Continuation and John Muir High Schools and their four feeder middle schools. Grant funds will be used to provide more intensive counseling to support at-risk students in making progress towards graduation and the implementation of a new counseling and intervention model developed by community partner Learning Works! The project will extend the Mustangs Mentoring program for high-risk students to Rose City and three middle schools. The project also will support a Dropout Recovery Center that provides out-of-school youth with a single point of access for returning to school. In addition to Learning Works!, other collaborating partners include the Flintridge Center, the Western Justice Center Foundation, and the Office of the Mayor.

PR/Award #: S360A100097
Grantee: Lincoln Public Schools (NE)
Contact: Deila Steiner
Phone: (402) 436-1988

Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) will implement comprehensive approach to implementing dropout prevention and reentry services and activities at Lincoln High School, Lincoln North Star High School, and Lincoln Northeast High School. Working within the Response to Intervention framework, the high schools will use HSGI grant funds to increase the variety and number of Tier 2 and 3 interventions available for at-risk students. More intensive instructional interventions will be provided to students who struggle with math and are deficient in math credits needed for graduation. Social workers will be hired to work with the LPS Youth Development Team and school staff to develop individualized learning plans for students who are at high risk of dropping out or who are students who are reentering school after dropping out. The TeamMates Mentoring Program of Lincoln will match students at each school with adult mentors in the community. The schools will partner with community organizations such as the HUB of Lincoln, the Child Guidance Center, the Lincoln Council on Alcoholism and Drugs, and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Psychology Department to increase to enhance services to at-risk students, with a particular focus on mental health and substance abuse services. In addition, math coaches will be hired to work with math teachers to improve math instruction, particularly in the area of algebra. All three schools also work with the Midwest Equity Assistance Center to implement a plan to improve the cultural proficiency of school staff.

PR/Award #: S360A100067
Grantee: Jones County Schools (GA)
Contact: Vicki Rogers
Phone: (478) 986-3032

Working together as a consortium, Greene, Jones, and Thomaston-Upson County Schools will carry out dropout prevention and reentry activities focused on several key areas: (1) developing and implementing systematic, early warning systems to identify students at risk of dropping out; (2) creating more personalized learning environments through freshman Academies; (3) improving access to rigorous and relevant instruction; (4) supporting students with adult advocates, teacher advisors, and mentors; and (5) providing more intensive academic supports to struggling students. The project also will give reentering students the opportunity to recover credits at an accelerated pace through a Performance Learning Academy that will offer small group instruction and on-line coursework. Collaborating partners include Families, Youth and Communities Alliance, universities and colleges, public and private entities, such as interagency committees, local churches, banks, and other local businesses and nonprofits.

PR/Award #: S360A100178
Grantee: Bloom Township High School District 206 (IL)
Contact: Lenell Navarre
Phone: (708) 359-0409

To reduce dropout rates and improve the graduation rates at Bloom High School and Bloom Trail High School, Bloom Township High School District (Bloom 206) will build on existing effective practices, expand successful programs, and implement new research-based programs to address gaps in services. Bloom 206 will expand its use of data to identify incoming students with histories of academic problems, truancy, and behavioral problems, and provide teachers with common planning time to review student data and identify interventions for students who are falling behind. The project will provide students with additional support by recruiting adult advocates who will include members of the more than 60 service programs offered through the project’s collaborating partner, Aunt Martha's and utilizing school social workers, resource teachers, literacy coaches or and staff members. Bloom 206 will expand existing credit recovery programs to serve students who have dropped out, including through evening and summer programs and Operation 25, a re-entry program that offers returning students the opportunity to earn at least 11 credits through individualized instruction, and job readiness classes with work-based learning. In addition to Aunt Martha’s, the project’s other collaborating partners include the Cook County Juvenile Probation Department and Bethel Community Center.

PR/Award #: S360A100069
Grantee: Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Contact: Jennie C. Curtin
Phone: (781) 338-6839

The Massachusetts Department of Education will provide support in implementing dropout prevention and recovery strategies to high schools throughout the state that have annual event dropout rates that exceed the state average. Selected schools will receive support in implementing one or more of the following prevention and intervention activities: (1) developing alternative pathways to graduation; (2) hiring graduation coaches, re-engagement coaches, and other adult advocates to assist students in completing high school; (3) creating a positive, supportive school climate through partnerships with community based program providers and other agencies; (4) implementing service-learning and work-based learning models; (5) expanding opportunities for credit recovery, credit acceleration, and distance learning opportunities for at-risk students; (6) increasing opportunities for structured learning by expanding the school year or implementing summer transition programs; and (7) improving programs and systems that serve students who are migrants, English language learners, refugees, and new immigrants. The project also will support partnerships between eligible schools and community colleges that will establish Gateway to College programs. These programs will be designed to help high school dropouts and students on the verge of dropping out to earn a high school diploma while also earning college credits. Collaborating partners include the Massachusetts Departments of Health and Human Services and Labor and the Boston Private Industry Council.

PR/Award #: S360A100176
Grantee: Chicago Public Schools (IL)
Contact: Molly Burke
Phone: (773) 553-2937

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) will implement Pathway to Accelerated Student Success (PASS), a comprehensive dropout prevention and reentry program that will serve two turnaround high schools, Harper High School and Marshall High School. PASS will create Acceleration Institutes at the two schools that will provide blend of small-group instruction and online coursework to help student recover credits at an accelerated pace. The Institutes will be open until 8 p.m. each day to accommodate students who have work or family obligations during the school day. The program also will carry out intensive outreach efforts to recent dropouts to encourage and support their enrollment in the Institutes. Re-engaged dropouts will have access to group counseling offered by social workers at each site; more intensive counseling and interventions will be provided by SGA Youth and Family Services to those students who need them. Student advocates at each Institute will monitor the progress of returning students and provide ongoing, personalized support to help keep them on track to graduation. Collaborating partners in the project include Father Flanagan’s Boys Town, Children’s Memorial Hospital, Umoja Student Development Corporation, and the Chicago Police Department

PR/Award #: S360A100060
Grantee: Haverhill High School (MA)
Contact: Elizabeth A. Kitsos
Phone: (978) 374-5700

Through its Youth Engaging for Success (YES) project, Haverhill will implement four dropout prevention and recovery interventions to address the high dropout rate at Haverhill High School. The project will provide two dropout prevention counselors to work with at-risk students attending Haverhill’s four feeder middle schools. Haverhill will partner with Jobs for Bay State Grads to expand the school’s Success Academy to serve more students, providing participants with tutoring, small group instruction, and classes in job skills, career exploration, and goal setting. Grant funds also will be used to expand Haverhill High Alternative, which serves students who have dropped out or who are unable to attend school during the regular school day. Finally, the project will create a summer bridge program that will provide academic instruction to incoming ninth grade students.

PR/Award #: S360A100081
Grantee: Des Moines Independent Community Schools (IA)
Contact: Bryce Amos
Phone: (515) 242-7660

Des Moines Independent Community School District will use HSGI grant funds to enhance and expand its comprehensive Destination Graduation dropout prevention and school improvement initiative. Using the High-Performing High-Poverty Education Model developed by Mass Insight, the project will enhance ongoing efforts to implement comprehensive reforms in East, Hoover, Lincoln, and North High Schools, Scavo Alternative School, and McCombs and Meredith Middle Schools. Des Moines utilizes an early identification system to analyze student academic and behavior data and provide school staff with information on students at risk of falling off track for graduation every six weeks. Response to Intervention teams develop intervention plans and case management for the identified students. To provide more intensive assistance to struggling students, each high school will use grant funds to create Academic Support Labs that will offer personalized instruction and opportunities for credit recovery. Grant funds also will be used to augment the district’s dropout recovery efforts, which currently include case managers who devote time each month to contact dropouts and their families and encourage them to return to school. Each school will have a designated re-engagement counselor who will facilitate the re-enrollment of dropouts who seek to return to school. Collaborating partners include United Way of Central Iowa, Des Moines Area Community College, Gateway to College, Iowa Comprehensive Human Services, Employee and Family Resources, Iowa College Student Aid Commission, PACE Juvenile Center, and Des Moines Charter School.

PR/Award #: S360A100019
Grantee: Davenport Community School District (IA)
Contact: Dawn Anderson-Rascher
Phone: (563) 336-3805

The Davenport Community School District will restructure and strengthen alternative education opportunities provided by Kimberley Center East. Project activities include: (1) creating a data system that provides real time “on track for graduation” data to guide appropriate student interventions and monitor and track their success; (2) developing and implementing a coordinated outreach and referral system to improve service delivery for potential and returning dropouts; and (3) implementing a three-tiered Response to Intervention case management system to better address students’ social, emotional, and academic needs. Grant funds also will be used to enhance tutoring and academic support services for Kimberley students and to make mental health services available on-site to students. Formal project partners include Scott County Juvenile Court, Scott County Department of Human Services, Vera French Community Mental Health, Eastern Iowa Community College District, and the United Way 211 Information and Referral System.

PR/Award #: S360A100024
Grantee: Washoe County School District (NV)
Contact: Kristen McNeill
Phone: (775) 348-0398

Washoe County School District (WCSD) will phase out Washoe Middle and High Schools and replace them with a network of small, “schools-within-a-school” that will be based at three comprehensive high schools. The new schools will create Re-Engagement Centers that will be responsible for locating dropouts in the community and encouraging and assisting them in returning to school. The Centers also will work with students who are at-risk of dropping out to develop and implement individualized service plans. Graduation Specialists will work with returning students to ensure their re-engagement is successful and serve as a liaison to community agencies to secure services when students need them. The project also will support a Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support coach who will support the new schools’ teachers. Community partners include the City of Reno, Washoe County Department of Social Services, Nevada Urban Indians, Reno Sparks Indian Colony, and Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe.

PR/Award #: S360A100078
Grantee: St. Clair County Educational Cooperative Board
Contact: Susan C. Sarfaty
Phone: (618) 825-3950

The St. Clair County Educational Cooperative Board’s Stay in School program is designed to reduce the number of dropouts in St. Clair County, improve attendance and graduation rates, and provide support for students to reenter high school. The project will implement several intervention and prevention strategies at Brooklyn, Cahokia, and Dupo High Schools and their feeder middle schools, including establishing a parent/school liaison to identify at-risk students at the middle school and ninth grade level, providing academic coaching, and offering expanded opportunities for credit recovery. Collaborating partners include the St. Clair County Juvenile Justice Commission and the St. Clair County Mental Health Board.

PR/Award #: S360A100137
Grantee: School District 1J Multnomah County (OR)
Contact: Susan Jordan
Phone: 503-916-3447

Serving students attending Marshall and Roosevelt High Schools and their nine feeder middle schools, School District 1J Multnomah County’s Partnership for Graduation project will implement early intervention, prevention, and reentry supports to help students get on track and stay on track to achieve high school graduation. The project will implement a new early intervention strategy to better match supplementary services to students who have been identified as being at greatest risk of dropping out. Camp Fire USA Portland Metro Council will implement a new intensive after-school program for at-risk middle school students that will include academic skill building and guidance in developing social and life skills. The project will extend the Step Up ninth grade transition support program at Marshall and Roosevelt into the tenth grade, focusing on students who do not earn all of their freshman core academic credits. Grant funds also will be used to enroll more students in two of the district’s most successful re-entry programs, Open Meadow Alternative Schools and Mt. Scott Learning Centers. Both programs currently have waiting lists.

PR/Award #: S360A100037
Grantee: Riverside County Office of Education (CA)
Contact: Diana Walsh-Reuss
Phone: (951) 826-6602

The Riverside County Office of Education (RCOE) will enhance and expand its R3ISE initiative to reduce the dropout rate and re-engage dropouts at Coachella Valley High School, La Familia Continuation High School, and RCOE's 14 community school sites. To identify students who are at the greatest risk of dropping out, the project will design and develop an early warning system, or Dropout Risk Index, that will be made available to all Riverside County schools. The project will implement a school-wide Response to Intervention model at the participating schools that will include intensive reading and mathematics interventions and Student Service Representatives (SSRs) who will provide extra assistance to students at risk of dropping out. SSRs also will seek to locate and re-enroll youth who have already dropped out of school. RCO's comprehensive dropout re-entry program, Come Back Kids, will be expanded to serve a greater number of students. Collaborating partners include local community colleges and the Departments of Social Services, Mental Health, and Probation.

PR/Award #: S360A100166
Grantee: Seattle Public Schools (WA)
Contact: Pegi McEvoy
Phone: (206) 793-8993

Seattle Public Schools will implement a three-tier model of dropout prevention, truancy intervention and dropout recovery that will serve four comprehensive high schools (Cleveland, Ingraham, Rainier Beach, Chief Sealth), four alternative high schools (Interagency Academy, Middle College, South Lake and Secondary BOC), and their feeder middle schools. The first tier of the model will seek to prevent students from dropping out in their first year of high school by expanding a successful ninth grade transition program for vulnerable middle school students. To implement the second tier, Seattle will use HSGI grant funds to employ truancy specialists who will use the Check & Connect model to support students, monitor their attendance, and intervene early to address unexcused absences. The project will establish teen truancy boards in each comprehensive school that will engage students in working with their peers whose school attendance is irregular. Seattle's third tier of support is aimed at students that have already dropped out of school. Grant funds will be used to increase the capacity of The American Academy, the only state-approved digital dropout recovery program, to serve more students. The project's collaborating partners include the University of Washington, the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Youth Ambassadors, East African Community Services and Somali Community Services of Seattle.

PR/Award #: S360A100047
Grantee: Salem-Keizer School District 24J (OR)
Contact: Kelly Carlisle
Phone: (503) 399-2636

The Salem-Keizer Prevention, Intervention, and Reentry Initiative will implement comprehensive prevention and recovery strategies to reduce the dropout rate at Early College and Roberts High Schools. Project activities will include establishing a data tracking system for the early identification of at-risk youth and providing mentoring, tutoring, extended learning time, and credit recovery opportunities for at-risk students and returning dropouts. Partners collaborating with Salem-Keizer to implement the project include Chemeketa Community College, the Marion County Children and Families Department, Salem-Keizer Education Foundation, Northwest Human Services, Catholic Community Services, and the Salem Chamber of Commerce.

The Department funded two new projects in FY 2006.

Arizona Department of Education
Phoenix, Arizona

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) will collaborate with reservation-based public school districts; tribal leaders, youth and community members; colleges and state and tribal social service and behavioral health agencies to develop and implement a culturally appropriate dropout prevention model program for two school districts with among the highest dropout rates in the state: the White Mountain and San Carlos Apache Tribes. Evidence-based dropout prevention strategies will be adapted and tested with over 1,000 students attending the high schools on the two reservations, and the project will share the new model with other tribal school districts.

Key strategies will include: a) Native American community involvement in program development; b) establishment of a Native American Dropout Prevention Workgroup within ADE; c) Native American youth leadership development with a Popular Opinion Leader model; d) establishment of teams to encourage school attendance; e) intensive tutoring to increase AIMS test scores; f) mentoring of re-entered students by Tribal employees; g) culturally competent training for teachers in engaging Native American youth; h) social marketing promoting education through tribal media and tribal sporting events; and I) behavioral health, substance abuse prevention, teen parent support groups, and other supports for staying in school.

Texas Education Agency
Austin, Texas

To address the needs of students who are at risk of not completing high school and students who dropped out and are re-entering high school, the Texas Education Agency will collaborate with Communities In Schools, a stay-in-school program which offers comprehensive student evaluation and case management models; Texas' regional education service centers, institutions designed to aid state, district, and campus administrators in their efforts to increase student achievement; and Big Brothers Big Sisters, a nationwide organization which strives to build caring and productive relationships between students and adults.

The Texas School Dropout Prevention and Reentry Program has four major objectives: 1) to expand current personal graduation plans by replicating comprehensive models; 2) to increase partnerships between high schools and other organizations to leverage dropout prevention and reentry resources; 3) to develop statewide capacity for implementing specific intervention strategies; and 4) to evaluate the effectiveness of the state's school dropout prevention program and inform state dropout prevention policy. Offering a comprehensive set of support services through partnerships with government and community-based organizations will allow schools to more effectively address both the academic and social pressures shown to influence dropping out.

The Department funded two new projects in FY 2005.

Minnesota Department of Education
Roseville, Minnesota

The Minnesota Department of Education will collaborate with the Minnesota Departments of Human Services, Public Safety, and Employment and Economic Development to decrease the dropout rate among minority and low-income students in districts involved in the initiative.

The project plans to accomplish five major goals: (1) develop a comprehensive dropout prevention model for implementation in selected high schools and middle schools; (2) develop individual student assessment and school environment assessment tools; (3) increase statewide and local coordination to address dropout prevention; (4) provide support and technical assistance for local educational agencies; and (5) increase the likelihood of continued implementation of successful dropout prevention components and sustainability of grant success beyond the funding period. Using the National Dropout Prevention Center's effective strategies as a starting point, the initiative aims to use inter- and intra-agency workgroups to manage project implementation, develop comprehensive and community-tailored guidance for dropout prevention programming, and to put into action individual student assessments and school environment assessments in seven selected high schools and their primary feeder middle schools across Minnesota.

New Hampshire Department of Education
Concord, New Hampshire

The New Hampshire Department of Education will collaborate with the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability, Alliance for Community Supports, Center for Effective Behavioral Interventions and Supports, New England College's Main Street Academix, and the Family Resource Connection. Under the umbrella of the state collaborative, Systems of Care and Education, the project will provide training and technical assistance to 10 participating schools. Project objectives and activities address four performance indicators: (1) reducing the state event dropout rate by 20% or more in the 3 years; (2) developing a system and support process for re-entering high school students such that 50% of those who re-enter attain academic success and complete their secondary education; (3) reducing the rates and severity of behavioral problems by establishing and supporting the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports model in participating high schools; and (4) improving 10th grade math and reading/language arts scores among students at participating high schools. A state-level interagency committee will oversee the project to ensure participation of key policy-level stakeholders in education, vocational rehabilitation, juvenile justice, foster care, children's mental health, workforce development, and families including those underrepresented groups among others.