Easley to students: Graduate

Rocky Mount Telegram
By Carolyn Casey

Saturday, September 06, 2008

North Carolina will try to send one message to all high school students this week: Graduate.

Gov. Mike Easley has declared the week Graduation Awareness Week in order to highlight the importance of receiving a high school diploma and underscore community collaboration.

“It is not acceptable for North Carolina to lose so many young people before they graduate from high school,” N.C. State Superintendent of Public Instruction June Atkinson said in a statement. “The cost of these young men and women and their families is high. The cost is financial, but it is greater than that. The heaviest cost of all is the loss of human accomplishment, of happiness and of satisfaction.”

Approximately one-third of North Carolina students who enter high school will not graduate four or five years later. And the numbers remain lower locally.

Throughout the state this week, educators will stress how students can plan a successful future and what dropping out of school possibly can lead to.

Featured programs will be the state’s Learn and Earn initiative. The program allows high school students to take online college courses for free, and 60 Learn and Earn Early College High Schools have been set up across the state, including one in Nash and Edgecombe counties. The documentary “InsideOut” which interviews high school dropouts now in prison, will be shown in Edgecombe County Public Schools.

While staying on the path toward graduation is a daily reminder at local high schools, some are hosting special programs this week for extra emphasis.

Freshman and sophomore SouthWest Edgecombe High School students will attend a session called “Making High School Count.” The presentation provides students with the basics, such as test-taking strategies and setting goals past high school.

During morning announcements at Rocky Mount High School, students will provide their classmates with statistics, such as the number of high school dropouts who commit crimes.

“I think it’s more powerful when students get it coming from students rather than administrators and adults,” Rocky Mount High Principal Leon Farrow said.

Still, Farrow said, just because the week has a special name doesn’t mean the mission to graduate students is lessened the rest of the year.

“It’s almost a slap in our face because we’re aware of graduation every day,” Farrow said about Graduation Awareness Week. “We work hard every day to keep kids in school.

“What kind of makes me sad about when there’s a graduation awareness week is I don’t think the general public understands what we try to do every day.”

Sometimes there’s too many outside influences pulling students away from school, he said.

The major risk factors related to students leaving school before graduation are lack of attendance, low academic achievement, behavioral problems and family related circumstances, said Jay Smink, executive director of the National Dropout Prevention Center.

The governor’s initiative seeks to reach out to educate people about community organizations, such as Communities In Schools, and ask residents to play a part in their local schools.

“Most laypeople think that the dropout rate is a school issue,” Smink said.

Until communities and schools jointly understand the reasons why students drop out and are serious about finding resolutions, the dropout numbers won’t decrease, he said. It’s been a national problem for decades.

“It is a very large, critical problem,” he said. “Your area is not unique.”