A Nevada nonprofit is celebrating a 94% graduation rate among their high school seniors for the 2021-2022 school year.
Tami Hance-Lehr. The CEO and state director of Communities In Schools of Nevada said the graduation rate is based on the 453 case-administered high school seniors, most of whom are students who qualify for free and affordable lunches or experience some other form of poverty.
Hance-Lehr pointed out that Nevada’s graduation rate for such students is about 82%. Compared to the state’s overall graduation rate, African American students in the program are 17.1 percentage points higher than the national average, Hispanic and Latino students are 14 percentage points higher, and mixed-race students are 13 percentage points ahead.
She noted that the pandemic presents many challenges for students to cross the finish line.
“The other thing to keep in mind is that when the majority of seniors started working with Communities In Schools in either their junior or senior year, they were not on track to graduate do when these students came to us,” said Hance-Lehr. “They were most likely bad credit.”
Hance-Lehr explained it’s not just about identifying barriers keeping kids from attending school and working to get students back on track, it’s also about making sure they do well after high school have goals. The program deploys a full-time on-site coordinator at each of its 92 partner campuses to help with the effort.
Hance-Lehr pointed out that of the 453 high school seniors, half plan to go to college, 32% plan to enter the workforce, 14% plan to get certification, an apprenticeship or attend trade school, and 4% plan to to join the military.
While the program focuses on K-12 students, Hance-Lehr noted that they make supporting their alumni a priority once they leave the program.
“We have to focus on our students even after they graduate,” Hance-Lehr said. “Barriers that we remove for them and get them to graduate don’t just go away when we’ve given them a diploma and then they step into the world and say, ‘Here you go.’ There are still barriers to transportation, there are still barriers to trauma, there are still barriers to poverty.”
Hance-Lehr emphasized that they have more than a hundred partners in the community and acknowledged that their work would not be possible without them. She added that community providers are able to help students with more individual needs.
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Missourians can now see how often their schools use seclusion and restraint to address student behavior.
A 2021 law requires schools to report these incidents to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education starting this school year.
State MP Ian Mackey – D-St. Louis – said he proposed the original bill after many parents shared their children’s experiences of school discipline, many of whom had qualified for special education.
He said it allows the use of seclusion or restraint under very limited conditions.
“It can’t be used as a form of punishment,” Mackey said. “It cannot be used punitively to teach a child a lesson. It is only to be used when a child poses a threat, and once the threat is mitigated the seclusion and reticence must cease. This is the law.”
The law also requires schools to notify parents when these interventions are being used on their child.
Just over 600 Missouri students have been isolated and 1,565 have been held back for the first half of the current school year.
Mackey said he hopes this law encourages the use of more positive approaches to behavior change in Missouri schools.
Amy Gott reported that her son was frequently withdrawn or held back from first through fifth grade and that initially the school rarely notified her.
Not only was God isolated from his peers, but he said he missed what was being taught when he was sent to what is called the “recreation room.”
“He would say to me, ‘Well, she would put me in front of the same worksheet they had in the classroom that I didn’t understand and tell me to work on it,'” God quoted her son as saying. “And he said, ‘I just didn’t get it.'”
Gott’s son was eventually diagnosed with Asperger’s, a high-functioning form of autism.
She began homeschooling him in fifth grade. She said she believes it was the school’s misinterpretation of his behavior that led to him being away from the classroom for years.
“A lot of times, especially in the beginning, it was like the rest of the day,” Gott said. “And I mean from 10 o’clock. Instead of having autism and not understanding, he was defiant.”
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Students are still grappling with learning losses from the COVID-19 pandemic.
A study by research group NWEA showed that 2022 test scores are not recovering to pre-pandemic levels.
In New York, math scores fell sharply across the state, according to the Empire Center for Public Policy.
Researchers said the problem goes beyond test results. The study also found that existing educational inequalities were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Teach for America CEO Elisa Villanueva Beard said the learning loss is also the result of numerous issues coming to a head. She described it as trains on a collision course.
“On a train we have children who are not doing well, both from a learning perspective and from a general wellness perspective,” noted Villanueva Beard. “On another train, there is a teacher crisis, where teachers are being challenged to do more with less.”
Villanueva Beard argued another issue was an outdated system that couldn’t do justice to the moment. Some solutions she believes will get kids back on track are hiring and retaining good teachers and providing equitable learning opportunities for students, but she noted a lack of innovation within the current education system could pose challenges .
Students are struggling with mental illness, partly due to the pandemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 44% of college students felt persistently sad or hopeless during the first two years of the pandemic.
Villanueva Beard worries it will affect children in the long term.
“We live in a society where uncertainty is the only guarantee,” said Villanueva Beard. “Our kids actually need to be able to be creative, have very clear skills in reading and mathematical reasoning.”
She added that a community approach needs to be taken to ensure children fully recover from the pandemic in terms of social emotional health and educational skills.
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Like other states, South Dakota has a program that allows high school students to take courses offered at universities and colleges. Now there is a legislative plan to help give younger students a chance to get involved and get a head start on the career path.
Under South Dakota’s dual-credit program, juniors and seniors can apply for state aid to defer the cost of classes like auto body welding or accounting.
Rep. Kameron Nelson, D-Sioux Falls, has introduced legislation to extend aid to 10th graders. He said spending on courses could be a barrier, and he thinks students also deserve a chance to start earning credits if they have a career in mind.
“A sophomore might be able to start this dual-credit program, earn credits until they graduate high school, and get and earn their associate’s degree,” Nelson explained.
He noted that it could be particularly helpful in healthcare. It is projected that South Dakota will need at least 14% more registered nurses in the coming years to meet demand. Nelson’s bill sees bipartisan support over sponsorship, but no hearings have been scheduled.
Nelson initially acknowledged that enrollment for sophomores would likely be lower than other grade levels, but he noted that the additional cost is projected to be around $900,000 if demand is strong. He is convinced that it would be a worthwhile investment for the state.
“Whenever we can invest in our young people to be better educated, I will always support that,” Nelson said.
South Dakota has a budget surplus of more than $400 million, but some leaders, including Gov. Kristi Noem, have a variety of other ideas for using the money, including tax cuts.
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