High School Graduation
Ripley County
Caring Communities Partnership
Core Result: Children succeeding in school
Benchmark: Persistence to high school graduation
(by age 18)
February 2002
Objective:
Ripley County will increase the high school graduation rates for all Ripley County School Districts from 82.6% in 2001 to 85% by 2004.
Strategies:
Increasing high school graduation in Ripley County is a multifaceted issue. Adolescents who graduate are more likely to attend college or enter the workforce and become productive adults. There are many reasons why students fail in school or drop out of school. A lack of career goals, teen pregnancy, falling behind during the early school years, behavioral problems, substance abuse, and poor early development are just a few.
By working closely with the schools and others involved in these adolescent’s lives, the Ripley County Caring Community Partnership hopes to influence persistence to graduation. We have implemented or supported several different programs and projects that help kids successfully remain in school until graduation. Missouri Mentoring Partnership (MMP) (implemented in 1999) The MMP offers two components for at-risk youth.
1. The work-site component offers youth an opportunity for job skills training and employment with mentor support; thereby assisting them to succeed as contributing adults in their community. The mentor emphasizes the importance of sustaining and maintaining a job as well as completing an educational program. The youth can earn a high school diploma through the local school or their GED through the local vocational school. The mentor also discusses the importance of continuing education either through a Community College, Trade School or University.
2. The Ripley County Mentoring Moms Program is contracted through the Ripley County Public Health Department which is dedicated to supporting, empowering and educating pregnant and parenting adolescents by providing them with a community based mentor that will encourage them to succeed in parenting and stay in school until graduation. The parenting teens in the program assume responsibility to help other youth see some of the hardships that accompany a teen parent. The teen parents speak to public school students in their classroom about the consequences of having sex. This is usually done just prior to a major event such as Homecoming and Prom.
The Ripley County Caring Community Partnership partners with elementary schools in Ripley County to increase persistence to graduation:
- Initiated the Hand in Hand Mentoring Program that pairs community volunteers
with at-risk students to encourage them to stay in school. In coordination
with C-2000 grant funding, the mentoring program has now been implemented in
all four school districts.
- Developed the Eagles Nest after school care program in the Naylor R-II
School District. This program will allow for care for students that have no
place to go after school, offers tutoring, and educational activities.
- Implemented the (POPS) Power of Positive Student programs in K-5th grade to
promote character education. This program is now being carried out by the
elementary school counselors.
- The partnership has written an Early Childhood Services Grant to increase
the number of licensed daycare slots in Ripley County. This grant also
provides daycare providers with education and CDA (Child Development
Associate) Certification to encourage good early development that will ensure
that young children are ready to enter school. An additional grant was written
to provide 20 additional licensed infants daycare slots (birth to age 3 years)
in Ripley County.
Ripley County Schools are:
- Providing PAT (Parents As Teachers) program coordinators. The
Partnership has received an Outreach grant that provides extra incentives to
reach parents that are at-risk of having the children removed from the home or
are below the 185% poverty level.
- Providing school-to-work opportunities to at-risk students through the
Vocational School.
- Providing summer school for students who lose credits or need to catch up on
credits or gaps in education.
- Working with the Alternative Program that allows the students an alternative
route so they can stay in school.
- Working with various programs that will target earlier intervention with
at-risk students such as: after school tutoring with character education, drug
and violence prevention activities, cross age tutoring, Talent Search,
extended computer lab, and remediation for high school students.
Results:
Ripley County Rates that Effect Persistence to High School Graduation
The high school graduation rates have steadily rose in the last couple of years. In 1998, the rate was 68%, 79.2% in 1999 and 82.6% in the year 2000.
The birth to teens ages 15-19 per 1,000 have decreased from 82.7 per 1,000 in 1997 to 63.4 per 1,000 in 2000.
The birth to mothers with under 12 years of education per 1,000 have decreased from 40.1 per 1,000 in 1997 to 25.6 per 1,000 in the year 2000.
Funding/Return on Investment
Caring Communities | $0.00 |
Other State (DSS) | $52,470.00 |
Other Federal | $0.00 |
In Kind | $60,000.00 |
Noteworthy
“All of the youth have benefited greatly from the monthly meetings where someone showed an interest in them and they could voice their feelings—I feel two of our youth have continued in school and worked harder because of this program and the personal contact and support they have received.” – Couch High School Counselor. This strategy has benefited students in other surrounding counties outside Ripley County.
Barriers/Road Blocks
Implementing the programs on a bare bones budget has hindered the effectiveness and the opportunity to assist the youth to its full capacity. We hope to find funds in the future to provide money for transportation, career clothing, scholarship that supplemented their wages, etc.
