NNCS Will Meet Parents To Keep Kids In School
NORFOLK - Norwood-Norfolk Central School officials say they've started having meetings with ninth-grade students in an effort to keep them in school rather than dropping out before graduation.
High school Principal Robin J. Fetter said they have started a designated period of double English classes and, during the second period of the class, they work with students who might potentially be candidates for dropping out of school.
She told school board members Tuesday night that the first warning signs a student may be a dropout come around ninth grade, and that's why they focus some of their attention there. Those students, Mrs. Fetter said, might have family, attendance or substance abuse issues at that point in their life.
"Some have attendance issues. We can track all of that way back for years," she said.
But, Mrs. Fetter said, sometimes dropout and graduation rates went in cycles depending on the students in that particular graduating class. She said the Cohort class of 2004, those who entered the ninth grade together in 2004 and graduated four years later, was "right in the middle of the county" in terms of graduation numbers.
But, according to numbers released by the state Education Department last week, the Cohort class of 2005 was a different story. Of the 100 students who entered ninth grade in 2005, 63 percent graduated with a Regents diploma and 20 percent dropped out.
The 20 percent dropout rate was the second highest in St. Lawrence County, trailing only the Ogdensburg City School District which had a 21 percent dropout rate for the Cohort class of 2005.
Mrs. Fetter said, in the class of students, 3 percent earned an IEP diploma, 9 percent were still enrolled after four years and 5 percent transferred to a GED preparation program.
"Next year we could have extra kids that bring (the numbers) down," Mrs. Fetter said.
She noted that SED's report counts as dropouts students who transferred out of state without notification. They had two such students in the Cohort class of 2005, according to the principal. They also had one female student who had a baby, as well as two students who went to jail.
Students who earn their IEP diploma or transfer to a GED preparation program also don't count as part of the graduating class under SED calculations, Mrs. Fetter said, and neither do those who go to Clarkson School for advanced studies.
At the same time, she acknowledged that they had student issues they needed to address to get some of them across the stage for graduation.
"I can't blame reporting. We do have dropout issues. We don't want a 17-year-old in eighth grade," she said.
The principal said they may resolve some of their issues with the introduction of a proposed Academic Distinction Program that provides advanced classes for highly motivated students rather than having everyone in the same classroom.
With the Academic Distinction Program, she suggested they would be able to better address the needs of the struggling students in the regular classroom and hopefully keep them in school for graduation.
"The strong kids didn't have to work hard and the weak kids struggled," Mrs. Fetter said.
