Cutting The Number Of Dropouts

Members of the Dropout Prevention Task Force met last week in St. Louis. It was the first of three meetings aimed at crafting legislation to address dropout rates.

According to the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Missouri’s overall dropout rate has increased from 3.3 percent in 2003 to 4.2 percent in 2008.

One of the goals of DESE, “is working with school districts to increase the percentage of 18-year-olds with a high school diploma or a General Educational Development (GED) certificate. A goal within DESE’s strategic plan is to decrease the state’s annual dropout rate from 4.2 percent to 3 percent by 2011.”

Missouri’s Board of Education instituted tougher minimum graduation requirements in October 2005; these applied to all of the state’s public high schools. The new standards raised the minimum number of credits needed to graduate from 22 to 24. The change increased the requirements by one full unit in English, areas of math, science and social studies. Half-unit courses in personal finance and health education were added to students’ graduation requirements.

In 2008, Missouri’s graduation rate of 85.2 percent saw a decline from the previous year’s 86.3 percent.

“The Missouri meeting is a part of a larger initiative by America’s Promise Alliance, a group created by former Secretary of State Colin Powell,” according to a previous article by the Missourian.

The goal of America’s Promise Alliance is to generate support and coordinate summits, such as the Missouri meeting, to target the dropout crisis in all 50 states.

According to the DESE fact sheet, “These summits aim to increase awareness, encourage collaboration and facilitate action in those states and communities that want to improve the graduation rates.”

Missouri programs that encourage students to stay in school and graduate include the Missouri Option Program, Career and Technical Education, A+ Schools, and Service-Learning.

According to America’s Promise, “if the students who dropped out of the class of 2007 had graduated, the nation’s economy would have benefited from as additional $329 billion in income over their lifetimes.”

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Homecoming Festivities at Rock Bridge

Rock Bridge High School began its homecoming activities Thursday afternoon with costumes, wheelbarrow races and one big mess.

All week Rock Bridge students have worn clothing according to each day’s theme. For Thursday’s theme, dress like a monster, students went all out; one student wore a giant mascot-style head of one of the creatures from “Where The Wild Things Are.” Another student put together a spider outfit, using a trash bag as the body and attaching arms and a web on either side. Yet not every student followed the theme exactly. Some students were seen wearing a sombrero, an alligator outfit, and, as seen in the picture above, Native American garments.

As students began to form a crowd around the main hallway, it was clear that the homecoming festivities were almost completely student run. Faculty observed from a distance, but two students acted as the emcees for the morning’s activities. As they directed all participating students to organize themselves, I spoke with a group of sophomore girls sitting on a bench in the hallway, taking in the sights. When I asked them whether homecoming week was their favorite time of the school year, their answers seemed to echo the sentiment in that hallway.

“I like it because it shows a lot of school spirit,” Kayla Howard said. “We have a lot of activities, like we had a bonfire last night.”

“It gets everybody riled up for the homecoming (football) game,” said Shawn Crouch.

As the activities began, the students participating lined up with their partner (who was dressed in a similar outfit) and each pair performed a skit (see pictures above and below). Each skit basically consisted of each pair running towards the crowd, pretending to be whatever being they had dressed as.

Then each monster pair participated in a wheelbarrow race (below). Racing back and forth, first with students holding each other’s legs and then with scooters, the teams grabbed a wand and a ring out of a bowl filled with some sort of liquid that sat on a table at the far end of the hall. Face plants abounded as teams struggled to find a technique that worked. The race ultimately ended with the contents of one bowl splashing to the ground. As the races ended and students trudged back to class, a cleanup crew filed in to take care of the mess.

I am a little jealous of Rock Bridge. My high school didn’t have festivities during homecoming week; the extent of our school spirit was saying, “Hey, I’ll see you at the game tonight.”

Props to the students for putting on a pretty cool week of activities.

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“Retro Day” at Hickman

Students Paige Nelson and Mica Lopez sport tie-dyed T-shirts for Hickman High School's "Retro Day" on Tuesday. "Retro Day" was part of Hickman's homecoming week festivities, and several students celebrated by dressing in popular fashions from the past.

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