Earning a high school diploma is an essential first step toward a successful and stable future. Too many students are not achieving this important goal. According to a recent report, in 2005 the average graduation rate was 74.4% for students who enrolled as high school freshmen four years earlier(1). By 2006, students from low-income families were four times more likely than their more affluent peers to drop out before earning a high school diploma. Changing these trends will require schools to draw on all available resources, including school, family, and community partnerships.
High schools in NNPS are working with family and community partners to create pathways leading students through, not just to, high school graduation. A focus on life after high school can help students reduce drop out rates and improve graduation rates.
Increase Career Awareness
Pulaski High School in Milwaukee, WI, conducted a well-designed Life After High School College and Career Fair. The school invited a wide range of people in careers that students might choose. About 70 representatives from local businesses, non-profits, colleges and universities, and the military services sponsored booths and presented students with information on many options available to them after high school. Also, educators recognized that many students were not earning diplomas because they did not focus on this goal until the 12th grade. This time, over 550 students in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade and 180 individuals from the community attended the college and career fair. The high school believes that students, parents, and community partners can help students construct a vision of what they might do after high school and the steps they need to take to reach their goals.
Connect with Businesses
At Bridgeton High School in Bridgeton, NJ, students are preparing for careers by making PowerPoint presentations and speaking with local business leaders. The Business Partnership Breakfast, organized by the school’s Action Team for Partnerships, enabled students to showcase their projects and accomplishments in marketing, entrepreneurship, computer design, and engineering. This activity not only connected students to 20 local business leaders, but also generated more school-community partnership activities for other students at the high school. A local bank owner, for example, offered to speak to the school’s finance class and provided several students with opportunities for internships(2).
It is important for Action Teams for Partnerships and other teachers at high schools to assess whether and how well they are including all students in career fairs and activities to plan for their futures. A team at Tallwood High School in Virginia Beach, VA, realized that it needed to do more to help special education students plan their careers after high school. The school’s Vocational/Work Experience Program started by working with an established business partner – a fast food restaurant – to create a training program where students with special needs and their parents learned what employers are looking for when hiring new staff, how to prepare a resume, and how to conduct an interview. Teachers also established an internship and mentoring program at the restaurant chain for students with special needs to gain work experience.
Plan for the Future
These three high schools are among many in NNPS that are helping students follow paths to plan their futures. Three features of these examples stand out:
All high schools should plan goal-linked partnership activities for postsecondary planning. Activities that increase students’ and parents’ understanding of high school requirements, career awareness, and options for college or technical training can help more students graduate from high school on time and take confident steps toward young adulthood.
Read more about these and other high school activities for family and community involvement in Promising Partnership Practices 2008 at www.partnershipschools.org in Success Stories. Also, visit the new Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University at www.every1graduates.org and learn more about helping students prepare for college, careers, and civic life, along with information on family and community involvement to reach this goal.
1) Laird, J., Cataldi, E.F., KewalRamani, A., and Chapman, C. (2008). Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2006 (NCES 2008-053). Washington, D.C. National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.
2) Also see Naperville’s Business Partnership Forum on Entrepreneurship in the Leadership Line column (p. 5) for more about helping students gain business experiences.