A focus on targeting academic problems before students reach their sophomore year and getting students involved in extracurricular activities and sports has been cited as the reason for high graduation rates among a number of Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady county schools.
Graduation rates in Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady counties are, on average, higher than the statewide graduation rate, with Voorheesville Central School District leading the pack with 97 percent of its 123 seniors who started as freshman in 2003.
According to that same report released by the state Department of Education, the statewide high school graduation rate is 69 percent for students who started in 2003 and graduated in 2007, a four-year time frame that defines a group of students known as a cohort.
The 26 school districts in Albany, Saratoga and Schenectady counties, averaged an 80 percent graduation rate.
Close behind Voorheesville in terms of graduation rates are Burnt Hills, with 93 percent of the 297 students in its 2003 cohort graduating, and Niskayuna, with 91 percent of its 2003 cohort graduating.
State Education Commissioner Richard Mills highlighted the need for a hands-on approach to helping students graduate in a written statement he made accompanying the report.
School leaders and teachers must use practices that work, create better connections between middle and high school, and call on higher education and business to partner. This will be a major issue for the Board of Regents this coming year.
He also said more resources are going to be made available to teachers and administrators in the future.
Getting focused
Local school districts have taken this advice seriously, and many have begun focusing on personalized initiatives that target students still in middle school who may be struggling.
Patrick McGrath, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the Rotterdam-Mohonasen Central School District, which has a graduation rate of 76 percent, up from 73 percent from its four-year 2001 cohort, said one of the most important initiatives has been the `transition team,` that strives to get kids through the pivotal sophomore year of high school.
He said the program targeted 80 students who struggled through the eighth grade, and put a team made up of a social worker and special education and subject teachers to help those kids continue on into their junior and senior years of high school.
He said the program works quietly but effectively.
`What we do is low key. We don’t want the kids to feel like we’re singling them out.`
The team will focus on the at-risk students and encourage them to participate in extracurricular activities, school activities and focus on career development as early as possible.
McGrath said if students get excited about a career early on, it will keep them interested in their education. It is important, he said, to start targeting kids while they are still in middle school and get students excited about education.
The program is new, but McGrath said the district is very confident in its success so far.
`I think we’re going to see some real improvement over the next few years,` he said.
He said, unofficially, that he is expecting the five-year 2003 graduation rate in Mohonasen High School to be at 87 percent, a significant jump from past years, largely due to the new program.
Bethlehem Central School District, where 90 percent of its 439-member 2003 four-year cohort graduated, ranked fourth among the three counties, although that number is down 6 percentage points from 2001. The district is also moving toward a more engaging approach, as well as targeting problem students early.
`We are building support from the elementary level up,` said Jody Monroe, assistant superintendent for the district.
`We’re trying to work collaboratively with parents. We want to keep the kids in school. Keep them engaged in school. The kids see a value in education that comes from the parents.`
She also said there is a good amount of research to support that students who participate in extracurricular activities have a better chance of graduating then those who do not.
‘Operation graduation’
Principal Mark Diefendorf of the Clayton A. Bouton High School and Voorheesville Middle School said the success the district has had, a 97 percent graduation rate, is due to several factors. One of which is similar to the personalized approach taken by the Rotterdam-Mohonasen and Bethlehem school districts.
Diefendorf said the 2007 graduating class had 23 students who were at risk of not graduating.
He said the students seemed to be shutting down, possibly because they were afraid to move out of the `protective cocoon` of Voorheesville.
He called a meeting of the senior teachers to rally around the students and make personal connections with them.
They even hired a BOCES consultant to help some students complete assignments that were late but still accepted by the teachers.
The students were encouraged to foster closer relationships with the honor society counselors, coaches and other teachers. Diefendorf said `operation graduation` was a success. All 23 of the students graduated.
`We’re raising the water so the boats are floating higher,` he said.
Part of the reason he said the district has had such success is the education culture created by the parents, student and energetic teachers.
`With the retirement of many of the baby boomers, we have been able to fill our positions with really young, really qualified teachers,` Diefendorf said.
Another tactic used by Voorheesville is to use teaching teams. A common technique in middle schools, the team strategy has also had some success at the high school level.
The teams were based on grades, where core subject teachers in social studies, math, English, science and foreign language focus on a single grade level.
Last year it was only used in the ninth grade, and this year it will be used in all four of the high school grade levels.
`It’s a work in progress ` an experiment. We’ll see if it works,` Diefendorf said.
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District had a 93 percent graduation rate of its 2003 total cohort, up from 87 percent in the 2001 cohort — the highest in Saratoga County.
`It’s something we have been working really hard on for a really long time.
It’s not something you can change overnight. It takes a lot of time and teamwork,` said Christy Multer, the communications specialist for the district.
Multer said precision and focus on a student-by-student basis has helped
with the district’s success.
Multer said the school district has put a strong emphasis on everyone graduating, including special education students. The district had 34 out of their 38 special education students receive a local, regents or advanced regents diploma. None of the other four dropped out, she said.
She said she realizes, though, this is difficult in city districts that have more students, and more students struggling socio-economically.
`To tell you the truth, I don’t know how big schools do this,` she said.
Starting early
Ron Lesko, the director of communication for Albany City School District, an urban district that features one of the lower rates in the three counties — 61 percent — said the programs the district uses are comparable to any of the rural districts and also emphasize the early stages of high school.
He said that the programs have worked, and the district has seen a jump from 56 percent in the 2001 four-year cohort.
`Our priority is making sure the freshman are successful. Getting through that freshman year with the maximum number of credits [is important],` Lesko said.
He explained that support for the freshman class is vital to increasing the overall graduation rate.
He even said the freshman have an opportunity to come in a day early, to get acquainted with the school and learn where their classes are without the pressure of the upper classmen.
`We provide extra support and extra flexibility for our students,` he said.
The district also prides itself on having the highest enrollment of students in pre-kindergarten, with 640 full-time students. Lesko pointed again to early warning systems as the primary means to improve the graduation rate.
`Early childhood development is another staple; identifying where they will need extra support at an early stage,` said Lesko. `The district has also hired literacy and math coaches for the teachers at every level, to help utilize the most effective teaching techniques.`
Graduation trends by the numbers
Some districts in Schenectady, Albany and Saratoga counties are struggling with graduation rates, despite the success of other schools in the area.
The school districts in the cities of Schenectady, Albany and Watervliet were at the bottom of the list, with 2007 graduation rates of 56, 61 and 65 percent, respectively, according to the reports.
However, the average of the bottom five Capital District graduation rates is higher than both the five lowest in New York City and the rest of New York state outside the Capital District.
The statewide high school graduation rate is up close to three percentage points from two years ago, according to the report.
Further, the report shows a jump in graduation rates for students who took advantage of summer school, where 71 percent of students graduated after taking classes in August.
An additional jump in rates occurs when students take a fifth year of schooling, with 2007 statewide graduation rates at 73 percent when including high school students who started in 2002.
Statewide, the graduation rate of black students jumped from 45 to 51 percent between 2005 and 2007, the report states. Graduation rates for Hispanic students increased from 42 to 47 percent between 2005 and 2007, another jump. The report notes, though, that the graduation rates among those minority groups remain far too low.
A fifth year of study had a large impact on black and Hispanic graduation rates, increasing them by close to 10 percent.
`Too many do not graduate, yet the three-year trends are encouraging,` education commissioner Mills said in a written statement. `Black and Hispanic students showed 5.5 and 5.2 percentage point gains in the 2003 cohort when compared to those who started ninth grade in 2001. White students improved too, but not as fast, another indicator of a narrowing achievement gap.`
New York City increased its four-year graduation rate 5.5 percentage points to 52 percent in 2007 from 2005, according to the report.
The report also states that the four-year graduation rate for students with disabilities decreased, but more of those students are staying in school.
`Graduation rates are especially low in high-need districts. The four-year graduation rate for English language learners is also low and declining,` according to the report.
`Graduation rates have improved slightly overall, but they need to improve much faster,` Regents Chancellor Robert M. Bennett said. `Students must graduate and continue their education to ensure their lifetime earnings will support themselves and their families.“