CURRENT AGE: 21
CURRENT AGE: 22
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SHELBYVILLE A year ago, Nina Wainscott was at risk of dropping out of Shelbyville High School, and her counselor told her that she didn’t have enough credits to graduate.
The story is similar for Alex Davenport. He struggled to do well in classes and make his way in a school with more than 1,000 students. He wasn’t sure if he’d graduate, let alone ever move up the career ladder from his job flinging burgers at McDonald’s.
That all changed once Nina and Alex enrolled in the Shelbyville High School Student Achievement Center, an alternative school that focuses on self-paced computer classes, service learning and paid employment.
Nina, 17, hopes to become an artist, and is planning to graduate in December. Alex, 19, plans on hunting for a higher-paying job and eventually buy his own house after he graduates in May 2009.
Two years ago, “Time” magazine made the town of Shelbyville its poster child to exemplify the nationwide high school dropout epidemic. It pointed out that 315 students were freshmen at Shelbyville High School in 2002, but only 215 were expected to graduate in 2006. The story was similar all over the country: Nearly 1 of 3 public high school students wouldn’t graduate in 2006.
“I took that article as a positive because I knew that the dropout problem across the country is real,” said Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson.(CQ) “We had chosen to take the lead and do something about it, rather than just wishing it would go away.”
Furgeson, educators and policy makers talked to “Time” about the challenges they faced and the reforms they planned.
One of the first reforms was opening the Shelbyville Achievement Center in a classroom at the Indiana Wesleyan University Shelbyville Education Center, 2325 Intelliplex Dr.
“There’s only one teacher, and the classes are really small,” Nina said. “It’s a lot more supportive. If you ask the teacher for anything, she’ll help you with it.”
That person is Melissa Lakes. She strives to be a mentor for each of her students and get to know them well – what they love, what they hate and what they’re doing daily in their lives.
“I just want them to feel comfortable here and safe. For some of them, this is the only place they feel safe.”
The program is selective – partly because the alternative school only has 15 computers – but also because students need to be motivated and well behaved with only one teacher. In the second semester, there was a waiting list of about 30 students, and educators are talking about ways to expand the center in the future.
The Achievement Center has three requirements:
1. Academics. For three hours a day, students use computer programs to complete traditional courses, such as algebra, English and government.
2. Paid employment. For every 180 hours of work, students earn two elective credits toward graduation. They also study careers, build resumes and practice interview skills.
3. Service learning. For 48 hours or more of volunteering each semester, students may receive one elective credit. They’ve volunteered such places as the Shelby County Philanthropy Council, and at hospitals and animal shelters.
Lakes think these programs work well because of self-pacing. “Maybe algebra is hard for you,” she noted. “You can take as long as you need to understand it and really get it. Whereas in the traditional high school setting, usually the teacher will go over something and maybe you get it and maybe you don’t. But the next day they’re moving on to something else.”
Nina’s found herself explaining what the Achievement Center is and what it isn’t to many people in her hometown.
“When I tell a lot of the adults that I know that I’m attending the alternative school, they think I must’ve done something bad to get put in there. Once I explain that it’s so I can graduate and am doing it because I chose to, they seem to be OK with it. A lot of my peers are really interested in what it is.”
Lakes is proud of her students and their motivation to graduate. Life is difficult and complicated for many of them.
“Every kid out here is smart,” she said. “It’s not that they can’t do the work at a high school in a regular setting. It’s that stuff gets in the way; life gets in the way.
“I’ve had kids who have kids. And I say “kids” plural, as in students that have more than one child at home.
“I’ve had kids who live on their own because parents kicked them out of the house. They don’t have anywhere to go. I’ve had kids that are homeless, sleeping in their cars.”
The alternative school is still affiliated with Shelbyville High. In fact, students get the same high school diploma that all seniors get upon graduation. They can borrow school library books, and go to extracurricular activities like the prom. The only difference is that they can’t compete in high school sports because of Indiana High School Athletic Association regulations that require more in-class time, Lakes said.
Shelbyville High Principal Tom Zobel said that an in-house credit recovery program that allows students to make up courses they’ve failed; and an alternative to suspension/expulsion program are two other current programs designed to keep students in school.
“As far as our graduation rate, it is a little early to tell if we have made a significant impact but we had 24 graduates this year who finished their programs through our alternative school,” Zobel said.
Forty students were enrolled in the Achievement Center during the school year; eight were juniors. Another six dropped out, and two transferred to other schools.
The graduation rate for Shelbyville High School was 78.1 percent in 2007, which is the most recent statistic available, according to the Indiana Department of Education, which is now using more accurate formulas to figure rates. The state average was 76.5 percent. Both of these percentages are based on a new state graduation rate calculation, which policy makers say is more accurate than past formulas used.
Lakes also noted individual achievements. She’s already seen that first class of 2007 succeed – Some are enrolled at Ivy Tech, and others are employed fulltime.
“These are 13 kids who would’ve been high school dropouts, and now they’re, employed in good, stable jobs, or they’re going to get college degrees,” she said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
Assistant Editors: Celia Ristow, 16; and Meera Patel, 16
Copyright 2008 Y-Press