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Councilman Greg Stanton's
Arcadia News Column
December 2005
Helping with Transitions, Cutting the Dropout Rate – the New Phoenix Model
We cannot achieve our long-term goals of growing our new economy here in Phoenix without making sure young people all around the city have opportunities to finish their high school degrees and pursue higher education.
As chair of the City Council Education Subcommittee, we are working on the critical issue of increasing the high school graduation rate throughout Phoenix.
The city’s school-based programs have sent staff and resources directly into schools since 1990. We wanted to take a closer look at the issue, to see how our resources can work best to spur students on to graduation and greater success.
As head of the Dropout Prevention Task Force, we came up with solutions. Mirroring national research, we found that programs aimed at students transitioning to high school make a major difference in cutting dropout rates. This is a complex issue for many students who feed from middle and junior high schools into high school programs all around the city. The program we have come up with will help make those transitions easier, leading to more success for students.
The new School-Based Programs Service Delivery model, which passed through my subcommittee and the full City Council, will focus on eighth graders and the time right before and after they enter ninth grade.
“We’ll work with them and their families over the summer,” said Patricia Nightingale, youth programs coordinator for the Phoenix Human Services Department. “Then we will transition them into ninth grade and work intensively with them throughout their ninth grade.”
We’re targeting this program for at-risk students, identifying eighth graders each year and working with their families on an individualized graduation plan for each student. City caseworkers will follow up with the students through 12th grade and their eventual graduations.
We’ve already seen some success stories in Phoenix with similar programs. A study of students transitioning to South Mountain High showed that helping eighth graders increased the graduation rate in the targeted group from 9 percent to 58 percent.
Closer to Arcadia, we’ve also seen great success with a program assisting ninth graders at Camelback High School. The city has partnered with that school’s “Freshman Empowerment CORE” for three years, working with students who were falling behind in key academic areas.
Stasee McKeny was one of those freshmen. Three years later, she’s planning on college for next year and now she’s mentoring a younger student herself.
“I was kind of like a loner,” said McKeny. “I was very shy in the corner. Now in senior year I’m open, I’m on cheerleading and I mentor my freshman who I love dearly. It’s really great.”
That’s the kind of enthusiasm we can see from young people at a critical juncture in their lives. With a boost from kind, caring, well-trained adults from their schools and the city, more of our students will be successful..
For the students’ own futures and for the future of our region’s economy, young people must stay in school, get their high school degrees and pursue any further education they can. That is how we can create a broader pool of students with skills for the new economy that is growing in and around Phoenix.
Phoenix City Councilman Greg Stanton represents Arcadia. If you have any questions about any issues, please feel free to call Councilman Stanton's office at 602-262-7491, send an e-mail or visit phoenix.gov/district6.
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