Local Educators to Participate in Dropout Prevention Summit in Lansing
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Ryan Donlan -- Superintendent of the Bay-Arenac Community High School, Essexville
Local educators "on a mission" will attend a statewide Dropout Prevention Leadership Summit on Oct. 20 in Lansing.
The mission is to "make inroads toward solving the dropout problem in the Bay-Arenac area," according to Ryan Donlan, superintendent of the Bay-Arenac Community High School, Essexville.
The meeting will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Lansing Center and the local team will be comprised of about 10 leaders from various areas of the field of education as well as government.
About 30 educators met at the Bay Arenac Intermediate School District (BAISD) offices on Sept. 15 to begin planning to address the dropout crisis.
Supt. Donlan outlined the problem:
2004-2005 95.1 graduation rate
2005-2006 91.99 graduation rate
2006-2007 71.74 graduation rate
The problem was exacerbated by the National Governors Association meeting in Chantilly, Virginia, a few years ago during which Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia indicated a swing away from local control of education.
According to Mr. Donlan, who headed a Michigan high school redesign team, "Michigan sort of got a raw deal" on the calculation of graduation requirements that led to the current situation.
The governors agreed that graduation requirements were to be determined by the state departments of education instead of local educational units, he said.
The Michigan Merit Curriculum calls for four credits each of English and Math, one credit each of Science, Sociology, Visual or Performing Arts and Physical Education and two other credits.
A four year cohort was dictated, creating what Mr. Donlan calls "a significant challenge for us all." That rule provides that any student who cannot complete academic requirements in four years is considered a dropout.
"Our systems and programs for dropout recovery will be adversely impacted by this calculation," says Mr. Donlan, who administers one of the more successful alternative schools in the Bay area.
Among local officials meeting to work on the problem were State Rep. Jeff Mayes, D-Bay City, Supt. Carolyn Wierda, Jerry Lombardo and Marty Gottesman of the Bay City Public Schools, Ellen Albrecht of the Bay Arenac Behavioral Health agency and Trisha Charbonneau of the BAISD, coordinator.
Mr. Donlan, Mr. Lombardo, director of Wenona Center, and several other educators from alternative schools indicated more flexibility is needed on how the graduation rate is figured for those students.
The purpose of the statewide summit is to help participants take stock of the resources available locally to support children, youth and families; identify gaps in programs and services; share promising practices with others around the state; and explore other local, state and federal resources that can make a difference in the educational success of young people and, ultimately, the success of our communities.
Summit activities will help communities leverage existing partnerships and networks into more cohesive, efficient service delivery systems.
At the summit, each community group will be paired with facilitators to help start assessing your community's needs and assets, and translate those assessments into action steps.
Many communities have done considerable work assessing children and youth and programs that serve them. Local data on dropout and graduation rates will be available.
The Summit will take a "Whole Child" approach to addressing those factors that contribute to the dropout crisis and educators are encouraged to assess and collect data covering the span of a child's life for the first 21 years. Michigan's Promise for the Whole Child provides a framework for assessing the status of young people.
Immediately preceding the Summit at 8 a.m. on October 20 will be a panel to receive community, youth and educator input from a series of hearings around the state, hosted by the Michigan Education Association, Michigan's Children, the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, Michigan's Charter Schools, Kent Intermediate School District, and Michigan Future, Inc.
These hearings have gathered information about what programs, initiatives and support have really mattered to graduating young people from high school. This briefing will be attended by the media and policymakers and is open to Summit participants.###
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