Bay Area Youth Dropout Prevention Summit to be Held in Bay City Sept. 15

Increasing Number of Successful Graduates is Focus of ISD Conclave

August 31, 2008
By: Dave Rogers

The average high school graduate earns about $260,000 more in a lifetime than a dropout.

Dropouts are in worse health and have shorter lives than graduates.

Columbia (N.Y.) University found that boosting graduation rates would save the state about $127,000 per student in higher tax revenue from bigger paychecks, reduced welfare and lower prison costs.

Those are just a few of the factors prompting the Bay Human Services Collaborative Council and Mike Dewey, (Pictured at right) Bay Arenac Intermediate School District (BAISD) superintendent, to sponsor a Youth Dropout Prevention Summit at the Bay Arenac ISD here Sept. 15.


A breakfast meeting will be held at 8 a.m. to discuss the paramount importance of a high school diploma and ways to increase the percentage of graduates, now about 75 percent in Michigan.

The breakfast is free of charge and is open to any community member interested in learning more about this issue. Reservations may be made by calling Trisha Charbonneau-Ivey at 895-2246 or contacting her at tivey@babha.org.

About 20,000 students in Michigan dropout of high school before graduation, the Macomb Daily has reported.

"Our goal during the breakfast event is to introduce stakeholders to the dropout issue in our community, discuss the impact of the newest curriculum standards and legislation, and our local successes in the realm of prevention and recovery," said Mr. Dewey.

The same team is promoting a Statewide Youth Dropout Prevention Summit to be held Oct. 20.

"A youth who does not graduate from high school is more likely to live in poverty and become incarcerated," Mr. Dewey added. "The dropout issue has a broad impact on all sectors of our community. The success of our youth directly impacts the vitality of our economy, and the health and welfare of our community.

The Michigan Department of Education's latest statistics (2007) for the high school completion rate in Bay County are as follows:

Bay City Public Schools, 72.27 percent completion (Central High reports an 85 percent graduation rate and Western High 95 percent); Bangor Township Schools, 92.20 percent; Essexville-Hampton Public Schools, 93.60 percent; Pinconning Area Schools, 83.89 percent.

The Michigan Department of Education explains the way the high school dropout rate is calculated:

"In order to comply with The No child left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 and, as defined in The Michigan Department (MDE) Consolidated State Application Accountability Workbook, the state of Michigan must move to an accountability system for high schools in which a graduation rate includes only "on-time" graduates who earn diplomas in four years.

"This calculation aligns with the guidelines provided by the National Governors Association (NGA) Graduation Counts Compact. The "four-year adjusted cohort graduation rate" is calculated by tracking individual students from the time they were enrolled as first-time ninth-graders, with a four-year expected completion rate. The formula accounts for students who leave school and return later, for students retained in a grade and stay in school, and for students who transferred into and out of the public school system. Thus, this is a more accurate measure of the Graduation rate.

Students included in building rates must have been reported to the state for two or more count days. Students included in district rates must have been reported to the state for one or more count days."###

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Dave Rogers
Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read, respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City. More from Dave Rogers

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