Since July 2009, Kosciusko County Educational Development has worked to increase the high school graduation rate at Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley and Warsaw Community High Schools.
That work and its successes hasn’t gone unnoticed.
On Sept. 28, 14 members of the committee attended a state conference on dropout prevention in Indianapolis and gave a panel presentation on its work. Next week, two members will travel to a national conference in Chicago and give another presentation.
Ot Schroeder, State Farm Insurance and KCED committee member, said their goal is to raise the graduation rate in the county. Because of the success they’ve had, they were invited to the second statewide conference to present on what they did.
The effort in Kosciusko County is one of a few in the state that truly is a grassroots effort, he said.
George Brennan, member, said they are one of the few generated programs that have metrics to show their success.
“We are one of two programs of significance,” Brennan said. The other program is in Richmond, which is participating in a national program.
In other counties, Schroeder said, counties are targeting specific schools and specific grade levels. KCED, a 501(c)(3) organization, is a countywide grassroots effort. They even raised their own money to pay for it.
“We are certainly the most organized,” Brennan said. “I don’t think I’m overreaching when I say that.”
The 14 members who went down to the state conference, Brennan said, included school administrators, graduation coaches and mentors and business leaders.
All 14 spoke during the panel discussion, Schroeder said.
There are two graduation coaches at each of the three high schools, with Warsaw having three because of its size. Each coach is assigned to at least 15 students.
The coaches are paid a stipend to spend before and after-school time with students. They are responsible for tracking progress of students and reporting data. All are teachers already on staff at the school.
Of the 86 at-risk seniors who were part of the program in its first year, eight withdrew, one did not graduate and 77 graduated (89.5 percent).
Brennan said what was really helpful was that the high school seniors chosen for the program were identified as at-risk students, based on 14 pieces of criteria, including absenteeism and number of credits.
This year, the coaches are branching into the lower grade levels.
“When we formed the committee, we focused on the seniors to generate some metrics to show success so we could raise money. We realized as part of this program that we need to focus not only on the seniors but prevention for younger students, too. We need to generate enough money to do that,” Brennan said.
In the mentors program, mentors are matched with students in first through eighth grade. Mentors are through Big Brothers/Big Sisters and Kids Hope. Background checks are done to meet specific school requirements, and all mentors are volunteers. Most matches were in a lunch buddy setting.
Schroeder said they are also proud of the 227 mentors in the county involved in the mentoring program. With that, they don’t have any statistics yet on how that will affect graduation rates, but the committee has a lot of confidence it will have have an impact.
If the programs help keep students in school, the program could be a revenue generator for the cash-strapped schools, Brennan said. The state pays schools about $5,000 for every student in school. If students drop out, schools lose money.
KCED needs money to keep going and expand its efforts to keep students in school.
The high school coaches wanted to add one more coach at each school specifically for freshmen, but the committee did not raise enough money this year.
Schroeder said, “The middle schools wanted to implement a life coach. They would work with a larger group of kids but also work with getting more mentors in there. They saw it as a big need but we weren’t able to fund it.”
One effort KCED is working on this year is how to raise more money. The program has proven results, Brennan said, and immense benefits to the community.
“We need to develop an awareness in this community of what this program does,” he said.
For more information on KCED and its efforts to keep students in school, visit the website at www.thekced.com; e-mail kced@rocketmail.com; or call 574-549-8000.
