A day after Richmond Public Schools saw a nearly 3 percent decrease in its dropout rate, Superintendent Yvonne W. Brandon unveiled a plan designed to further decrease the system's dropout rate.
Despite the dropout rate being lowered from 16.2 percent to 14.8 percent, Brandon described dropping out of high school a national crisis, not just a problem in Richmond.
"The dropout rate concerns me and all members of the Richmond Public Schools family," she said.
She released the school system's Dropout Prevention Initiative this afternoon at City Hall. The program aims to get those students who drop out back into the classroom.
"We are looking at why students are dropping out and developing ways to re-engage those students who have become disengaged," she said. "The plan is not just about getting them in, but getting them to become motivated to stay in."
When the school year began Sept. 8, Brandon said Richmond schools had 2,700 students that did not come back to school; since then, that number has decreased to 400.
Here are some aspects of the initiative:
- Dropout Prevention Initiative Recovery Specialists responsible for getting students to return to the district.
- Individual learning plan, an online educational plan for students that helps pair students' career plans with academic and career and technical courses needed to accomplish their future interests.
- Extensive, mandatory professional development for staff to learn how to proactively assist at-risk students.
- Door-to-door visits to recover dropouts, organized in collaboration with community-based organizations, elected officials, colleges and universities.
- District-wide mentoring program that encourages school system employees, as well as high school seniors, to serve as mentors to recovered students.
-- Jeremy Slayton
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