College & Workforce Readiness

Best Programs Empower Students

By Sean Cavanagh — August 07, 2002 2 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Not every school has to compete with the world’s plushest hotel-casinos for the attention of its students. But many of the nation’s top dropout-prevention programs share the overall philosophy of Las Vegas High School’s school-to-work initiative.

Successful programs follow a well-tested model, a leading expert on dropouts says: They put students in an environment where they feel comfortable and can succeed academically, or socially, after they may have known mostly failure before.

“They’re earning something. It may be points toward graduation, or money,” says Terry Cash, the assistant director of the National Dropout Prevention Center, a research and information-sharing network at Clemson University in South Carolina. “It provides them with a sense of movement,” he says, “and a sense of empowerment over their own destiny.”

Earlier this year, a study by the General Accounting Office, Congress’ investigative agency, pointed to Las Vegas High School’s Partnership at Las Vegas program as an innovative way of keeping students in school. Congressional researchers visited 25 programs in six states, and wound up identifying three successful approaches for dropout prevention:

  • Supplemental services, which provide additional counseling, tutoring, or other help for students who may be at risk of dropping out;
  • Alternative learning environments, such as Las Vegas High’s Partnership at Las Vegas program, that put selected groups of students in settings outside the main student population; and
  • Schoolwide restructuring, in which administrators change the overall organization or curriculum of a school.

A variation on the alternative-learning approach is under way at Bryan Station High School in Lexington, Ky. Known as Project Transition, it offers daily counseling and support for 150 students, helping them cope with everything from classroom difficulties to quarrels at home. Students are chosen by counselors and social workers at nearby middle schools, who try to identify pupils who might be at risk of dropping out.

The Bryan Station High project also arranges career training for students, allowing them to shadow employees at businesses. Now in its 11th year, the project appears to be working: Attendance among its students is up, along with academic performance, while suspensions have dropped, supporters say.

“When these kids graduate, it’s like watching your own kid,” says Becky LaVey, who until this year worked as a social worker in Project Transition. “You can have model programs and duplicate it, but you have to have the right people working with them, who will bond with the kids and take an interest in them.”

Sean Cavanagh

A version of this article appeared in the August 07, 2002 edition of Education Week as Best Programs Empower Students

Events

Jobs Virtual Career Fair for Teachers and K-12 Staff
Find teaching jobs and other jobs in K-12 education at the EdWeek Top School Jobs virtual career fair.
Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

College & Workforce Readiness The New FAFSA Is a Major Headache. Some High Schools Are Trying to Help
High schools are scrambling to help students navigate what was supposed to be a simpler process.
4 min read
Image of a laptop, and a red "x" for a malfunction.
IIIerlok_Xolms/iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Explainer Students With Undocumented Parents Have Hit a FAFSA Road Block. Here Are 3 Options
A FAFSA expert provides advice for a particularly vulnerable group of families.
4 min read
Social Security benefits identification card with 100 dollar bills
JJ Gouin/iStock/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness Infographic Students Feel Good About Their College Readiness. These Charts Tell a Different Story
In charts and graphs, a picture unfolds of high school students’ lack of preparedness for college.
2 min read
Student hanging on a tearing graduate cap tassel
DigitalVision Vectors/Getty
College & Workforce Readiness How International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement Programs Compare
Both the IB and AP programs allow students to earn college credit in high school. Though how the program operate can differ.
1 min read
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Marilyn Baise gives a lecture on Feng Shui and Taoism in her world religions class at Riverview High School in Sarasota, Fla., on Jan. 23, 2024.
Zack Wittman for Education Week