1. Clinton County- a Snapshot Dropouts: One Dropout is too Many

2. High Cost of High School Dropouts The average annual income for a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299, compared to $26,933 for a high school graduate, a difference of $9,634 per year. -US Bureau of the Census, 2006

3. Trigger Question: 1. What are the factors, specific to Clinton County, that contribute to students dropping out of high school? 2. What factors inhibit our ability to solve this problem?

4. Stakeholders- Current Team Howard ComstockDirector, Family Resource Center Ruth Rockwell,Clinton County Substance Abuse Coordinator Deb Kloosterman, Capital Area Community Services Director Monica Spicer, Counselor, Ovid-Elsie High School Karla Palmer, School Nurse St Johns High School Larry Lloyd, Clinton County RESA Barb Baumann, LCC Julie Banfield,CCRESA, Special Projects

5. Other Possible Stakeholders Parents Students Dropouts Community members Prisons Law enforcement Groups with resources

6. Session Outcomes To build a shared understanding of the current status of student dropouts in Clinton County To build a shared understanding of the root causes of student dropouts in Clinton County To build a shared language surrounding the dropout phenomenon Based on most influential factors, recommend actions that would reduce dropouts Create a covenant, or agreement to act, signed at the highest levels of each institution

7. Key Information- Graduation Rates Bath Clinton DeWitt Ovid-Elsie Pewamo- Westphalia St. Johns 86.75% 85.15% 94.01% 89.02% 100% 87.4%

8. Costs to Clinton County

9. Some questions to guide the process What do we know about students that enter ninth grade and what happens to them? What school indicators help predict who graduates and who doesn’t graduate in four years? What is known about students who fall off- track? What do we know about students that do not graduate?

10. Questions cont. What schools are successfully graduating students? -Closing the Graduation Gap, 2008

11. What we learned so far Student Suggestions Better Teachers Offer more Alternatives Tutoring Summer School More Supervision More school to home communication Better mentoring between students and teachers

12. More Successful if: Evening classes More GED opportunities Allowing students to return when older

13. Resources http://www.k12.wa.us/research/pubdocs/pd f/dropoutreport2003.pdf http://www.k12.wa.us/research/pubdocs/pd f/dropoutreport2003.pdf http://www.mea.org/dropouts/Dropout%20 Hearing%20Press%20Release.pdf http://www.mea.org/dropouts/Dropout%20 Hearing%20Press%20Release.pdf

14. T HE Three Phases of SDD: Discovery Phase I Action Phase III Design Phase II Content consultants, Experts, Task forces, Etc. Diagnosis Phase II Diagnostic Results Copyright © 2004. All rights reserved. No part of this presentation may be reproduced or disseminated without permission.

15. Clinton County Resource Team Anand Ramaswami, Director of Strategic Initiatives Jean Morciglio, Executive Director of Extension and Community Education Alexander Christakis, Cogniscope Gayle Underwood, Cogniscope