Education Solutions Team moves toward final plan to improve Cape graduation rates

The Education Solutions Team is about a month away from completing the first part of a plan to improve graduation rates in the Cape Girardeau School District.

The group of education and community leaders sponsored by United Way of Southeast Missouri met Wednesday to progress toward a final plan.

The group has been working for about a year to create strategies to help at-risk students complete their education. The district had a graduation rate of 72.3 percent in 2009, below many surrounding districts and less than the 85 percent rate statewide. The solutions team is pushing to reach and maintain a 90 percent graduation rate by 2019.

The group is taking its findings to the school board at its Monday meeting. United Way executive director Nancy Jernigan made presentations to the district's nine schools during a professional development day Tuesday.

"We realized we weren't linking to the teachers at all," she said.

Teachers will fill out surveys to give feedback on the project, she said. As the group reaches out for more community involvement in the project, Jernigan said she acknowledges some people will be reluctant.

"We'll just have to prove it by our actions and what we're doing," she said.

Wednesday's meeting produced an outline of statistics that will be tracked throughout the project. It will monitor data on attendance, mobility and reading assessment. The first phase of the plan will outline goals and strategies of the project.

"This gives us the framework to see where our role is," she said.

The initial framework will be presented at the Community Caring Conference at Southeast Missouri State University on March 19.

The second phase of planning will outline a funding strategy, including potential grants. Community involvement will be critical, she said. Strategies include involvement from the business and church communities.

"If we just threw money at it I don't know if that would be the best," she said. "It's really the people and their relationships that are needed."

abusch@semissourian.com

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Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave. Cape Girardeau, MO