Education Solutions Team near ready to present plan to reduce dropout rate

After a year of work, a group of community and education leaders is almost ready to present the public with its plan to reduce the Cape Girardeau School District dropout rate.

The Education Solutions Team, a United Way-sponsored effort, will take its proposal, which identifies 10 areas as issues and strategies for work, to educators, the Cape Girardeau School Board and the public over the coming two months. At its regular monthly meeting Tuesday, United Way executive director Nancy Jernigan led the group in a discussion of the plan, noting items that need a bit more work.

"We think we have done a very thorough job of bringing strategies together," Jernigan said.

At each meeting -- Jan. 26 with principals and administrators, Feb. 22 with the school board, Feb. 23 with teachers and March 19 at a conference on the Southeast Missouri State University campus -- the goal will be to explain what can be done immediately and what requires either a volunteer recruiting effort or funding to achieve.

"What we are proposing is to have a packet that talks about what we are doing and why," Jernigan said.

The Cape Girardeau School District had a graduation rate of 72.3 percent in 2009, below many surrounding districts and less than the 85 percent rate statewide. The national graduation rate was 69.2 percent in 2006, the last year for which statistics are available.

Cape Girardeau Central High School has a goal of a 90 percent graduation rate by 2013, school principal Dr. Mike Cowan told the group. That goal is coupled with another that would see 90 percent of those graduates attending post-secondary education, either at a college or technical school, he said.

The 10 issues and strategies in the proposal range from raising student expectations to addressing critical needs early in a student's life. Each item is divided into specific areas for work. Responsibility for each area is further broken down by whether it is an issue for the schools, families or the community -- or some combination -- to address.

Before the group's next meeting in February, Jernigan asked for blanks to be filled in -- for example, the group's goals for graduation or reducing absences is yet to be set -- and for anything left off the list to be included.

"Your role is to tear this apart and find out if we have left off some strategies," she said.

While the team's role is unofficial, its work will inform the district's Comprehensive School Improvement Plan, which is undergoing a regular revision, said Dr. Jim Welker, district superintendent.

"What is important is that this is a community effort," he said. "The graduation rate is something we can solve by ourselves."

rkeller@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

301 N. Clark Ave., Cape Girardeau, Mo.