School Zone
Collaborative Aims to Solve Duval Dropout Crisis
Duval County Public Schools and a host of community organizations have joined together in a broad initiative to address Duval County's
high school dropout crisis. The Mayor, the School Board Chair and Superintendent, along with lead partners The Community Foundation in
Jacksonville, The Jacksonville Children's Commission, the Jacksonville Public Education Fund and The United Way of Northeast Florida,
presented research findings and action plans to a group of stakeholders at Terry Parker High School on August 12.
The initiative "Learning to Finish" will conduct pilot programs at six public schools this fall, assist the school district in making
the operational changes needed to support at-risk students and build community awareness of the depth and significance of the dropout
crisis in Duval County.
"Although we are making progress, too many of our students fail to graduate on time," said Duval County Public Schools' Superintendent
Ed Pratt-Dannals. "This is a critical community-wide problem, with implications much larger than a percentage for our school district. I
am truly thankful that our community partners have joined with us to tackle this problem."
Research by Learning to Finish shows that one in three public high school students fails to graduate in four years, and the majority
of those students leave after only 2 years.
The impact of this dropout crisis extends far beyond the students themselves. Research has shown that non-graduates are more likely
to end up in low-paying jobs, be chronically unemployed, require expensive social services, or end up in prison.
"This partnership is an example of the willingness of a broad base of the community to address the high school graduation and dropout
rates which affect the entire community," says Tommy Hazouri, Chairman of the Duval County School Board.
To better understand the dropout rate, Learning to Finish researchers conducted a four-part study including a 9th Grade Cohort Study,
6th Grade Predictive Analysis, Dropout Options Assessment and Qualitative Study. Copies of the full reports may be found on the collaborative's
new Web site, www.ltfjax.org.
Armed with the data from several studies, the LTF collaborative this summer launched a partnership with the leadership teams of six
Duval schools to develop an integrated system for improving the academic performance of at-risk students. The pilot schools are
Terry Parker High School and its feeder
middle schools,
Arlington and
Fort Caroline; and
Nathan B. Forrest High School and
its feeder middle schools, Jefferson
Davis and J. E. B. Stuart.
Click here to
read the press release in its entirety.
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