FWCS Schools Join Skills Program: JAG Keeps Students From Dropping Out, Prepares Them for Jobs.
By Ese Isiorho, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Apr. 24–Graduation is right around the corner, and Fort Wayne Community Schools is trying ensure that each student makes it to the end.
Four FWCS high schools — Northrop, Wayne, Elmhurst and North Side — joined Jobs for America’s Graduates’ (JAG) dropout-prevention program this school year. The Virginia-based nonprofit helps students gain meaningful employment or some form of higher education by providing them with work skills, adult mentoring, and leadership development and training.
“We just knew that this was a wonderful program,” said Chuck DeFord, principal of North Side High School, who was told at the beginning of the school year his school would be a JAG school.
About 10 North Side juniors and seniors have been participating in the program since November. By the start of the 2007-08 school year, DeFord said he would like to see that number double. “It really helps the students that we have (it) in this building.”
About 58 percent of North Side’s students qualify for free or reduced lunch, one of the deciding factors in which students are chosen for the program. Others include the student’s attendance record, grade- point average and the risk that he or she may drop out of school without the program. School counselors select the students for the program, which is in more than 700 high schools across the United States, including 12 in Indiana.
The JAG model began in Delaware in 1979.
In Indiana, the program has three goals — have students earn a diploma or GED, gain job skills and obtain full-time employment after graduation.
“The students that we work with may be at a higher risk of not making a good transition from high school to the real world or be at risk for dropping out,” said Zakiya Kyles, North Side’s JAG specialist.
About 3.2 percent of FWCS’ 9,326 high school students dropped out of school during the 2005-06 school year, down from 4 percent in 2004-05.
JAG’s goals for participating schools are a 90 percent graduation rate and a 60 percent full-time job rate after graduation. In 2005, the national graduation rate was 68 percent. JAG students graduated at a 91 percent clip, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, which funds Indiana’s involvement in the program.
In 2006, JAG’s graduation rate was 92 percent.
“We are quite impressed with the JAG model and its success in other states,” said Andrew Penca, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. “This program addresses two of our most daunting educational challenges — keeping at-risk youth in school and equipping them with the workplace skills of the 21st century.”
“I believe that the program is important because it gives students a heads-up on life in the real world,” Kyles said. “They learn some of the basic things here that they will need to be successful in the real world.”
North Side students have been working on resumes, cover letters and how to effectively fill out a job application. They also performed community service to learn “the importance of giving back to the community using the gifts and skills and talents that you’ve acquired,” Kyles said.
Upon completion of the program, students have three options — a $1,250 scholarship toward college; a paid internship in their field of interest; or participation in a computer workshop where they learn to build and disassemble computers.
“The program makes a big difference,” said Kyles, who has seen attendance rates increase and at least six students raise their GPAs since November. “Attitudes have changed.”
Penca said, “Early reports from participating schools are quite positive. The one-on-one mentoring personalizes school for these students, making it relevant and important.”
In a statement, Gov. Mitch Daniels said, “We’re counting on Indiana’s youth to play an important role in Indiana’s comeback, so it’s important they stay in, graduate from high school and learn the skills necessary to be successful in a quality job.”
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Copyright (c) 2007, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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