The following article was reprinted with permission from the Journal & Courier, Lafayette IN. (A comment about Jeff adjusting their graduation rate from 65% to 63.5% is listed below in red.)

Lafayette Jeff is on a mission

By Meranda Waitling, JOURNAL & COURIER, March 7, 2007

Tucker Bess had difficulty sitting through class as a student at Jefferson High School.

"I'd skip school and go chill with friends," Bess said.

For him, classes were boring and distractions were plentiful. So about a year and a half ago, after being kicked out of Jeff for fighting, he enrolled in Lafayette School Corp.'s alternative school.

Today, he's completing coursework on the computer and earning credit for working a job at Penn Station, a Lafayette restaurant. He plans to graduate in December, half a year later than his original graduation date.

Although he'll earn his diploma, because it won't be on time, he'll be one of the strikes against Jefferson's graduation rate when it's calculated for this year.

It has been two months since Jefferson High School learned that one-third of its students do not graduate as expected. Since then, superintendent Ed Eiler said LSC has taken a careful look at what is being done and what could be done to improve its graduation rate.

Despite public outcry following the release of that number, Eiler said it didn't surprise the district. Still, he admits LSC and Jeff have a lot of work left to do.

Scope of the problem

In January, the Indiana Department of Education released graduation rates for each of the state's high schools. For the first time, a new method of calculation was used.

Under those calculations, Jefferson's rate was 63.5 percent in 2005-06. (Originally Jeff's graduation rate was reported by the state to be 65 percent, but it has since been adjusted.) Out of 587 students in the class, 373 graduated from Jefferson with either an honors, Core 40 or general diploma.

The average graduation rate in Indiana was 76.5 percent. Neighboring public high schools came in at or above average. West Lafayette High School's rate as reported to the state was 95.4 percent, Harrison High School's was 85.9 percent, and McCutcheon High School's was 76.7 percent.

Changes at Jeff

Among the solutions Jefferson has already taken is a shift toward more personalization for students and parents, Jeff principal Glade Montgomery said.

"We're trying to develop a transition program for at-risk freshmen next year to help with all aspects of their coursework," he said.

Also for the first time, counselors are sitting down with each freshman to go over where they stand before registering for next year's classes.

"We used to register freshmen for sophomore classes in group settings," Montgomery said. "This year, counselors are meeting one-on-one with each student to talk about their four-year plan."

Montgomery also is visiting with Tecumseh Junior High School eighth-grade classes to talk about how Jeff and high school are different. By explaining concepts such as earning credits and how the attendance policy becomes more stringent, he said he hopes they'll realize the importance of personal responsibility.

He's also talking to them about the graduation rate and how they can help improve it.

Eighth-grader Morgan Lauer said the discussion about graduation rates came up in her reading class.

Although not worried for herself, she was surprised. "I didn't know that many people didn't graduate from high school."

Jane Likens, who has a 10th-grade student at Jeff and an eighth-grader who will begin this fall, said she doesn't fault the school for the low rate.

"The school system recognizes there is a problem, that's why they're making the changes," Likens said. ".. They're doing everything in their power to make them succeed. Now it's up to the parents and kids to make it happen."

Montgomery said although there may be other things the school can do, he wants to focus and "make sure the things we're doing, we do well."

Get them early

The roots of academic success begin in learning to read and perform math even as young as pre-school or kindergarten---long before a student gets to high school.

Eiler said closing achievement gaps---or differences in performance between where a student is and where he or she should be---early is crucial because "once a child gets behind, the gap widens."

"One of the insidious things about the achievement gap is, once it's present, it's not acceptable to make just a year's progress," Eiler said. "You're asking not just to be average, but you've got to be above average each year until caught up. .. It's very difficult to close that gap."

To close the gap, the district is making efforts in earlier grades, associate superintendent Linda Thompson said.

Each student in kindergarten through sixth grade undergoes regular assessments to determine if they're above where they should be, where they should be, just below where they should be or in need of intensive help to get where they should be.

For the students below standards, teachers meet to determine individual action plans to get them up to speed.

"By and large, the children who we've provided the help have been successful," Thompson said. "Our challenge is that we often have students enter our system, leave and then re-enter. There are gaps in their learning."

To address the transiency issue among elementary students who often move within the district, teachers follow curriculum maps, Thompson said. The district outlines what standards must be taught at each grade level during each grading period.

If a student moves to another school in the district, he or she isn't taught one thing multiple times while missing something else important, she said.

It also makes sure all the state's standards are covered and teachers don't run out of time at the end of the year.

"It allows the teachers to know, 'OK, during this nine weeks, this is what my students need to know to be prepared,'" Thompson said.

Other initiatives the district is undertaking include after-school homework clubs, counseling and mentoring to address issues outside the classroom and increased instruction time for core subjects, such as math and reading.

Where to go from here

Despite these efforts, many of which have been ongoing, the rate is still a disappointment.

"I don't care what the percentage is, if it's not 100, it could be better," Eiler said.

Eiler has added a page to the district's Web site at http://lsc.k12.in.us under "Graduation Rate Info." On the page he offers detailed information on the school's rate, factors he sees as contributing to it and what solutions the district is undertaking.

"Like any complex problem, it didn't occur overnight," Eiler said.

"It's not like there's a pill you can take at night and wake up and be fine. It takes concentrated effort. That's what we try to do."

The district isn't aiming for a particular number, just continued improvement.

In the coming years, Eiler said the numbers are likely to increase just because of variance among different class years.

Montgomery said he thinks it's good the community is responding and talking about the graduation rate. He's even met with parents to hear their ideas and frustrations.

"This has to be a community effort," he said.

Eiler echoed that opinion, and said the attention gives the district a chance to evaluate and improve.

"We are always open to new ideas," Eiler said.

"There isn't a day that goes by that we don't try to improve. We by no means have all the answers. If we had all the answers we wouldn't have the results we do."

Where do the students go?

Of the 587 students slated to graduate from Jefferson High School in the 2005-06 school year, 373, or 63.5%, received high school diplomas on time. The others left, received alternate certificates or remain in school.

Status	Number	Percent
Graduated	373	63.5%
Dropped out	100	17.0%
Still in school	48	8.2%
Received GED	32	5.5%
Unknown	30	5.1%
Non-diploma course completion	3	0.5%
Special Education Certificate	1	0.2%

Dropout reasons

Of the students not graduating last year, 100 were reported to the state as dropouts. Here are the reasons students gave for leaving school:

Number	Reason
40	Disinterested in curriculum: The student demonstrated ability but lacked motivation or interest.
33	Unknown or no shows
9	Record of school failure: The studunt was retained or or had failing or near-failing grades.
8	Expulsion: The student did not return when eligible.
4	Incorrigibility: The student had a history of discipline problems in school.
3	Poor health: The student was chroniclly ill.
2	Pregnancy: The female student was pregnant when she withdrew from school.
1	Marriage: The student had a desire to marry.

How are the grad rates calculated?

This "How are the grad rates calculated" section was in the web version but not the electronic version of the story.

With students entering high school in 2002, schools in Indiana began collecting the data to calculate the graduation rate in a new way.

Previously, rates were calculated by taking the number of students enrolled in a grade at the beginning of the year and subtracting the students who dropped out that year. The school's graduation rate was an average of its four class years.

Today, however, students are tracked beginning when they enter ninth grade. Over the course of high school, other students who enter their class---either as transfers or from other class years---are added to the total expected to graduate.

Students who transfer to another school, enroll in a virtual school or leave for homeschooling are removed from the total. Also subtracted are students who leave for medical reasons, are in detention by a law enforcement agency or are put in child services by a court. Others who graduate early or leave to take classes at a college also are not counted. Finally, students reported as missing persons or who leave but were in Indiana's public school system for less than a year are also removed.

To determine the graduation rate, the state takes the number of students who actually graduate and divides it by that total number expected to graduate.

Under the previous method, Indiana had a statewide graduation rate in 2004-05 of 89.9 percent. Jefferson High School's rate was 77.1 percent.

SOURCE: Indiana Dept. of Education, http://doe.state.in.us/gradrate