The Edmond Sun

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March 9, 2009

Few drop out at Edmond, Deer Creek

Patty Miller

EDMOND — Based on the 2007-08 Academic Performance Index, the Edmond school district’s graduation rate was 98.4 percent with a dropout rate of 1.3 percent; Deer Creek schools had a 1.3 percent dropout rate.

Ninety-five Edmond students dropped out of high school during the 2007-08 school term.

“This is absolutely outstanding, but it is still not good enough for us,” said Brenda Lyons, associate superintendent of secondary education.

According to Lyons, of the 95 students dropping out, 22 were special education students.

Edmond’s remediation program is credited for the low drop out numbers. The district uses various means to help students who get behind, who do not understand specific concepts or who might better understand a concept through an early introduction to it.

“The district’s credit recovery program allows students to recover credits in math and English,” said Linda DeSpain, associate superintendent of curriculum services. “The program was started to help our students who needed their algebra I credit, but some also take it for algebra II and geometry.”

The district also offers guided study four two hours a day four days a week.

“Some students are assigned and some go voluntarily for help in math, English and biology,” DeSpain said.

While working on English and biology, students also work on reading, she added.

Students who need help in reading or are not reading on level attend the Academy of Reading. Students who did not pass the eighth-grade reading test spend three days on a computer-assisted learning program, and they spend the other two days working on reading skills with a teacher.

Each school has its own twists to helping students come up to the grade on courses in which they may be having trouble.

Santa Fe High School does Saturday remediation from 5-7 p.m. and also has lunch study hall during the week. There are 10-15 students who meet each lunch period.

“Our lunch study hall is primarily for students in the ninth grade, although a few sophomores show up,” said Santa Fe Assistant Principal Susie Shumate.

Throughout the district there is a real push to help students not fail, DeSpain said.

“Our teachers assign meaningful work, and they make sure the students have the opportunity to make up anything they have missed or don’t understand.”

DeSpain said the middle schools also have remediation programs for their students to help them understand concepts they might have missed or do not understand. Two of those programs are FOCUS and TOPS.

“Focus is an hour-long, elective, semester-long course for students not passing the OCCT state-mandated reading or math test,” Despain said. “TOPS is for a student when they start falling behind.”

A teacher can pull a student out of an elective for up to three weeks to help them with a core curriculum class. Students also can spend an extra hour with a teacher who pre-teaches a concept before the students go to their regular class.

“Our teachers make a really strong effort to see students do what is required,” DeSpain said.

A summer program will begin this summer for students who did not pass the EOI test. This class of ninth-graders will have to pass a test at the end of their senior year in order to graduate.

“The summer program will give the students a chance to go over skills they have not mastered,” DeSpain said. “The program has been funded for Algebra I starting this year.

“We have a tremendous number of chances for success if the student takes the opportunity to attend.”

DeSpain said poor attendance is always a contributing factor to the number of students who drop out of high school.

Although Edmond’s graduation requirements are higher than the state requirements, DeSpain said there are multiple ways for each student to achieve success.

“With the remediation programs we have in place,” DeSpain said, “we work toward not having any dropouts.”

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