FLORENCE — Florence School District 1’s Graduate Florence program is showing signs of positive results as the district tries to reclaim its youths and help them stay in school.
Jim Shaw, coordinator of health and physical education for Florence 1, presented data during the board’s regular meeting Thursday on students involved in the initiative, which also is aimed at educating the community about the impact high school dropouts have.
There are 16 projects that fall under the umbrella of Graduate Florence, which is being implemented with the support of community and school organizations.
Those include smaller learning communities at each high school; the implementation of the Education and Economic Development Act through High Schools That Work and Making Middle Grades Work; Graduate Florence Academy; a summer bridge program for sixth- through eighth-grade students; credit and attendance recovery; afterschool tutoring; teen jobs program; faith-based and rotary mentoring programs; parent seminars and workshops; Graduate Florence Reconnection; a Drop Out Early Warning System (DEWS); and “Opening Doors to the Future.”
During the 2007-08 school year, 534 students were involved in credit recovery, and they earned 728 units of credit, Shaw said.
Credit recovery is designed to keep students from falling behind by allowing them to earn course credit previously lost.
The summer session included 390 students earning 499 units of credit.
Shaw also mentioned some other areas of Graduate Florence that have yielded positive results.
One-hundred-and-two sixth- through ninth-grade students participated in the four-week intensive summer bridge program, where several topics in the areas of English and math were taught.
Forty-two at-risk eighth-grade students from middle schools in Florence 1 have signed up for the district’s Graduate Florence Academy.
The academy offers students an opportunity to get back on track with their peers through a rigorous and individualized technology-based program.
Students who participate in the program, which is held at South Florence High School, should be able to enter the 10th grade upon completion of the program.
The goal of the Graduate Florence is to increase the graduation rate by 5 percent during the next three years. Seventy-one percent of the district’s students graduate within four years.
The program also helps the school and the community connect with students, and help them find positive career goals.
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