RAPSA members are signing on to a letter advocating that the new ESSA regulations include a one year graduation rate for schools serving reengaged dropouts and other over age under credit students. 

The letter also calls for explicitly authorizing differentiated accountability for schools serving at promise students.  The current regulations will result in any high school that does not graduate 67% of its students being subject to state intervention.  According to Dr. Russell Rumberger’s book, Dropping Out, the diploma rate for schools that serve former dropouts is below 20%. 

Take a look at the letter and either send it on your own letterhead or e-mail Ernie Silva if you would like to be included in the signature block.  Hurry the deadline is August 1, 2016.

Several organizations including Our Piece of the Pie, High School for Recording Arts (HSRA), and SIATech schools collaborated on a new report, Seizing the Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning, which includes information on new and improved learning strategies. These new methods provide students with advanced learning tools  that allow them to become more prepared for a successful future. Students are attended to on a more personal level and students are able to learn at their own pace. In the long run, students are empowered through transparency and self-ownership of their education.
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Chris Sturgis of Competency Works wrote an article about student-centered learning. Read more here.

Pictured above are representatives from the organizations who collaborated on the “Seizing the Moment” report which was presented in Washington, DC, on May 3, 2016. Several of them will be in attendance at the 2016 Alternative Accountability Policy Forum in Coronado this October.

In honor of students who work to re-engage in high school and the staff who support them, California has passed legislation (ACR 166) to establish a “Dropout Recovery Week” for the week of August 4. 

This year many groups came together with SIATech to support the Resolution including the NAACP, MALDEF, LAUSD, SDUSD, the California Charter Schools Association, and several other organizations.  ACR 166 is "in honor of the pupils who overcome significantly personal challenges to reengage in high school and become transformed learners in preparation for college and a future career."

The Resolution was covered in NoDropouts - "SIATech and other school leaders sponsor Dropout Recovery Week legislation in California," on July 8, 2014.

If you’d like to talk about ways to get involved with Dropout Recovery Week, contact Ernie Silva.