Coaches to Help Struggling Seniors

[Rich Gibson <rgibson@pipeline.com>]

> Ya Can't Make This Stuff Up
>
> http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/20080712-9999-1cz12coaches.html
>
> 'Coaches' to help struggling high school seniors
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> District seeking to cut dropout rate
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> By Maureen Magee
> UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
>
> July 12, 2008
>
> San Diego high school students in jeopardy of 
> failing to meet graduation requirements might 
> get sent to the coach's office in the fall ? for 
> remediation, not laps and push-ups.
>
> The San Diego Unified School District will 
> establish a graduation coach at each of its 16 
> comprehensive high schools to help struggling 
> students make it to commencement ceremonies in June.
>
> The program is part of a broader effort to lower the high school dropout rate.
>
> ?We have 10,000 ninth-graders and 6,000 
> seniors,? Superintendent Terry Grier said. ?We 
> are losing 4,000 students. We have got to do something to help them.?
>
> The new coaches will work with up to 1,600 
> seniors each year to make up failed classes and 
> pass the high school exit exam while maintaining 
> their current course loads needed to graduate.
>
> But these students will not have to retake the 
> failed courses, per se. Rather they will revisit 
> the classes on computers, using a new software 
> program designed to assess their knowledge of a 
> class and prescribe the work needed to pass it.
>
> For example, a student who failed sophomore 
> English would get a diagnostic ranking for that 
> course from the software. The student would then 
> be assigned a certain number of hours of 
> computer work needed to raise the grade to a passing mark.
>
> Later in the school year, the coaches would also 
> work with freshmen who earned failing grades in 
> at least three courses in their first semester 
> of high school. The coaches would assign those 
> students to after-hours programs and other 
> interventions designed to keep them on track to graduate.
>
> The district spent $278,000 on the software 
> system ? and the training needed to use it ? 
> from Apex Learning Inc., a Bellevue, Wash., 
> company that is a leader in the virtual schools movement.
>
> Principals and teachers from San Diego campuses 
> tested the software before the school board 
> voted to buy it at its meeting Tuesday. Students 
> will begin making up courses this month in a 
> trial run of the new system, which carries a 
> stamp of approval from the Western Association of Colleges and Schools.
>
> The graduation coaching jobs will be filled from 
> a pool of existing employees. Each high school 
> has two extra positions that have been 
> historically assigned duties at the discretion 
> of the school staff. The coaching job will take up one of those positions.
>
> The new program is one of several virtual 
> offerings that the district will make available 
> to struggling students in the coming years. 
> Additional online courses will be developed at 
> Garfield and Twain high schools, two alternative campuses.
>
>
> []
> Maureen Magee: (619) 293-1369; 
> <http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/education/MAILTO:maureen.magee@uniontrib.com>maureen.magee@uniontrib.com