By LORI HIGGINS
FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER
School officials across Michigan have taken a crucial pledge to keep struggling stu dents in school.
The goal? Keep these kids from giving up and worsening already troubling statistics that show a quarter of Michi gan students fail to graduate on time and 15% drop out.
Nearly 1,100 schools across the state — including all 172 schools in Detroit Public Schools — have signed on to a dropout challenge, according to information released this week by the Michigan Depart ment of Education.
But signing up is one thing. Actually doing something about the problem is another. The state has asked the schools to identify 10 to 15 stu dents who are at risk of dropping out.
The schools must then pro vide interventions and sup ports to those students that are proven to work. Among the steps being taken across metro Detroit: extra instruction for students who are behind, as signing mentors to students so they have positive relation ships with adults, easing the transition from middle school to high school, and improving teaching methods.
Though just 30% of the state’s schools signed up, the challenge has the potential to reach more than 16,000 chil dren who might otherwise drop out. And many educators say they won’t stop at just 15 kids.
“We’re not going to say to the rest that we’re not going to worry about you. We’re going to work with everybody,” said Keith Wunderlich, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for L’ Anse Creuse Public Schools .
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