City Year Changes Focus To Improving High School Graduation Rates
Founded in 1988 the charity whose volunteers once built
hiking trails, worked in libraries, and did myriad other tasks, has overhauled
its service program to focus on a single mission: improving graduation rates in
struggling public schools. The transformation was tied to a Johns Hopkins
research study worked on by Robert Balfanz,brother of City Year's President
Jim Balfanz.
According to the Johns Hopkins study the high-school dropout
crisis is concentrated. Roughly 12 percent of the country’s high schools
account for 50 percent of the students who don’t graduate.
The math and English tutoring and the volunteers’ work to
encourage good attendance are important, says Rashida Tyler, principal of
Browne Education Campus. But their ability to do that is based on the
relationships they build with students.
Ms.Tyler says that when she thinks about the impact City
Year has made in her school, she thinks of the improved confidence of a student
who has developed a good relationship with her tutor. Ad when the student meets
one of her goals, she gets to wear the corps member’s City Year pin or jacket
for the day.
“It reaffirms her self-esteem,” says Ms. Tyler. “Little
things like that really go a long way.”
Today, across the country, 2,000 City Year corps members
ages 17 to 24 serve full time in 187 struggling public schools in poor neighborhoods.
They tutor students, call their homes to check on them when
they’re absent from school, help teachers with classroom activities, and lead
projects to improve school buildings and grounds. In return, the volunteers get
living stipends and an educational award of $5,550 when they complete their
year of service. The organization currently operates in 25 cities across the
U.S.
To learn more and support City Year visit http://www.cityyear.org/
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