By TARA HETTINGER
Five high schools in the county did not meet the state’s goal of having 90 percent of students graduate in 2009, according to figures released Friday by the Indiana Department of Education.
However, two schools did. Henryville High School came in at exactly 90 percent and Clarksville High School reached 92.6 percent. The average for Indiana schools was 81.5 percent in 2009.
“I’m not surprised, because I know how hard we’ve been working at that,” said Kim Knott, interim superintendent at Clarksville Community School Corp.
Greater Clark County Schools was the only district in the county with numbers in the 70s, with Jeffersonville High School at 77.8 percent and New Washington Middle/High School at 79.3 percent.
“We believe we can do better,” said Marty Bell, chief operating officer for Greater Clark. “[Superintendent Stephen Daeschner] is implementing additional alternative programs to make sure we don’t lose kids. He has also implemented a no-expulsion policy, meaning we are going to push kids harder to make sure they graduate.”
One of the alternative programs is an e-school program at Options Alternative School. There, students can earn a high school diploma by taking Internet courses.
“A high school environment may not be right for every kid, so we’ve tried to set up an alternative setting where they can be successful,” Bell said. “We hope the data is going to get better as we continue to work on the issue, because our goal is to make sure every kid has the option to graduate high school and be college ready.
“That doesn’t mean they have to go to college, but we want to make sure they are ready.”
For West Clark Community Schools, both Borden and Silver Creek high schools’ graduation rates dropped. Borden went from 88.9 in 2008 to 87.7 percent graduating in 2009, and Silver Creek fell from 92.4 to 86.2 percent in that time period.
Denise Bessler, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for West Clark, said some students — who need more than four years to graduate — are not calculated in the statistic. She said some have special learning needs, family issues at home or behavioral issues that keep them from graduating on time.
“As a school, we have to look at all the different areas and provide interventions to help the students be successful,” Bessler said. “That’s what we hope we’re doing for students. As a district, we’re putting a much greater emphasis on that ... Some of the things we’ve put in place will take time to have an impact.
Some of the new programs at the district include having instructional coaches for teachers, Read 180 — a reading intervention program — and other initiatives.
As for Clarksville, Knott said she was pleased with the numbers.
“We’re very excited about it and all the credit goes back to the high school teachers and administrators. They have worked hard to make sure students pass the Graduation Qualifying Exam and get their credits,” she said. “This is an indicator that we are doing something right, and that’s always good to know.”
