Dropout Prevention Programs

To better prepare young men and women to be successful in the next step of their lives - whether that includes attending college or heading into the workforce - Louisiana is rethinking and retooling everything about middle and high schools.   And the efforts to retool middle and high school culminate with the primary goal of reducing the number of students who drop out of school.

About 10,000 Louisiana students in grades 7-12 dropped out of high school in 2010.  But we have the tools to identify a large number of these struggling students who are either overage or underachieving, and thus, at risk for dropping out of school. From College and Career Readiness to the enhancement of Career & Technical Education (CTE), these initiatives work in concert to boost the graduation rate.   For example, more than 72 percent of Louisiana high school students are enrolled in at least one CTE course; statistics show that 97.6 percent of Louisiana students who complete at least three CTE credits earn a high school diploma.   In addition to these programmatic enhancements, there are several other initiatives being implemented to improve graduation rates and reduce dropout rates.

Louisiana is focused on improving the graduation rate through the Superintendent’s Delivery Unit, which is a team tasked with analyzing graduation rates to come up with solutions for districts and schools; the Dropout Early Warning System (DEWS), which identifies students at-risk for leaving school so that schools and districts can intervene; and Everybody Graduates!, which is being implemented in some high schools to help freshmen make an easy transition into high school.   Everybody Graduates! is a continuation of the Ninth Grade Initiative.  Additionally, the Accelerated Student Achievement Pathway (ASAP) provides an accelerated graduation track for overage high school students.

Other successful programs that are having a positive impact on improving the graduation rate are the Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG), which assists struggling students in earning a GED, acquiring job skills and securing full-time jobs; Educational Mission to Prepare Louisiana’s Youth (EMPLoY), which provides struggling students with soft skills and job training in addition to work towards earning a diploma or GED.  The state is also focused on Louisiana’s Promise, which engages communities in developing their own plans to solve the dropout crisis.

Additionally, each district is required to offer Alternative Education services, which serve students who are not succeeding in the traditional education setting, and offer a venue which prevents students from dropping out of school.