Baltimore County education officials have planned two innovative programs this fall that could help keep more than 600 potential dropouts in school.
Teachers are working to identify as many as 450 students in grades six through 10 who are at least two reading levels behind as candidates for a new math and reading program housed in an undetermined White Marsh-area school, said Dale Rauenzahn, executive director of student support services for the county school system.
The second program will draw up to 160 at-risk students from Essex?s Chesapeake High School and combines the system?s existing dropout prevention program, Maryland?s Tomorrow, with a new computer-assisted instruction developed by a California-based vendor.
“We felt this was a reinvigoration of that program,” Rauenzahn said. “If it performs the way we think it will, we think it will be a model for other schools.”
The county?s graduation rates have dropped the past three consecutive years, from 86 percent in 2004 to almost 85 percent in 2005 to 82.4 percent in 2006, according to state records.
Members of the County Council last month approved $3.68 million in startup costs for the programs, including a portable classroom to house the Maryland?s Tomorrow program on Chesapeake High?s campus. Rauenzahn said the county is identifying potential rental sites between White Marsh and Chase for the reading-based program.
Area education advocates said they?ve studied strategies to improve county graduation rates for at least the past five years. Meg O?Hare, a member of the county?s board of education, said leaders “didn?t want to do the wrong thing.”
“Instead of trying to put a Band-Aid on it, we should fix the problem,” O?Hare said. “We worried a long time about adolescent development and I think somehow, mistakenly, the education system has not demanded enough from middle school students.”
Ella White Campbell, who chairs the school system?s Minority Achievement Advisory Group, said anything to keep students in school a plus.
“They are a priority,” Campbell said. “We have to do all we can to save our children.”
