Dropout Intervention Program

National education research is finding that 6th-12th grade are the grades for in-school interventions in order to impact the dropout crisis in our nation, states, cities and schools.  Especially at the 9th grade level, reserachers are discovering that this is a major leverage point to positively impacting high school graduation rates.  The majority of students who do not obtain enough 9th grade credit to successfully promote on-time to the 10th grade will fail to graduate on time.   Risk factors have been identified in the form of early semester attendance, first quarter grades, first semester credit attainment and GPA. 

In the Fall of 2007, CYC launched a pilot program at West High School to address the high rates of 9th grade failure and subsequent dropping out behavior within Denver Public Schools.  After identifying the students who had poor attendance and were failing one to two courses after their first high school quarter, CYC staff identified the teachers that had a majority of these failing students in their classrooms.  In speaking with one of these teachers, who taught algebra, she indicated that any adult volunteers and tutors that we could bring into her classroom would make a huge difference.  Over the course of that first pilot semester, CYC brought 25 volunteers into her algebra classroom and tutored a cohort of 2 classes totaling 54 students for approximately 200 hours.  Additional work is being done by our dropout intervention specialist to reach out to students who are not regularly attending class in order to improve attendance, and also to work with students to access their academic progress online so that they can learn to monitor their own performance.  The added program element for 2nd semester is an afterschool program on Thursdays where volunteers help this cohort of students with any homework or classwork that they have, along with music and refreshments.

With the success of this dropout intervention pilot project at West High School, CYC secured Tony Grampsas Youth Services funding to continue this program with a full-time intervention specialist.  Starting in the fall of 2008, CYC worked with 127 9th graders by bringing adult volunteers into their algebra classrooms to assist them in passing the class.  Results of the program are that 81% of students passed the class with 70% passing with a C grade or above.  2008 was year one of a three year grant.

Also in the Fall of 2008, CYC partnered with Aurora Public Schools to secure a CDE Counselor Corps grant which created six dropout intervention specialist positions within APS, one at each traditional high school with two at Aurora Central.  CYC consulted in creating an early warning system for students earning an F grade in a first semester course, and identified and tracked appropriate interventions and outcomes to interventions.  Preliminary data indicates that this intervention continues to be a success.