On-Time Graduation

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

On-Time Graduation Henrico County, VA Population: 280,581 Graduation rate is a significant measure of how well counties are teaching children and preparing them for the future. As a result, Henrico County created an on-time graduation initiative that keeps students in school and earning credits toward graduation day. Henrico County Public Schools’ on-time graduation initiative includes individualized support, student specific interventions, and nine different credit recovery options. This initiative has already significantly decreased the County’s dropout rate and will continue to pay even greater dividends as this affects all 9-12th grade students. The on-time graduation initiative offers students options to aid them in an on-time graduation and prepare them for the future. The Creative School Involvement program involves the addition of a behavior interventionist at the middle school level. Program for Academic and Career Empowerment (PACE) was created as an overage middle school program to ensure that 15-, 16- and 17-year-old middle school students did not drop out of school. Excel Enrichment Academy provides an alternative to expelled students. Academy at Virginia Randolph (AVR) is an alternative high school that allows students to learn in a much smaller, individualized learning environment, while gaining technical skills and technical certificates. Center for Diversified Studies (CDS) allows for students to do an independent study with teachers. Evening School of Excellence (ESOE) is an evening school program that allows students to take core courses, as well as health and PE at night. ISAEP is a GED program for students who have exhausted all other graduation options. The program is rigorous and assures that students have the basic skills necessary for the work force. Henrico Heroes Mentoring is a mentoring program in which students are paired with a mentor at the school. The program served over 2,000 students with a mentor in 2010-2011. Online Credit Recovery is an online credit recovery program called e2020. Each school has a team comprised of teachers, counselors, and administrators who closely monitor all students that are in danger of failing or dropping out of school. The monitoring team uses a wide array of data to monitor student progress and assigns remediation where needed. The overall result of this initiative has been tremendous. Hundreds of students are earning credits that would not have been through traditional methods. As a result, Henrico Public Schools had a decrease of 291 annual dropouts at the end of the 2010-2011 school years. This decrease represents a 38% decrease.