Wake’s school system takes a direct path to curb school dropout rate

Acceleration Academies of Chicago was charged by Wake County school officials with helping dropouts gain their diplomas, and the company got results: 69 graduates, with more on the way. What the company does in motivating and helping dropouts clearly works, and it’s brought the company $3.3 million over the past two years. County officials are appreciative.

But they rightly want to try to do the same kind of work in house. Wake school officials say they’ve learned a lot about blending classroom work with online courses for dropouts and tailoring programs to help them gain diplomas based on their personal needs. And it would stand to reason that providing such a service within the school system might make it possible to reach more dropouts and to help more attain diplomas.

It’s an understatement to say that the lack of a high school diploma is a ticket to a lifetime of hard work and low pay. In fact, the lack of a college education is said by some educators to be the equivalent of the lack of a high school diploma years ago. So that makes the high school degree all the more important, for it’s an absolute necessity in getting advanced education in colleges and technical schools.

And Wake County should devote official resources and develop its own program for helping its own former students finish what they started when they entered this excellent public school system.

This story was originally published July 4, 2017 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Wake’s school system takes a direct path to curb school dropout rate."