63% graduation rate in NC! How depressing. Too bad NC is so slack on reporting other data to add to the statistics for our state. INteresting...they're not too slack to have radical, irrational standards for us, but yet they can;t provide info for a survey such as that. This data should be simple - we have to fill in data such as this on our EOG's. I would assume it would be the same for EOC's - an easy place from which to gather data. We always wonder what the state does with all the data we have to fill out -- here's a purpose and they don;t even use it!!! GO figure!

Any suggestions for improving the grad. rate? I wonder what it is in McDowell? Do you think the ALC, LEAP Academy, etc. programs help? My husband works at the ALC as the At-Risk Youth Case manager. This positions is funded by a grant. He is like a Mentor to these kids. He also spend a lot of time at the junior highs. He goes and gets them when they are laying out, missed the bus, takes them to Dr/ DDS appointments, buys food for the families, goes on trips with them, but most of all talks with them. There is one girl right now that is 16 in the 7th grade. She has not been there for the past week. He has gone looking for her, but is unable to contact her. But I look at this from her point of view. She is going to age out of the system before she can graduate. What chance does she have to make it? Has the government created this problem by NCLB? She keeps being held back because she cannot make a certain score on a test. But the govn't keeps up with the grad rates. It is a vicious cycle.

We have talked about this (just amongst ourselves) several times, that we need an alternative school for elementary students. By the time they get the option of the alc in junior high most of them have already given up. They need something for young students who struggle as well.

I agree with Deanna about the alternative school for elementary students. I had a child transfer here from Buncombe County and he was in the process of being sent to an alternative school there because of his aggression and behaviors. After receiving all his paperwork, observations, and experiencing his outbursts first hand, I feared for our safety. He had a full time one-on-one worker there, but because of a lack of communication with the testing/ placement papers, I could only have a one-on-one for a half day.

These children need alternatives to help the succeed. It stresses the teachers and child's peers too much.