“In order to succeed, people need a sense of self-efficacy, to struggle together with resilience to meet the inevitable obstacles and inequities of life.” — Albert Bandura

Dropout Rate Key Topic in North Carolina Gubernatorial Race – WRAL.com, 4/21/08

Eight major-party candidates for governor of North Carolina were recently asked to respond to three questions posed by the Associated Press on the topic of education. Responses vary widely to the first question, “What specific steps would you take in your first year in office to reduce the percentage of dropouts, and how much would your initiatives cost?” But, most agree that the state needs to do a better job in supporting education initiatives that encourage retention and connect students with the 21st century skills they need as they enter the job force.

AT&T Commits $100 Million to Dropout Prevention – Education Week, 4/17/08

The $100 million AT&T Aspire program includes four key components: grants to school districts, school district foundations, and nonprofit organizations focused on high school students retention; job shadowing for 100,000 students, in conjunction with Junior Achievement Worldwide; research on the high school dropout issue and solutions conducted by John Bridgeland, author of the landmark report "The Silent Epidemic," for AT&T and America's Promise Alliance; and by underwriting 100 community dropout prevention summits (PDF), organized by America's Promise Alliance, to engage education experts and community leaders across all 50 states around the high school dropout crisis and ways to address it.

Success Highways Customer News

“Crossroads” Program Puts Middle School Students on the Road to Success — 4/16/08

Clark County School District (NV) and Nevada City College have partnered to give 120 middle school students the opportunity to learn nonacademic skills such as time and stress management, motivation, resiliency, self-esteem and decision-making tactics. At the heart of Crossroads is the Success Highways curriculum, which was chosen specifically with the aim of improving the retention rate of students from around the district that have been identified by their school counselors as “at-risk” for not finishing high school. Teachers, principals and students are experiencing positive effects after just three sessions. Dr. Lori Navarrete, Associate Dean of the School of Education at Nevada State College states, “It’s fun to observe the program and see the growth in these students who otherwise may not even think about going to college.” More ...

Events of Interest

Best Practices for Student Success, Baltimore, MD - July 28, 2008

Sponsored by the National Middle School Association, topics at this full-day workshop include: Teaching and Assessing Through Multiple Intelligences, Villages of Hope: Responding to Children of Poverty, and Lion Taming 101: Classroom Management. For more information, visit NMSA.

98th Annual Truancy, Dropout and Delinquency Prevention Conference, Las Vegas, NV - Oct 12-16, 2008

The 2008 International Association for Truancy and Drop Out Prevention Conference brings together school and community professionals to encourage team building, to recognize outstanding achievements in service to at-risk youth and families, and to provide an opportunity to share information about effective strategies, techniques, and programs in truancy, dropout, and delinquency prevention. Click here for registration information.

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About this Newsletter

Success Highways News is brought to you by ScholarCentric, publisher of Success Highways, a dropout prevention program for students in grades 7-9. You can reach us at info@scholarcentric.com, visit our Web site at http://www.scholarcentric.com, or call us at our toll free number 800-995-8779.

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