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Friday, April 29, 2005
A Gateway for Dropouts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An interesting new charter school is coming to DeKalb. (Sorry if my recent posts seem DeKalb-centric. I am temporarily covering the DeKalb district.) Starting in August, the Gateway to College Academy at Georgia Perimeter College will serve about 70 dropouts and students thinking of quitting school, with the goal of eventually serving 300.
Students will work toward their high school diploma and have the opportunity to earn college credits. The program is based on a successful school in Portland, partly funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Principal Robert Wigfall called to tell me a bit about the Gateway program at Georgia Perimeter. The idea, he said, is to challenge students beyond just graduating from high school. The program will be “challenging for your average dropout,” he said. He acknowledged it’s not for everybody. But the Portland program has proven some kids can dramatically turn around their prospects when given a chance.
Wigfall, who recently returned from Portland, said the city has a variety of programs for struggling students. The district “is really making a big dent” in the dropout problem, he said.
Wigfall said Georgia needs more programs for a variety of students, not more standardized tests. “Our answer to everything to this point has been another test,” he said. “We can look at other avenues.”
In other words, if I understood him correctly, we should spend less time and money diagnosing a problem that obviously exists and more time trying to fix it.
