TERRE HAUTE —
Getting more young people to graduate from high school is a complicated task.
That effort exemplifies the broader challenge of revitalizing the community surrounding those schools. Thus, news that Vigo County schools have raised the district’s graduation rate from 73.4 percent in 2007 to 92.2 in 2012 merits more than applause, which is indeed due. That improvement process should serve as a roadmap for Terre Haute to overcome its greatest obstacles.
The Vigo County School Corp. graduation rate exceeded the state average of 87.9 percent and was the highest among the 10 largest districts making up the Indiana Urban Schools Association. Those niches are especially impressive given the overall graduation-rate improvement statewide, by 1.1 percent over last year and more than 10 percent since 2007, according to the Indiana Department of Education. The increase moves the state closer to the DOE goal of 90 percent graduation success. Vigo County is already there.
A cross-section of community members rolled up their sleeves to get these results, including educators, parents, students, VCSC staffers and board members, and as a group termed “community partners.”
In reality, the “community partners” should include all of us. The problems Vigo County schools face in raising its percentage of students earning a high school diploma are largely the same ones the city and county must conquer to become the best community in Indiana by 2020.
A prime difficulty in pushing a teenager to meet graduation requirements is simply getting them to show up for class. Some students, Tanoos pointed out, had a staggering number of absences — 30, 40 and 50 days or more per year. Poor attendance also plagues the workforce. In an analysis of the “skills gap” last month, local employers and job training groups mentioned the lack of “soft skills” as a key reason many people struggle to meet the requirements to perform advanced manufacturing work. “Soft skills” include showing up to work on time, or showing up — period — as well as getting along with co-workers, behaving properly with those colleagues, and following instructions.
Vigo County’s high child poverty rate inhibits learning for kids whose only balanced meals come through school breakfasts or lunches. The institution of a “backpack” program in the district has given children from low-income homes a little extra food to take home on the weekends. Adults who don’t maintain a balanced diet probably under-perform at work, and risk losing their job. The healthy behaviors of adults living in this sector of Indiana — the 8th congressional district — ranks 424th out of 436 districts nationwide, according to the latest Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index.
Do those behaviors — smoking rates, eating habits, lifestyle choices — matter? Well, in a community with five institutions of higher learning, the unemployment rate in Terre Haute has steadily remained at or near the highest among Indiana metropolitan areas since the recession ended (statistically) in 2009.
The district has used two alternative schools to redirect troubled kids toward class work and graduation. The proper support and environment lacking in some of those students’ lives are likely missing in the lives of some adults who end up on the wrong side of the law. Each young person steered away from those pitfalls and toward learning, from the K-through-12 schools to college or technical training, doubly benefits us all.
High school graduation is a starting point in life, not a finish line. The community should be thankful for the improved preparation young people have received through the school corporation’s efforts, and should be committed to maintain that standard year after year. The schools have proven that our problems can be addressed.
Opinion
EDITORIAL: Getting to starting line major step for children
Grad-rate increase good news for Vigo
- Opinion
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READERS' FORUM: May 20, 2013
The dangers of a little knowledge
Students enjoyed Rose study trip
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Mark Bennett: High-profile mural connects historical dots from city to river
At 96 feet wide and 2 stories tall, the power, impact and value of the Wabash will be evident.
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EDITORIAL: Waging the ‘readiness’ campaign
Almost every Hoosier who starts college intends to finish. Unfortunately, those who arrive on campus unprepared in key academic areas are far less likely to fulfill that aspiration.
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READERS' FORUM: May 19, 2013
• Flawed reasoning on gun checks
• A hint of things yet to come?
• Are the ‘makers’ doing the ‘taking’?
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• Fantasizing on the ‘Apocalypse’
• Another view of Hinduism
• Great experience for HCMS students
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FLASHPOINT: A legislative session of missed opportunities
Given the nature of politicians, grand claims of accomplishments and overblown rhetoric about “historic” efforts are to be expected at the close of any legislative session.
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RONN MOTT: Mushrooms = Hoosier happiness
Someone wrote or said a few years ago a statement that would define the word “Hoosier.” According to this urban legend, a Hoosier is somebody dribbling a basketball around the Indy 500 while eating a fried, morel mushroom. It did not define me, at the time.
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EDITORIAL: Insult to an independent press
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
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READERS' FORUM: May 17, 2013
Hinduism doesn’t deserve ridicule — Shefali Purohit, Terre Haute
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RONN MOTT: Israel’s Air Force
Recently the Israeli Air Force bombed and rocketed a convoy leaving Syria going to Lebanon with rockets that were going to be used to attack Israel. It did not get there. It was destroyed.
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EDITORIAL: Noteworthy in the news: Dashing finish for the Sycamores
It’s always thrilling to see Indiana State University’s athletic teams do well in high-level competition, and two specific teams rose to impressive heights last weekend in the Missouri Valley Conference outdoor track and field championships.
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Readers' Forum: May 16, 2013
Moving Deming folks sounds ‘nuts’
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Readers' Forum: May 15, 2013
Participants rise to the challenge: I would like to write a letter congratulating all the Wabash Valley Roadrunners that competed in the One America Indianapolis Mini Marathon.
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RONN MOTT: Media merry-go-round
Round and round it goes, where it stops nobody knows. That isn’t a unique phrase to this writer or to this era in time. But, when it comes to the musical chairs of broadcasting, it certainly applies.
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LIZ CIANCONE: Courts see a different appearance than cops
Have you ever noticed the transformation between the arrest of an accused lawbreaker and the first appearance in court?
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READERS' FORUM: May 14, 2013
ISTEP failure exposes flaws
Community hasn’t changed its spirit
Egregious threat to nation’s defense
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READERS' FORUM: May 13, 2013
• Women’s group criticizes Bucshon
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MARK BENNETT: Life at face value: Mom’s simple advice still presents a valuable daily challenge
Most moms don’t base their advice on scientific research.
(Unless, of course, your mother is a scientific researcher. If so, carry a No. 2 pencil and take good notes.) -
EDITORIAL: Better monitoring needed to prevent local environmental messes
The nasty, hazardous messes lurking in the community raise a bottom-line, red-flag question. Could these environmental problems have been monitored and, thus, prevented?
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GUEST COLUMN: Nursing more than medicine and bandages
Being a nurse … Like most nurses, I chose this profession because I had a strong desire to help others and no other career would allow me the opportunity to touch lives the way I have been able to through nursing.
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READERS' FORUM: May 12, 2013
Vigo Youth Football, entering 45th year, seeks new support
Media ignoring important case on abortions
Proud to be old-fashioned
Guns in school? What’s next?
Promoting hate not a ‘brave’ act
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FLASHPOINT: Again in 2013 General Assembly, middle class generally ignored
Last year, the people of Indiana entrusted the Republican Party with some of their most precious possessions.
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RONN MOTT: ‘Raccoons II’
In the Algonquin Indian language, raccoon means “working with hands.” They are really cute little fellows until they injure a child, or a pet, or leave feces around where you certainly do not want it.
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Readers’ Forum: May 11, 2013
I just wanted to express my disappointment at the lack of response shown by President Obama after the Boston Marathon bombings.
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Readers' Forum: May 10, 2013
CANDLES event plants new seed: On April 26, CANDLES Holocaust Museum and Education Center hosted an event called “Sowing Seeds of Peace: A Celebration of Spring” at the Apple House. Our purpose was to introduce people to our concept of forgiveness as a seed for peace.
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RONN MOTT: ‘NRA Convention’
At the recent NRA Convention in Houston, Texas, where the right-wing political hot air almost lifted the convention's building off its foundation, the NRA trotted out the forever yours political dame of the right wing, Sarah Palin. Sarah did not disappoint.
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EDITORIAL: Memo to U.S.A.: You can ‘SPPRAK’ just as we do in Vigo County
Our kids, truly, are ‘Making a Difference’
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Some words in praise of boring government — Indiana’s
A conservative Republican governor has super majorities in both branches of the legislature. One might suspect such one-party government leads to major changes in public policy. This did not happen in 2013 in Indiana.
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EDITORIAL: Doc’s prescient prescription
Viewed through a 2013 prism, Doc Bowen’s response to the AIDS epidemic looks merely prudent, routine.
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RONN MOTT: ‘Heritage gone’
The last high school I attended was being torn down just a few days ago. I didn't learn about it until I saw classmate Dick Mills on television and a display he had put together about State football championships in the middle 1930's. I began elementary school with Dick Mills. That was Matthew South Elementary School on South Sixth Street in Clinton, Indiana. After seeing Dick on TV, it dawned on me that all schools I had attended in Clinton have been torn down.
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LIZ CIANCONE: We always want more than we need
Washington seems more preoccupied with the unemployment rate than they are about the constant stalemate. Still with thousands out of work and the unemployment rate hovering somewhere between 7 percent and 9 percent, it does deserve more than a passing nod.
- More Opinion Headlines
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