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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 23, 2017)
EDUCATION THE KEY TO RAISING GRADUATION RATES Career and Technical Education helps students stay in school BY KELSEY ANNE RANKIN L ty, which aim to lessen the load for busy ane County, our high school gradu- teachers and help engage kids across our ation rates stink. county’s 16 districts. Over the past several Surely that’s not new news, but years, the Lane Education Service Dis- what is new is the approach our trict has been expanding CTE courses and schools are taking to not just pump adapting the program to meet the county’s up grad rates, but also to help kids give a economic needs as well as its students’. damn about their education. “Every district is going to do things a Perhaps the reason our high school grad little bit differently,” says Heidi Larwick, rates have lagged behind some neighboring director of Lane Connected, a program counties (not to mention they pale in compar- that keeps high school programs aligned ison to the national average) is because we’ve with local college curriculum. She works failed to put the students first. Programs like closely with CTE directors, “so we’re try- Career and Technical Education (CTE) are ing to supplement what they’re doing with working their butts off to change that. more efficient practices.” Lawrick ex- According to the National Center for plains that the CTE program has been re- Education Statistics, the national average working more centralized efforts to part- for high school graduation has lingered ner with local businesses for the program around 80 percent since 2013 and hit a instead of putting the weight on teachers, historic high of 81 percent in 2015. As the counselors or individual high schools. national average rose, so did Oregon’s — Larwick says Lane schools have however bleak the starting point. roughly one counselor for every 350 stu- The Oregon Department of Education dents. When counselors have more work reported in 2010 that our state’s overall outside of school, she says, they have less high school graduation rates stood around energy for students — something that has 67 percent. By 2013, grad rates had climbed overwhelmed districts in the past. She ex- to 68.7 percent, and the number continued plains that teachers and counselors will to bumpily rise until we hit our pinnacle of have more time to focus on their students 74.8 percent this past year in 2016. as well as being able to provide them with These rising rates include students of more internship and practical learning op- minority ethnicities, varying abilities, portunities among local businesses part- gender identities and English proficiency nered with CTE. levels. The Eugene School District reported that Lane County hit a HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION RATE 72.4 percent graduation rate for FOR ALL OREGON STUDENTS the 2014-2015 school year. At 90% the same time, our neighboring Linn County districts graduated 84.8 percent of students, ac- 80% cording to ODE. Lane County is far more populous than Linn (77.2 people per square mile in 70% Lane versus 50.9 according to the most recent census data) but both counties have similar me- 60% 2014 2015 2016 dian incomes for households, around $44,000-$45,000. CTE has 69 programs in Lane County One difference between the counties’ and is partnering with 25 local companies grad rates is the number of programs of- that have agreed to host internships, job fered to the kids, especially CTE pro- shadows and site visits for high school stu- grams. Linn County districts offer a wide dents this spring and summer. Most of the array of CTE courses that range from the programs focus on the growing technol- arts to automotive work; the courses get ogy industry in Eugene, but opportunities kids involved with local companies before in the arts, design, marketing and public they graduate. broadcasting are also available to students. In short, CTE helps answer the in- “There’s an element of getting kids ex- famous question that every bored high cited about something, and I don’t think schooler utters: “Why am I learning this?” they know enough about our local oppor- Of course skipping class or zoning out tunities,” Larwick says. “When you give during a lecture is way more appealing than sitting in a stale classroom with no them something to dream about, they get clear need for the information you’re be- excited to come to school because they’re ing taught by overworked and underpaid learning about a passion of theirs.” teachers. Carlos Sequeira, head of Instruction, Enter CTE’s new efforts in Lane Coun- Equity and Partnerships (formally known 72% 18 February 23, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com 73.8% 74.8%
