Invest In Success

The Problem:

The current cohort graduation rate in North Carolina is 70 percent. This means that 30 percent of our students drop out of school, and for African-American males, less than 50 percent graduate. From a social standpoint, we know that failure to graduate high school almost always means a life of poverty, a much greater likelihood of criminal activity, lengthy periods of unemployment, a much less healthy lifestyle and poor decision-making skills. From a financial standpoint, at $5,400 per dropout per year, the dropouts from the freshman class of academic year 2003-2004 will cost the State $161.2 million this year and the next year and so on. If this isn’t scary enough, the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there were 1.6 million high school dropouts in North Carolina in 2007, and we are currently adding more to this number each year than we are losing. All of these dropouts will cost the State $8.6 billion this year; well over one-third of the original 2009 State budget, and four times the projected shortfall. We also know the following about our high school dropouts:

1. They are twice as likely to be unemployed, three times as likely to be arrested and six times as likely to be unwed parents.
2. Almost 82% of youth offenders in North Carolina are dropouts and juvenile incarceration costs $79K/year (NCDJJDP).
3. Of the 39,746 inmates in NC prisons at the end of 2008, 27,688 or 70 percent were dropouts, and their incarceration costs alone were $692 million.

The Solution

CIS is results oriented and cost effective. Last year North Carolina CIS affiliates:

• Served almost 164,000 children and their families in 50 counties;
• Recruited 20,422 volunteers who contributed over 397,000 hours of their time;
• Helped 98.3 percent of CIS students stay in school;
• And provided all of these services at a cost of $177 per child. (NOTE: Remember, a single dropout will cost society $5,400 per year, every year.)

Communities In Schools (CIS) is the largest and most effective “dropout prevention network” in the country. In 2005, ICF International, a well-respected research institute having no ties to CIS, began a five-year evaluation of the CIS model as well as other dropout prevention programs across the country. In the Spring of this year, ICF released the first results of that study. Based on an in-depth analysis of 1,766 CIS schools and comparative analysis of outcomes for more than 1,200 CIS and non-CIS comparison schools over a three-year period ICF International found that:

> Among dropout prevention programs using scientifically-based evidence, the CIS Model is one of a very few in the United States proven to keep students in school and is the only dropout prevention program in the nation with scientifically-based evidence to prove that it increases graduation rates.

> When implemented with high fidelity, the CIS Model results in a higher percentage of students reaching proficiency in fourth- and eighth-grade reading and math.

> Effective implementation of the CIS Model correlates more strongly with positive school-level outcomes (i.e., dropout and graduation rates, achievement, etc.) than does the uncoordinated provision of service alone, resulting in notable improvements of school level outcomes in the context of the CIS Model.

Invest In Success for our children and their futures.

North Carolina Annual Training Institute, Pinehurst, NC

 

We are pleased to be hosting the 2009 CISNC Annual Training Institute, February 3-5, 2009 in Pinehurst, NC. The conference offers three days of workshops with speakers from across the state and the country. The theme of the conference is Cultivating Success, which ties in wonderfully to our own FirstSchool Gardens that we will be happy to highlight at our Moore County schools. The conference will offer keynote speakers; training sessions on the subjects of: School and Community Partnerships, Supporting Families in Communities with Limited Resources, Adolescent Brain Wellness, Effective Performance Reviews, The School to Prison Pipeline, NC Graduation Project, Creating Confianza to Foster Success Among Hispanic Students; and informative sessions like “Orientation to the CIS Model, TQS and Integrated Student Services” by the CIS National Staff and an abbreviated session of ‘A Framework for Understanding Poverty’, by Ruby Payne, presented by Susan Pennock, which will cover the impact of economic differences on communication, interactions, and expectations of working with children and families in poverty. That session is designed for community leaders, CIS staff, community of faith members, site coordinators or anyone working with individuals living in poverty.

The keynote speakers will be: 

Dr. Chuck Davis, award-winning founder and artistic director of the African American Dance Ensemble, who is one of the foremost teachers and accomplished choreographers in the traditional techniques of African dance. Dr. Davis’ talk will be “Integrating the Arts Into the Curriculum.”

Cynthia G. Marshall, President, AT&T North Carolina, who is responsible for the company’s regulatory, legislative and community affairs activities in the state. A strong believer in public education, Cynthia serves on the General Assembly’s Committee on Dropout Prevention and has recently been appointed to the North Carolina New Schools Project Board of Directors.

Jessica Jacobs (Miss North Carolina 2007) is a graduate student of organizational communication at NC State University where she is a full tuition scholar and public speaking instructor. Jacobs placed as 4th runner-up in the Miss America pageant where she also placed as a finalist for the Quality of Life award for her work with Communities in Schools.

Amanda Watson (Miss North Carolina 2008) is a rising senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in education. Amanda is an active advocate for the ALS Association, serving people living with Lou Gehrig’s disease. She is proud to represent the state of North Carolina in the upcoming Miss America Pageant in January in Las Vegas.

CISNC and CIS of Moore County look forward to seeing you here in Pinehurst! Please find the CISNC “Cultivating Success” PDF conference brochure in the sidelink bar, download to your desktop and register today for this wonderful opportunity to learn more about Communities In Schools in our own backyard!