Five Questions with Debbie Schum

Last month, Louisiana announced a new plan to aid troubled public school students after an earlier dropout prevention program was scrapped. In this edition of our "Five Questions" series, Debbie Schum, executive director of college and career readiness at the Lousiana Department of Education, provides a first-hand assessment of the Pelican State's emphasis on research-focused programs to keep students in school as educators work together toward a lofty goal. 

Louisiana recently announced its intention to discontinue its decade-old pre-GED anti-dropout program in favor of a new program called "Connections." What drove this change?

Louisiana has a huge over-age student population. We know these are the students most likely to drop out, and we know we need to serve them with diagnostic and differentiated intervention services.  

Analysis of our Pre-GED Skills/Options program indicated that nine out of ten students who entered the program dropped out of school and did not complete the program. Only seven percent of the students who completed the program successfully earned a General Educational Development certificate.

The new Connections Process, unlike Options, is intended to provide students temporary and targeted interventions to put them back on a traditional Core or Career Diploma path. It is a one-year process to quickly remediate students. This is a process, not a program, and over time, this process should not be necessary as districts put in place interventions that work for all students, regardless of grade level.  

After Options is sunset at the end of the 2010-2011 school year, components of the Connections process will be available for district use so that all students have opportunities to be prepared for college and career success. 

The new program is aimed at students who are at least 15 years old and two or more years behind academically. Some might say that's too late — that by the time students are that old and that far behind, most are simply unable to catch up. How would you respond?

A statewide “Tiger Team,” composed of superintendents and supervisors, created a framework for Connections that originally called for students to be 16 years of age for entrance into the process.  Since then, it was decided that by working with 15 year olds, we would have a better chance of helping them catch up with their peers in order to graduate.

We are currently piloting another new program, Accelerated Pathway, which is one way we can assist overage students in catching up with their peers. Through credit recovery and distance education, students can move through high school in less than four years. Those students who, after meeting with the Connections Committee (comprised of school leaders, teachers, counselors, mentors, and the student’s parents), opt for the GED or State-approved Skills Certificate pathways may also exit high school in less than four years, as these are more self-paced programs. 

In addition to the new programs, Louisiana is also targeting earlier interventions through the use of RTI (Response to Intervention) and the diagnosis of literacy and numeracy issues at an early age by providing  appropriate interventions. This will assist us with future students; however, we have approximately 17,000 overage ninth graders who need assistance now. And the Connections process and Accelerated Pathway program are intended to target those students.

In what other way in Louisiana attacking the dropout epidemic?

In addition to the Connections Process, the College and Career Readiness (CCR) staff is attacking this epidemic via the following, many of which have embedded components in Connections.

· Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) – dropout prevention and recovery program

· Louisiana Virtual School (LVS) – distance learning, credit recovery, advanced placement

· Career and Tech Industry-Based Certifications- dual enrollment opportunities

· Dropout Prevention Plans – for schools with less than an 80% graduation rate

· Everybody Graduates –at-risk early warning system to identify students and provide interventions assuring that more students receive an on-time promotion to the next grade

State lawmakers want to see 80 percent of Louisiana students graduating by 2014. How far does the state have to go to reach that benchmark and are you feeling optimistic about the state's progress toward this goal?

Currently we are at 67.4 percent, so moving to 80% is a significant jump in four years.  However, we have reorganized the Louisiana Department of Education to focus on nine critical goals, and reaching the 80 percent Cohort Graduation rate is one of those goals. Our division, the office of College and Career Readiness is currently using a model called “Deliverology” (authored by Sir Michael Barber) to provide effective and efficient delivery of services to districts and schools.  This model focuses on:

· East and West Graduation Charge Teams – CCR staff visit schools with grad rates less than 80 percent in order to provide support/assistance.

· Data Reporting and Awareness — Data is known in advance and is up-to-date on our failing schools.  School Visit Reports from East and West teams are also rolled up so that progress can be charted and plans revamped as needed. We also use the data to pool our resources to provide the assistance that districts/schools are requesting.

· Collaborating with districts and schools to provide strategies that work best for them (not using a cookie cutter approach that resembles a “one size fits all”)

· We have 16 regional graduation coordinators that are working with approximately 20 schools each to monitor progress and provide technical assistance

While our graduation rate has shown steady progress each year (approximately .8 percent), we believe that this year (2011) will show some significant  gains since the first cohort of students who participated in our Freshman Academies will graduate this year. Additionally, we expect to learn much from the pilots implementing the Connections process and the Accelerated Pathway program this year.  We are also targeting approximately 55 schools across Louisiana that have the greatest potential to increase our graduation rates, and we are monitoring them through the Delivery Process. 

We hear a lot about what's wrong in Louisiana's education system, but what is the state doing right? When it comes to the dropout fight, what makes you feel most proud?

The LDOE recently underwent a reorganization into goal offices: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM), Literacy, and College and Career Readiness. The Superintendent’s Delivery Unit provides support to each goal office. CCR houses Dropout Prevention, Career and Tech Ed., Louisiana Virtual Schools, and includes staff from Special Education and Regional sites. This combination allows for CCR staff to work across the agency with colleagues with vast arrays of expertise in order to better serve our schools and the students in Louisiana. The Delivery Model has made a distinct change in the way we provide service to districts and has also created an environment that uses data to provide and inform districts of best practices that can be used to reduce dropout rates in their schools. Through LDOE’s focus on support vs. compliance, the agency is providing districts, schools and relevant assistance. 

Likewise, Louisiana has set the bar high at 80 percent, considering the current national graduation rate is 73 percent.  And we’re holding ourselves accountable for results. The state has taken bold steps to create fundamental change through the adoption of aggressive reform policies, as indicated by the fact that Louisiana’s overall grade in the 2011 Quality Counts Report is higher than the national average.