As the nation's eleventh largest school district, Dallas Independent School District serves more than 161,500 students who come from homes where 58 different languages are spoken. Operating with a $1 billion dollar budget, DISD employs 18,678 employees including 10,000 teachers in 218 schools.
19 Sep 2001
Volunteers will urge ninth grade students to stay in school and not drop out
DALLAS—General Superintendent Mike Moses on Wednesday joined representatives from various Dallas civic organizations to kick-off the Youth Mentoring Initiative, a program that will focus on urging ninth graders to stay in school and not drop out.
Moses said that the dropout rate in the Dallas Independent School District has reached a dangerous level and the program is designed as a wake up call to provide academic support and positive guidance to students who need it the most.
"The Youth Mentoring Initiative is one of the most aggressive efforts to date the district has developed to address this crisis," he said. "It calls for a solid commitment from the mentors who are instrumental to the success of the program. The school district's dropout rate has reached 31.4 percent, that is way too high."
The superintendent said that nationally, statistics show that 51 percent of the students who drop out cited dislike for school as the number one reason for leaving. Another 23 percent said they felt they didn't belong in school. "We cannot afford to have these young people dropping out of school. We hope the added support they will receive from these mentors will help curb this trend."
Research shows that students who are at-risk of dropping out of school, display similar traits—they have poor grades, have repeated a grade, are overage for their grade and are frequently absent. In contrast, students who are mentored are more likely to stay in school, their average daily attendance is higher, their grade point average is almost half a unit higher and 80 percent go on to college.
Mentors for the program will be recruited and trained by Big Brothers and Big Sisters. "Big Brothers and Big Sisters is all about kids," said Robert Alberts, executive director for the organization. "Little people need big people. That's where we assist, by bringing students and mentors together. Our success can be seen when, with these life-changing relationships, kids grow up positive and productive."
Schools that will participate in the mentoring program are Pinkston High School, Adamson High School, Sunset High School, Roosevelt High School, North Dallas High School, Woodrow Wilson High School, South Oak Cliff High School, W.W. Samuell High School, Thomas Jefferson High School, Kimball High School and Spruce High School.
Moses said the program is focused on ninth grade students only. "This is where the greatest problems are right now, and this is where we are going to focus our attention."
Other organizations working with the district to recruit volunteers include Dallas Chamber of Commerce, Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber, Dallas Black Chamber, the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Contractors Association, Emmanuel United Methodist Church, University of Texas at Arlington, Southern Methodist University, Mexican American Bar Association, KERA/Channel 13 and Dallas County Community College District and North Texas Legal Services.
For more information regarding the Youth Mentoring Initiative, call Rene Martinez, director, Dropout Prevention/Intervention and Recovery Department at (972) 925-3379.