3/27/08

Plain Dealer Editorial

The Cleveland schools’ pitiful 55 percent graduation rate makes all kinds of alter native education ideas welcome. In a city and a region stifled economically by a widespread lack of education cannot afford to bind itself strictly to traditional approaches.

Promise Academy, a charter school for high school dropouts started by Cleveland schools CEO Eugene Sanders, stands as precisely the kind of smart, innovative idea that the district should support and expand.

The year-old alternative school, designed to bring 18- to 21-year-old dropouts back to school and to help younger people at great risk of dropping out of Cleveland or suburban schools, uses three-hour classroom shifts and teacher-monitored computer study. Students proceed at their own pace and attend around their work or child-care schedules. It’s an unusual blend of structure and flexibility that makes each student responsible for his or her own progress.

So far, 500 students are attending classes and 100 people are on a waiting list. About 21 (perhaps more, depending on Ohio Graduation Test scores) are scheduled to finish in May.

It’s too early to judge the school’s debut, but the concept is appealing. It’s important that the graduation figures rise steadily as time goes on.

Promise Academy, along with Gov. Ted Strickland’s mentoring program for failing high school boys, are wise acknowledgements that Ohio’s dropouts can’t be ignored. We all end up paying for those who cannot find jobs and end up clogging the prisons and the welfare rolls.

Youngsters ought to stay in high school, graduate on time and go on to college. Parents have to drum that urgent message home daily. But for youngsters who regret dropping out of school, Promise Academy offers a good way to drop back in, earn a diploma and build the foundation for a prosperous future.