Following up on yesterday’s post about HISD aggressively trying to get 900 seniors to pass one or more TAKS tests to graduate, here are the details on how the first day of the summer program went:
Nearly 500 HISD seniors who still need to pass the state TAKS test to graduate showed up for class Monday and more were on their way today as part of a special summer program designed to help them earn their diplomas.
[snip]
Now, HISD is mobilizing to try to find and coax back into school some of the students who didn’t come to class Monday morning for the special program.
HISD high schools reported that 488 students who still need to pass the TAKS test to graduate ended their short summer vacations and reported to class Monday. Schools reported that more students were arriving Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, teams of HISD dropout prevention specialists and other school officials started making telephone calls and planned door-to-door visits to try to find and persuade more of the approximately 900 high-school seniors who have not yet passed the TAKS to come back to summer school.
HISD’s dropout prevention specialists sound like a persistent group of people, which is good for all of us. And I think it would make an interesting story, to see what the job of a dropout prevention specialist entails.
UPDATE (6-8-2005): Terry Abbott emails that another 100 students showed up for Tuesday’s classes, making for an almost two-thirds turnout. That’s a strong showing.
