Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

KAY RAND: Jobs for Maine’s Graduates helps more families celebrate graduation

 Graduation activities are obvious everywhere — signs at the entrance to area high schools announce graduation dates; invitations to graduation celebrations have been mailed; card stores have replaced Easter greetings with “For the Graduate” cards.

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Some parents in Maine won’t be celebrating their youngster’s high school graduation.

One of every four Maine students entering high school as freshmen will drop out and will not graduate. That’s an alarming statistic, at odds with numbers that have long been proudly touted in Maine that we have a solidly high rate of graduation from high school.

What Maine does have is a fairly high percentage of residents with high school diplomas, but that is largely due to an excellent adult education program that yields a high number of General Educational Development diplomas (GEDs).

Graduating from high school is an essential foundation for young adults to live independently and productively — graduating ready to engage in some form of postsecondary education is as important, but probably out of reach for that one in every four who doesn’t complete high school.

We were able to celebrate my youngest daughter’s high school graduation thanks, in part, to a program called Jobs for Maine’s Graduates. In her sophomore year, her grades suddenly plummeted, and she began to lose interest in school. From a series of tests that she willingly put herself through, we discovered that her reading comprehension was significantly below her grade level, a deficit that had been masked until her sophomore year.

She enrolled at Sylvan Learning Center for tutoring and registered for the Jobs for Maine’s Graduates program at her high school.

She graduated from high school with a solid academic record, graduated from college in four years, and currently is experiencing the wonder of teaching English in a foreign country.

I recently joined the board of Jobs for Maine’s Graduates.

The program is not an option for every student like my daughter who faces barriers to high school graduation, but the organization is endlessly fund-raising to expand the number of schools it serves.

Jobs for Maine’s Graduates is a non-profit entity that works in schools willing to act as hosts. The program trains “specialists” to teach the program’s curriculum in the schools that it partners with. The specialist acts as adjunct faculty in the partnering school.

The program is student-focused. It uses applied (hands-on) learning activities with  community partners in actual work settings to teach each student skills in the area of personal behavior, leadership, communications, job attainment, job success and career development.

The specialist establishes a one-on-one relationship with each student and goes the extra mile to engage with the student. As an example, my daughter’s “coach” called her frequently during the summer after her high school graduation to encourage her plans for college and continued to check in during her freshman year to provide more support and encouragement.

Jobs for Maine’s Graduates works. Amid all the reports of failing schools, diminished aspirations and a race to the top that is starting near the bottom, the program and its 64 partnering Maine schools are succeeding. Ninety-seven percent of the students enrolled in a Jobs for Maine’s Graduates program stay in school, and  96 percent graduate from high school. One year after graduation, 87 percent of Jobs for Maine’s Graduates students are continuing their education, working or a combination of both.

The Maine Department of Labor studied the Jobs for Maine’s Graduates class of 2000 and discovered that six years after high school graduation, those participating students earn 14 percent more than all other 22- to 24-year-old adults.

Important to the future of this state, 81 percent of the program’s students work  here in Maine. They work in jobs that pay higher wages and that also offer opportunities for advancement into management positions.

In 2006, the Quaglia Institute studied student aspirations and discovered that 92.9 percent of Jobs for Maine’s Graduates students report that they enjoy being at school, compared to fewer than 50 percent of other students.

Only 10.6 percent of the program’s students found school to be boring, compared to 46.2 percent of other students.

And 65.9 percent of the program’s students believe that students respect each other, compared to 30.3 percent of other students who believe the same.

Jobs for Maine’s Graduates takes students at risk of dropping out of high school and teaches them how to thrive. The program is an investment that works for students and works for a healthier and more productive Maine economy. Jobs for Maine’s Graduates is contributing to the joy that some families might not have otherwise experienced this graduation season.

Kay Rand is former chief of staff for Maine independent Gov. Angus King.