JCHS graduation rate up again

Jay County High School’s graduation rate was among the best in the state, according to preliminary figures released this week by the Indiana Department of Education.
The 2012 graduation rate was 94.6 percent, up from 87.9 percent in 2011 and part of a trend dating back several years that has seen JCHS consistently improve.
“Virtually everyone in the school has a piece of this,” JCHS principal Phil Ford said Monday. “It’s been a lot of people. It’s been what everyone has done, not one or two people.”
“The high school has worked very hard” to get graduation rates up, superintendent Tim Long said. “It’s been a very positive thing.”
The graduation rate is figured based on the number of students who graduated after enrolling as freshmen at Jay County High School; minus students who moved from the district or who received waivers as special needs or hardship students.
Ford said several factors were involved:
•School officials made a concerted effort to keep track of the students in the class cohort, which is established when students are in seventh grade. Simply by keeping track of students who move in or out of the district, the high school can maintain a more accurate picture of the percentage who are graduating.
“Tracking everything better has really made a difference,” said guidance counselor Vickie Reitz.
•There’s been a continued concentration of remediation.
•The Jay County High School Annex at John Jay Center for Learning has allowed students who have left the school to complete course work and earn their diploma.
“John Jay is a part of it,” said Ford. “Chris Overholt has just done an incredible job” at the annex.
•Credit Recovery, which allows students to regain credit that otherwise would have been lost by making use of the school’s computer labs.
•A program at Pennville Elementary to direct one-on-one attention to students who may have been having behavioral problems in a traditional classroom setting.
•There’s been a stronger focus on getting students to pass the state-required test to qualify for graduation.
“We’ve done a better job at getting kids ready to do that,” said Ford.
•And, said Ford, the class of 2012 happened to be a particularly good group.
“We have trended upward,” said Ford. “With some blips, the trend has been upward.”[[In-content Ad]]