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EDINBURG, Texas – A top official at Region One Education Service Center says school districts have a “wonderful opportunity” to help high school dropouts get back on track.
Darcia Cuellar says school districts will receive full state funding for bringing dropouts aged 18 to 25 back to their campus to earn a high school diploma. The funding is also there for tuition for post-secondary certificates.
Cuellar is Region One’s dropout recovery program senior director. Cuellar moderated a meeting about dropout prevention and recovery that brought together high school leaders, officials from South Texas College, and Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force point person Mario Reyna.
Dr. Daniel P. King, executive director of Region One, kicked off the meeting. King implemented a nationally recognized dropout prevention and recovery program when he was superintendent of Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD. King urged school districts across the region to make the issue a priority, noting that funding is available.
The meeting was moderated by Cuellar. At the conclusion of the meeting, the Rio Grande Guardian secured an exclusive video interview with her.
In the interview, Cuellar said she was charged with going out to every school district in the Region One catchment area to talk about the benefits of implementing a dropout prevention and recovery program. She said she told the districts it was a “wonderful opportunity.”
Cuellar said: “It does several things for districts. It improves their graduation rates. It gives these students that have, once upon a time, been disengaged to come back to the table, come back to the school, walk away with a high school diploma and possibly some post-secondary credential.
“So that’s our goal. It’s a great opportunity (for the school districts) to provide additional services to their community by reaching out to these students between the ages of 18 to 26, who previously had dropped out of high school.”
Cuellar pointed out that the first legislation at the state level to provide funding for a dropout recovery program aimed at 18- to 25-year-olds was passed in 2007, by then-state Rep. Scott Hochberg of Houston. Since then, the legislation has been fortified by legislation from state Sen. Juan Hinojosa of McAllen.
Thus far, three school districts in the Valley have agreed to start a dropout recovery program, Cuellar said. They are PSJA, which is resurrecting the program Dr. King first started, Edcouch-Elsa, and Weslaco. Cuellar said four others, thus far unnamed, that are “on deck” to do so.
Cuellar said she wanted to give a shoutout to PSJA, Edcouch-Elsa, and Weslaco.
“The courage that they have to come out and do this work, we’re so excited and we are here to support them. We’ve done this work before. We know how it changes lives, and it changes communities. It’s very gratifying work. And once you see the outcomes in there’s no doubt that it’s the right thing to do for our community.”
Recover, Restore and Redirect
In her remarks in the meeting, Cuellar pointed out that dropouts needed to be handled very differently to high school students keen on academic success. Having left school they have their own lives to lead, which is why they must only do four hours of schooling per day, should they return to campus.
“The hardships they’ve gone through, they’ve gone through really tough times. You go back and listen to their stories and you kind of wonder yourself as an adult, I might have done the same thing had I endured some of the trials and tribulations this student has gone through,” Cuellar said.
“So firstly, we have to make sure we pass no judgment on these students that are coming back. The second thing is, where are they at, and where do they want to be? Our approach to this… what we’ve added from when we were doing this work previously… is really an approach that I refer to as Recover, Restore, and Redirect. So, we recover these students, we restore their confidence in the education system. Someone failed them. We could have handled things better. We are the adults in the system.
“And when you talk about redirecting, it is about building that confidence that the students have, that they can do more than just a high school diploma. So those are the conversations. Each one of these stages in this approach has strategies to it. We always look to finding the best practice and evidence-based strategies.
Asked about the wholehearted support Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force is showing to the dropout prevention and recovery initiative, Cuellar said:
“I’m excited. I feel like we have another advocate out there for us on our side and they see the value in this kind of work. And they can already see how these adults can be added value to the community. So, we’re excited to have them on board and pushing the word out,” Cuellar said.
“Actually, just this morning I got into sit in with the committee that they have, and I presented data to them. What is it that we’re doing, how are we doing it and so forth. So, we’re excited that they’re on our side and they’re supporting us. We can use all of the support we can get.”
Cuellar said support is also coming from other parts of the state and the nation.
“We’re working with an Aspen Institute in the state through their Texas Opportunity Youth Network. This ensures our work is getting noticed out there. We are also working with two foundations. It looks very promising that we’re going to get additional funding. And all this funding is going back to our partnering school. We’re excited about that.”
Editor’s Note: Here is the video interview with Darcia Cuellar:
Editor’s Note: The above news story is the second in a three-part series on Region One Education Service Center’s Recover, Restore, and Redirect initiative. Click here to read Part One.
The post Cuellar: Dropout recovery programs change lives and communities appeared first on Rio Grande Guardian.
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