"Be true to your school."
- The Beach Boys
Graduation demonstrates a student's commitment to education, but what creates and sustains commitment?
The question arises with the recent attention on graduation rates for the nation, the state and individual schools.
Missouri's 87.3 graduation rate for the 2013-14 school year ranked the state in the top 10 among the 50 states.
More current numbers for the 2014-15 school year for individual schools show Jefferson City High School at 81.1 percent, Blair Oaks High School at 96.1 percent and Helias Catholic High School at 100 percent.
Our purpose here is not to compare rates, but to focus on successful strategies.
A graduation rate is an institutional calculation based on individual achievement. Institutions with the resources to identify and bolster sub-par individual achievement, therefore, are likely to post higher institutional numbers.
An example offered by Helias supports this observation. Helias has improved its intervention process with the addition of Accommodations Coordinator Elizabeth Clingman. In a Sunday News Tribune story, she said: "It's not just helping our failing students, it helps our special-needs and anxious students. We were able to catch a lot of kids who were failing and got them in line to pass the class."
Educators generally recognize students face a range of obstacles to achievement, but obstacles can be overcome when educators and students develop partnerships.
A challenge for teachers is acquiring the resources to eliminate obstacles.
A challenge for students - identified in a Beach Boys' lyric - is being true to your school. This involves not only commitment, but ownership and pride.
As a private school, Helias parents - and, by extension, their children - invest in the school through tuition and other monetary support.
But everyone supports public schools through their taxes, either as property owners or as tenants whose rent proportionally includes a landlord's taxes.
In addition to financial stake, pride plays a role, as reflected in Jefferson City High School's "Jay Pride" slogan.
Pride can be a liability when it is haughty, but a virtue when it signifies devotion and commitment.
Educators generally try to do the best job they can with the instructional resources at their disposal. Students are true to both their school and themselves when they strive to embrace learning and pursue their diplomas.