Published: March 05, 2008 11:24 pm            

Black students fare better in Vigo Schools

New tracking methods show 63.2 percent graduate in 2007

TERRE HAUTE — In 2006-07, the high-school graduation rate for Vigo County School Corp. black students was 63.2 percent, according to the Indiana Department of Education.

That exceeded the statewide graduation rate for black students, which was 57 percent.

Vigo County’s black graduation rate also showed improvement over 2005-06, when it was 48.1 percent.

The graduation rates for the past two years use a new state formula based on students who complete their high-school education in four years or less.

Individual students are tracked through a Student Test Number system that began in 2002.

Last month, the Indiana Youth Institute published a column praising the school district’s efforts to raise the graduation rates of its black students, although IYI’s numbers and methodology are different than what the state now uses.

The IYI column — published by various media outlets — states that the black graduation rate increased significantly between 2001 and 2005.

In 2001, about half of Vigo County’s black students graduated, while in 2005, 85.1 percent graduated, according to the column written by Bill Stanczykiewicz, IYI president and CEO.

In determining the graduation rate, IYI looked at the number of black students enrolled as ninth-graders in 2001 — 87 freshmen — versus the number of blacks who graduated in 2005, 74 students.

Using that method, there is no way to know if the students who started as freshmen are the same students who graduated as seniors four years later, said Jason Bearce, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Education.

The state faced the same dilemma until it began using the Student Test Numbers that track individual students, he said.

While the calculation used by IYI provides a defensible number, Bearce said, “the only way to have definitive graduation rates is to have a student identification number.”

In the future, IYI — rather than calculating its own graduation data — will use the state’s new method for determining graduation rates, said Glenn Augustine, vice president for communications with the Indiana Youth Institute.

“Most parties agree the new formula used by the state produces the most accurate graduation rates,” Augustine stated.

The IYI column points to some Vigo County School Corp. initiatives that are helping black students succeed and graduate.

In the IYI column, Superintendent Daniel Tanoos credited longtime school board member Mel Burks for strongly encouraging the district to hire more blacks for faculty and staff positions.

“When students don’t see others who look like them in positions of success and leadership,” Burks explained in the IYI column, “They receive a signal that they don’t have value. What we do is demonstrate to African-American students that they are just as valuable as anyone else. When students see people who look like them who are successful, the students build self-esteem, and they realize that they also can be successful.”

Tanoos agreed, adding, “Bringing in role models as teachers and staff members helps the students see that there is hope for them, that there are opportunities, and this encourages the students to reach their full potential.”

According to the Indiana Youth Institute column, the school corporation also has aggressively recruited black adults, especially men, to volunteer in the schools as tutors and mentors.

On Tuesday, Tanoos also pointed to the 2004 hiring of Carolyn Roberts as a school district diversity consultant.

Another initiative will focus on encouraging more local black students to consider the education field and eventually teach in Vigo County schools, Tanoos said.

IYI prepared graduation data for all Hoosier school districts in a report released by Indiana Black Expo in January. The report is titled “State of Our Black Youth 2007.”

The report showed that statewide, only 48 percent of black Hoosiers in the Class of 2005 graduated from high school. Vigo County’s graduation rate that year was 85 percent, Stanczykiewicz stated in his column.

The column cites Vigo County’s efforts to increase black graduation rates as an example for others to follow throughout Indiana.

Vigo County’s success is noteworthy for several reasons, Stanczykiewicz stated. Indiana’s high-school graduation rate for all students — which includes the highest-performing group, middle-class whites, is 76 percent.

The State of Our Black Youth report also pointed to serious socio-economic challenges in Vigo County. In 2004, 85 percent of black babies were born to unmarried parents in Vigo County. In 2000, nearly 49 percent of black children ages 0-17 lived in poverty here, the report stated.

Stanczykiewicz’s column concluded, “Providing African-American students with role models — in the classroom and from their local community — provides those students with the most important ingredient needed for academic success. That ingredient is hope, which sparks and fuels a desire in students to work hard and pursue their dreams.”

Tanoos was quoted as saying, “We find ways to help kids be successful. We don’t deal in excuses. We only see opportunities.”

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

        

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