Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage

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Concept: In order to significantly prevent dropouts and increase the graduation rate, the Sunnyside Unified School District (SUSD) will use laptops as an incentive to create an unprecedented and sustainable shift in student culture targeting the Four A’s: Academics, Attendance, Activity and Attitude. Simply put, SUSD will give a laptop to every ninth-grade student who achieves the following four criteria at the end of the first semester of 2008-09: a 95% or better attendance rate - no more than four absences, no unexcused absences and attendance on the first day of school; 2.5 or higher grade point average, participation in at least one extracurricular activity; and good citizenship as seen through having no out-of-school suspensions.

Rationale: SUSD has a graduation rate of 63% and was labeled a Dropout Factory by a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University in 2007. Data show that if students do not succeed in their freshman year, they are in danger of never achieving success in high school. The good news is that SUSD has implemented very strong initiatives to address this problem and within one semester has already seen results. Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage will take this to a higher level in 2008-09. Through this focused effort, we will build on the success already achieved in the first year and make Project Graduation even stronger.

Background: A failure to meet districtwide goals in improved graduation rates provided the impetus for the launch of Project Graduation–an initiative targeted at improving the graduation rate and ensuring that all students have every possible opportunity to complete their high school requirements within four years. The initiative, however, has evolved into one of the most comprehensive graduation efforts the district has ever undertaken. Project Graduation is multifaceted, comprehensive and research-based. Although Project Graduation’s first phase targeted seniors in line for graduation, it became clear that this initiative also needed a component that would address the specific needs of freshmen. From only one semester of combined interventions, Sunnyside has achieved dramatic results. Freshman single-period absences were dramatically reduced by 67 percent from the previous year. This, in turn, had an impact on student grades as evidenced by the nearly 20 percent drop in the number of students who received two or more failing grades as compared to last year.

Anticipated outcomes from supporting Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage

• Students receive a digital learning advantage.
• Students have increased opportunities for credit recovery through online courses.
• Students benefit from increased learning opportunities for:
  – access to technology
  – 21st-century skills
  – discovery of a whole new world via the Internet.
• SUSD schools accelerate the integration of computers with curriculum and instruction.
• As a community, we convey to our students that we care about them.
• The Digital Advantage assists the whole family in learning and accessing 21st century skills.
• The business community invests in workforce development by contributing to student academic achievement.
• This initiative is an innovative partnership between the business community and SUSD.
• Business support for education has a significant and measurable impact on dropout prevention and graduation rates.

Through Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage, Sunnyside has the potential to become a state and national model for dropout prevention and improving the graduation rate.

Cost: To make Project Graduation: The Digital Advantage sustainable, SUSD’s business and community partners are supporting a four-year commitment of funding. Leading the way in partnerships are D.R. Horton, the SUSD Foundation, Wells Fargo, Diamond Ventures and Cox Communications. Our partners will be asked to also support this endeavor by providing student opportunities such as internships, mentoring, summer employment and career awareness. Above and beyond providing laptops, we want our students to know they are supported not only by their school district, but by an entire community of business partners who believe they can succeed.

Benefits: Students will be invested in their future and will be able to see the connection between technology, learning new skills and the importance of staying in school and graduating in four years. These skills will assist them throughout life as they pursue their postsecondary plans as well as prepare for the workforce.