Project Reconnect
The PIC has been piloting outreach to dropouts since June of 2006, in the context of its role as convenor of the Youth Transitions Task Force. The Task Force has conducted research, developed policy recommendations, and piloted new practices aimed at addressing the high school dropout crisis.
The PIC’s dropout outreach pilot is an action research project that has a direct impact on youth while collecting new data on why students drop out of school, why they return, what barriers they face. At the same time, this effort provides important information about system strengths and gaps.
With support from national foundations, the PIC hired two "dropout recovery specialists." During the summers of 2006 and 2007, the specialists, both of whom are former dropouts, worked with the Boston Public Schools (BPS) Project Reconnect outreach team -- which included various BPS departments, the Boston Youth Service Network, and the Work Place career center -- to identify young people who had dropped out of school, to help them return to school, and to frame policy and program recommendations.
Lessons Learned
Many dropouts want to return to school, contrary to common expectations. In the summer of 2006, 81 students who had dropped out re-enrolled in school. Over the next year, the project gained momentum, and with more help from BPS staff and community partners, 208 students re-enrolled.
Re-enrolled students often have difficulty sticking with school. During the 2006-2007 school year, 51 of the 81 who re-enrolled in a school or educational program dropped out again, with 30 earning a credential or remaining in school. Many said they left because they did not get into the school they wanted. As of January 2008, 57 of the 208 who had re-enrolled in September 2007 did not report to school, and 32 had dropped out again (119 remain in school).
We are working with the Youth Transitions Task Force and the Boston Public Schools to improve the school matching, range of options and student support for these students to increase their success rate. Adjustments made for rerturning students are similar to those needed to prevent students from dropping out in the first place. Thus, the lessons learned from this project have implications for broader prevention efforts.
From the Task Force’s early focus group research, we learned that adult connections are the most important factor in students’ success. Students feel supported if they have at least one adult in school and one adult in the community that they can talk to. Through the Task Force, community partners are mobilizing to provide external supports to these students. Supported by a Commonwealth Pathways to Success by 21 (P – 21), a one-stop career center youth employment specialist provides employment and training connections for reconnected dropouts and disconnected high school graduates. The Multicultural Dropout Outreach Collaborative (MDOC), a network of community- and faith-based organizations, is partnering with the PIC’s dropout recovery specialists to pilot a mentoring program for ten young men of color from the cohort of re-enrolled students.
