Center Grove High School had the county’s highest graduation rate in 2020, but administrators hope to further increase that percentage and prepare more students for success with a lineup of new, specialized classes.
Center Grove had a graduation rate of more than 96% last year. Indiana schools as a whole, however, had a less than 88% graduation rate, according to Indiana Department of Education data. The Indiana Department of Workforce Development found among 80,000 senior students, 9,000 won’t graduate, 25,000 won’t have a career plan, 45,000 will go to college but, among those, 8,500 students won’t return as sophomores. Of the 80,000 students, 62% will not have a postsecondary career or degree within six years, according to a presentation from Center Grove schools.
The state has already put forth a solution that could give students a boost in finding the career that’s right for them.
Under graduation pathways, which has been gradually phased in but is required of every Indiana high school student in the Class of 2023 and beyond, students are not only required to fulfill credit requirements in core subjects such as English language arts, math, science and social studies, but students must also complete a project-based, service-based or work-based experience meant to demonstrate employability skills.
Starting next school year, when all students are required to fulfill the graduation pathways requirements, the state department of education will introduce Next Level Program of Study, or NLPS classes. Unlike previous classes offered under the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act, NLPS classes will have dual-credit opportunities through Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University. With the extra boost of earned credits before graduation, students will be more likely to want to continue studies and pursue certification in a trade, said Jennifer Perkins, assistant principal at Center Grove High School.
“Students have more of an opportunity to immediately graduate from high school and enter the workforce,” Perkins said. “This allows students to have courses dual-credit aligned if they go into a participating field. They can transfer to Ivy Tech and Vincennes and earn dual credit and maybe go to the workforce and their employer pays for them to finish their degree.”
Administrators will gauge student interest in the classes, which include culinary arts, child and adolescent development, networking and cybersecurity operations, advanced accounting and principals of interior design. The classes are part of various three-class tracks that students can complete to fulfill a pathway to graduation, she said.
The classes will also help ease the burden on Central Nine Career Center, as Center Grove has increased its seats each year at the career and technical school, with 170 Center Grove High School students attending during the 2018-19 school year and 200 students attending in the afternoon section this year. Already, 100 students have toured Central Nine Career Center ahead of enrollment for next year’s classes, Perkins said.
