IPS students bound for college thanks to partnerships

By Duncan Pritchett and Martin C. Jischke

The Indianapolis Star's recent editorial series ("Left Behind") highlights a tragic trend: Young people sacrificing their futures by dropping out of school, making bad decisions at 16 or 17 years old that will plague them for the rest of their lives. It's a problem that threatens to handicap a whole generation and damage Indiana's economic competitiveness for the future.

It's a complex issue that must be addressed in a complex way, starting before high school, and addressing motivation, encouragement, financial means, parental involvement and mentoring. One model that is working is Science Bound, a partnership among the Indianapolis Public Schools, Purdue University and private donors from the Indianapolis area. Science Bound reaches out to middle-school students and helps them until they are ready to enter Purdue on full scholarship. Terrell Parker, a 16-year-old sophomore at Washington Community School, is one of Science Bound's success stories. Terrell was featured in the Star on May 22 as an example of a young person working hard to beat the odds.

If we are to equip other students to tackle this problem, we need to support the Science Bound program and design others like it.

Based on the Star's analysis, nearly two-thirds of students in Indianapolis Public Schools do not graduate from high school on time. Many don't graduate at all. The Star also reports that just 25 percent of black males who entered IPS high schools in 1998 graduated four years later. The piece cites one expert, Schott Foundation for Public Education President Rosa Smith, characterizing this as "educational genocide." We'd take this one step further – it's likely economic genocide as well.

In today's economy, the level of education you achieve has an overwhelming impact on your financial future. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, high school dropouts earn an average annual wage of $19,000 over their lifetimes. This wage is below the poverty level for a family of four. A high school graduate can expect a jump to $26,200 per year, while those with an associate's degree ($33,400/year) or a bachelor's degree ($42,200/year) continue to climb the pay scale.

While dropping out of school is a tremendous economic disadvantage for these individuals, it also hurts the community-at-large. A recent study by the Alliance for Excellent Education attempted to calculate the statewide gain in wages if Indiana was able to cut its dropout rate in half. The alliance found that such a boost would bring nearly $85 million in additional income to the state. If former dropouts could be convinced to go on to complete some college or earn their bachelor's degrees, Indiana would see $150 million to $250 million more in collective wages. This could erase the "income gap" that sees Hoosiers earning just 90 cents for every dollar paid to the average American and make Indiana more attractive to businesses that demand a skilled work force.

To address this issue, there is significant work to be done, attitudes to be changed – in the classroom, within families and neighborhoods, among state and local policy-makers. But we all have a role to play.

Programs like Science Bound do just that.

We created Science Bound in 2002 to encourage IPS students to complete high school with the promise of a full Purdue scholarship upon graduation. IPS students can join Science Bound in seventh grade; they are assigned mentors and take part in special field trips, after-school programs and summer camps. We also involve the families of Science Bound students in our programs to help ensure their success. If these students complete the five-year program, graduate from high school and are admitted to Purdue in an approved field (engineering, math, science, technology, etc.), they earn the scholarship.

More than 160 IPS students are now involved in Science Bound and, thanks to generous gifts by donors to the Campaign for Purdue, 100 more students will be given the opportunity to join this spring.

Programs like Science Bound work because they take learning outside the classroom and provide a sense of hope. Science Bound students participate in a variety of hands-on programs: They've learned statistics while attending a Purdue-Ohio State football game, talked to real astronauts, even helped Purdue anthropologists excavate a historical site. They also begin to understand the career opportunities that come with an education in science and technology.

Working with Indianapolis leaders representing foundations and businesses, such as USA Funds, Lumina Foundation, Duke Realty, Viola Water, Nelnet, Bowen Engineering, Purdue is working to expand the Science Bound program even further. Countering the dropout trend will require nothing less than a coalition of schools, parents, public officials, universities, non-profit groups – every facet of our community. A network of programs like Science Bound, working with IPS and other school systems, could help begin to stem the tide of school dropouts that continue their rush towards educational – and economic – disaster.

Duncan Pritchett is the superintendent of Indianapolis Public Schools. Martin C. Jischke is president of Purdue University.

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