Posted by Melia Dicker on Nov 19, 2009 - 12:42 AM
If you want to prevent youth from dropping out of school, engage them. Give them a reason to want to be there. This is exactly what Spark does, and it starts early. Instead of waiting until students are into their high school years and have already checked out, Spark enrolls them in middle school and asks them what their dream job is. The young people go on to have summer or after-school apprenticeships in that dream job, under the guidance of a mentor, in fields as diverse as immigration law, auto repair, and music recording. Not only do they learn real-world skills and self-direction, but they build meaningful relationships with caring adults. Two of IDEA's founding board members, Chris Balme and Melia Dicker (that's me) co-founded Spark in 2004. It runs programs in San Francisco and Redwood City, CA, and will be opening sites in Los Angeles in 2010.Balme started out as a middle school science teacher in west Philadelphia, and he quickly grew alarmed at the condition his community was in. “It was a very eye-opening experience because the students at that school had a 50% dropout rate and 1 out of 6 incarceration rate,” says Balme.
The spark for Spark came from seeing that ample learning opportunities for his students could be found in Philadelphia’s business community. “There were businesses in the community, and none of those places were being used to engage students. Sometimes these are the best paces to learn.” How so? “Show students what school is for by providing a hands on example,” Balme explains.
Balme went on to found Spark in the Bay Area. Currently serving 220 kids total and 100 in San Francisco, the Spark approach is to head off dropouts early by reaching them in middle school and asking one simple question: “What’s your dream job?”
Spark board chair John McKee thinks this approach is crucial. “[Spark] doesn’t come in and say, ‘We’re going to make you better at math, or at science, or at English,’” says McKee. “It comes in and says to the kids, ‘What are you interested in?’” ...
“Student engagement peaks during elementary school, decreases through middle school and 10th grade, and plateaus through the rest of high school,” says Dr. Shane J. Lopez in a recently released report on the Gallup Student Poll, which investigates how America’s high school students are faring.
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