N.C. devotes a week to dropout prevention
Monday, September 8th, 2008
By Staff
Asheville's coordinator plays key role in raising graduation rate
By Ashley Wilson
On many days, Tanya Presha eats lunch in her car.
She is forced to catch a bite to eat in between working in her office at Randolph Learning Center, making visits to students’ homes, trying to track down students who haven’t showed up to school and checking in at Asheville City’s eight schools.
Presha is Asheville City’s school success coordinator. She is charged with leading the school district’s dropout prevention efforts.
At any time she could be keeping track of and helping anywhere from 10-85 students who are either at risk of dropping out or have dropped out.
“This is a hard job,” said Presha, who has been the district’s school success coordinator for a year and a half. “People don’t understand what a huge job it is, and I think I speak for all dropout prevention specialists. It’s more mental than it is physical, the ripping and running. All day the kids need you.”
As the state department of public instruction revs up its dropout prevention efforts, people like Presha are becoming more important in bringing down the state’s 5.24 percent dropout rate.
This week, districts across North Carolina will be emphasizing the importance of graduating to their students. Mike Easley proclaimed this week Graduation Awareness Week. Asheville City has planned a week full of events to stress graduating at every Asheville City school. (more…)
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