The Mobile Graduates Initiative is an exciting and important opportunity to increase our graduation rate. We need everyone’s help to make sure that all Mobile County public school students are prepared to graduate career or college ready.
In 2007, the City of Mobile, Mobile County Public School System and the Mobile Area Education
Foundation teamed up to study the area's dropout crisis through the Research Alliance for Mobile Pathways (RAMP) project. The final report was released in February 2010: Blueprint for Multiple Pathways. The results showed an alarming 45% dropout rate for the Mobile area. In response, the Mobile Graduates Initiative was created to lower the dropout rate through the comprehensive study.
Mobile Graduates Initiative is a county-wide partnership that connects leadership from the community and the school system to bring the blueprint plan into action. This is done through the following stakeholder groups: Business and Industry, Community-Based Organizations, Elected Officials, Faith-Based Organizations, Juvenile Justice, Parents, and Students. Here are some examples of what the groups are doing:
- Business and industry leaders are participating in opportunities to connect students with business experiences and internships to establish relevance and motivation among the students and potential workforce through mentoring, speaking engagements, and field trips.
- Community-based organizations are developing service programs to meet the needs of disconnected youth and aligning services to local schools.
- Elected officials are developing a clear and compelling vision for the future of Mobile that recognizes that the necessary relationship between economic prosperity, workforce development, and the education of every child to high academic standards that are a gateway to a college or career.
- Faith-based organizations are building alliances among key partners to increase awareness, heighten expectations, and increase ownership among parishioners for public schools and encourage faith communities to become a Partner in Education.
- Juvenile justice officials are establishing effective transition programs for court involved youth and help guide families to intervention and support programs.
- Parents are becoming actively engaged in and informed about the education of our students and are serving as advocates for ALL students; not, just their own.
- Students are studying equity issues and are helping to spread the word about our dropout crisis.
All stakeholder groups are encouraging people to become a Reading Buddies, a new mentor-based program designed to help students improve their literacy skills by giving them the opportunity to read aloud to someone.