Excerpt
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Next: another chapter in our series on the high school dropout problem.
The NewsHour's special correspondent for education, John Merrow, looks at a program that offers dropouts college courses to make learning more stimulating.
This story is part of the American Graduate project.
JOHN MERROW: In the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border, life is hard. Unemployment is higher here than anywhere else in Texas.
Almost all of the 31,600 students in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District are Hispanic and live in low-income households. If any students do go to college, it's just about guaranteed they will be the first in their family.
Five years ago, in 2007, close to half of the students dropped out of high school without graduating, just as their parents had done. This was a dropout district.
Then Daniel King came to town.
DANIEL KING, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District Superintendent: So, the first thing was, stop the bleeding. Work with the dropout situation.
JOHN MERROW: The new superintendent made a decision. He would lure the dropouts back to school.
COMMENT: When I was in high school in California (I'm now 67 by the way) I actually took "college prep" courses. This is *similar* to what Texas is trying.
"Taste of College Encourages Students to Continue Classes"(Part-2) PBS Newshour 7/5/2012
Excerpt
SUMMARY: n his second report from South Texas, special correspondent John Merrow explores from the students' perspective how early college programs are encouraging youth to stay in high school.
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