MAT Students Support
'Ninth Grade Counts'
Excerpt from an article by Betsy Hammond in The Oregonian,
August 18, 2009.
In its first summer, a program touted as an innovative way to give academically wobbly teens a running start at high school failed to draw many participants, had little academic emphasis and showed no demonstrated results.
Organizers at the Portland Schools Foundation faced a decision: Fix it or kill it.
"It was a very clunky pilot program," says Dan Ryan, who took the reins at the foundation after last summer's ill-coordinated program was under way. "We were hearing mostly criticism. So we decided to take that information and do it right."
This summer, the name stayed the same: Ninth Grade Counts. But every other aspect of the program has changed, says Hanif Fazal, program director for Open Meadow Schools, which is running the largest program, with 300 students this summer.
"Ninth Grade Counts rocks this year," Fazal says.
School districts and nonprofits willing to run a program for incoming ninth-graders were offered plenty: free help from AmeriCorps workers and Marylhurst University master's in education students; weekly field trips to local employers and colleges; free TriMet passes for students; even a $100 gift card for every student who completes the program.