Saturday's Internet Edition, May 17, 2008.
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His plan, outlined at the Davie County Board of Education’s work session last week, would keep sixth graders in elementary school and move ninth graders back to middle school, a configuration similar to junior high in name only. There are five traditional junior high configurations in the state.
“This is a pre-secondary concept,” Landry said, “with an emphasis on rigor, relevance, and relationship, the same thing the Gates Foundation wants. What we want to do is take the best of middle school and combine it with the junior high organization, grades seven to nine.”
Landry said the plan would have a positive effect on the graduation cohort rate, which is the number of ninth graders who end up graduating.
According to state data released earlier this year, Davie’s rate was 80 percent, compared with the state average of 68.1. That rate referred to students who began school in 2002 and graduated in 2006. In 2007, the rate dropped to 73.8.
Landry believes the move will have a positive effect on the suspension rates for ninth graders. Statistically, ninth graders make up the largest percentage of students suspended, and Landry said they are the group most likely to be caught up in the legal system.
This move, he said, would give them the opportunity to spend that crucial year in a more nurturing environment, which would lead to a better chance of success in later years.
The reorganization would also address overcrowding.
The current enrollment at the high school is 1,893. Five hundred of those students are ninth graders. Landry said he has asked the county’s chief building inspector to determine the exact capacity of the high school, which in the past has been put at 1,320.
For the reorganization to occur, the first step would be to build a new ... subscribe to the Davie County Enterprise Record, P.O. Box 99, Mocksville, N.C. 27028.