Educational Clinics: Rescue Plan for Drop-Outs (IP-3-1987)

February 5, 1987

Issue Paper

By David S. D'Evelyn

IN BRIEF
* Colorado cannot afford to relegate its dropouts to the streets.
* Educational clinics offer one answer that is cost-effective and
performance-based.
* New to Colorado, educational clinics have been in successful
operation in Washington State for 12 years, and have just been
introduced into California.
* Rather than compete with the public schools, clinics can work
in a public/private co-partnership.
* Clinics offer a payback of 111% on the public investment, from
decreased welfare and justice costs and from increased taxes paid
by reclaimed dropouts.
* Community-based organizations, private firms, non-profits,
public school districts -- all could operate educational clinics
under proposed legislation.
* The clinic idea is backed by the Colorado Opportunity
Network, a broad-based, network of black, white, Hispanic, and
American Indian community leaders.

Introduction: Our Youth at Risk

Few issues have gripped the attention of Colorado in recent months
like the dropout problem. The rate at which young people leave school
early is variously reported at between 10 and 60 percent. The rate
varies widely from district to district and school to school, and tends to
be significantly higher among minority students, particularly blacks and
Hispanics.
A number of programs are underway to slow the dropout rate. But even if
those efforts should somehow be completely successful, Colorado would still
face an extremely serious problem: what to do about those students who
have already escaped the system.

Efforts to address the dropout problem can be divided into three categories.
First, dropout prevention aims at changing the conditions which ultimately
produce dropouts, often focusing on the elementary grades. Second, dropout
intervention attempts to find ways to hold on to those students, particularly in
junior high and high school, whose behavior is beginning to fit the pattern of a
dropout. Finally, dropout recovery or rescue focuses on those students who
have already completely left the school system for a number of weeks or
months.

The third group has received the least attention. There are far fewer solutions
being developed for recovering dropouts than there are for preventing them.
This paper, however, does identify one of the most promising solutions:
educational clinics.

Before looking at the clinics themselves, we should consider the implications

for society and for its young people of the kind of dropout rate Colorado is
experiencing. The term "educational clinic" might suggest that a pathology is
being treated. Just so. It would not be overreaching to conclude that the
dropout issue does represent a kind of social , educational , and economic
pathology for any society.

High School and Beyond (HSB), a national longitudinal survey of what

happens to the nations young people during and after their high school years,
has drawn the following conclusions:

* Nongraduates are at least four times as likely as graduates to engage in

unlawful behavior.

* Nongraduate females are nine times as likely as graduate females to be on

welfare.

* Nongraduate females, married or otherwise, are six times as likely as

graduate females to have children.

HSB summarizes its findings this way: "We can say with assurance [that] for
young Americans, education largely makes the difference between jobs or
unemployment, welfare or independence, early parenthood or planned
parenthood, and behavior that is within the law or not. Education status is
more significant than either ethnic background or class background in
predicting a youths future prospects." [Emphasis theirs.](1)

In addition to the incalculable loss of wasted young lives, these findings also
point to an extremely high social and economic cost for Colorado itself. A
recent Stanford University study estimated the lifetime cost to society of
dropping out to be about $200,000 per dropout: approximately $20,000 for
social services (health, welfare, crime), $50,000 in lost tax revenue, and
$130,000 in lost net income to the dropout.(2) This clearly represents a social
time bomb.

For a sense of the potential devastation to be wrought by that time bomb, we

can look to research conducted by Henry Levin of Stanford University which
points to a staggering cumulative economic impact for dropouts. His
conservative estimate for the national cost of all dropouts ages 25-34 was $77
billion every year: $71 in lost tax revenues, $3 billion for welfare and
unemployment, $3 for crime prevention.(3)

Differences in counting methods and in the definition of who ought to be

counted as a dropout have led to great disagreement about the dropout rate
in Colorado. The Colorado Department of Education places the statewide
dropout rate for Hispanic students at 11.3 percent. The National Education
Association, on the other hand, estimates the Colorado dropout rate for
Hispanics at 25 percent. In the Denver Public Schools, Hispanics dropped out
during the 1984-85 school year at a rate almost double that of their Anglo
counterparts: 14.7 percent vs. 7.8 percent, respectively. The overall dropout
rate for Native American Indian youth, according to a study by Samuel Peng
for the Education Commission of the States, is 48 percent. In Montrose
County, Hispanic pupils dropped out at a rate of 51 percent. And in Alamosa
County, where there exists a large population of migrant children, the dropout
rate for such children may be as high as 90 percent.

One explanation for the disparity in these figures is that the calculations from
the Colorado Department of Education include only those students who leave
school during their sophomore year or thereafter. Yet the National
Commission on Secondary Schooling for Hispanics has reported that about 40
percent of all Hispanics leave school sometime before the spring semester of
the tenth grade. According to a researcher in the Houston schools, one-sixth
of the students known to have dropped out did so between the sixth and
eighth grades--when they were less than 14 years old.(4) According to a
report issued by the Colorado Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on
Civil Rights, Denver School Board member Paul Sandoval has estimated that
Colorados Hispanic dropout rate is actually 50--60 percent, if seventh, eighth,
and ninth graders are included in the count. Thus Colorados current method of
counting dropouts systematically undercounts because it departs from a
common--sense definition of when a dropout is a dropout.(5)
Time for a New Approach?
Not surprisingly, there is a growing and intensifying demand that something
be done, particularly in the case of the Hispanic community. For instance, in
December 1986 a group of parents of students enrolled in the Denver Public
Schools formed UPPE, Unite Parents for Progressive Education. They called for
"a quality atmosphere for education success," "education with respect and
dignity," "testing for education success, not failure," and "parent
empowerment in the schools -- build[ing] a school and community
partnership," among other resolutions. (6)

Even if the budget restrictions on school districts were not as severe as they
are, the question would remain as to whether the public schools are the logical
vehicle to take the hardcore dropout off the streets and meet his or her
educational needs. The public school system is already faced with an
enormous task in holding on to and educating the students currently enrolled.
To ask it to establish what would have to be almost entirely new programs to
attract and retain students so disaffected as to have completely left school --
is probably asking too much.

One superintendent put it this way: We need to concern ourselves with "how
we can best deal with the students who are in school , much less those who
drop out."(7) This suggests the development of a program specifically
designed to meet the special needs and circumstances of the dropout.

Such a program, the educational clinics referred to earlier, has existed in the
state of Washington for a dozen years and has just recently been replicated in
California.

While the concept of educational clinics is generic, this paper will focus on the
program operated in the Seattle and Sacramento areas by Educational Clinics,
Inc. With its multi--state, 12--year track record, ECI, which originated the
concept, represents the most highly evolved clinic operation. The late Senator
Henry Jackson had this to say about educational clinics: "I have nothing but
respect for the leadership provided by the ECI people. They are covering a
gap in our educational system... a gap that is widening.(8)

Success Story of Educational Clinics

Educational clinics are not schools; they do not graduate students.
Theirs is a transitional program which operates on an open-entry, open-
exit basis, allowing students to progress at their own rate toward goals
which they, assisted by the clinic staff, have set for themselves. A high
school degree, equivalency, and/or job readiness is the main target in
virtually all cases, however.
The program has three components: academic, behavioral, and employment
and re--entry orientation. Four one--hour classes in the mornings focus on
competencies in basic academic skills, averaging 15-18 students per class.
Young people who had previously failed in the classroom are taught to
succeed. The effectiveness of this approach is underscored by Harold
Hodgkinson of the American Council on Education: "Because these students
generally do not learn at the same pace as others, they react better to
competency-based approaches that allow them to learn at an individual pace
and receive positive reinforcement from teachers."(9) The behavioral
component includes counseling and motivational development. Once a
relationship of trust has been established, the staff often act as a surrogate
family to the students; many dropouts come from abusive or incomplete
homes or those where education is not highly valued.

The clinics place a strong emphasis placed on employment and re-entry

orientation. The goal is to provide each student with the academic skills,
motivation, and self-confidence he or she needs to enter a constructive
activity upon leaving the clinic --re-enrollment in a public school, vocational
training or college, employment, or military service. The clinics are kept small
enough, usually under 125 students, to deal effectively with the diverse and
urgent needs of individual students.

The clinics do not look like schools. They are located in store fronts in the
business districts where dropouts are likely to hang out, and they are
decorated more like an office than a school. This helps break up the pattern of
associations dropouts have built up over the years with school, patterns which
have perpetuated their failure. It helps convey the message that students will
be treated like responsible young adults, and with respect. One result: in 12
years of operation the clinics have experienced virtually no vandalism.

This kind of care and professionalism is also manifested in the approach to

student follow-up. ECI literature states that the organization "believes that its
responsibility does not end when the student leaves the program." ECI staff
contact all students six months after they leave the program, and long--term
follow-up studies are taken periodically.(10)

Since the ECI program in the state of Washington has been in existence for 12
years, such follow-up studies are able to point to quantifiable results.

* Pre-and post-test comparisons show an average gain of 1.3 to 1.5 grade

levels in an average enrollment period of about three months.

* The studies taken six months after completion show that approximately 60
percent of all former students of the Clinics are engaged in constructive
activities at the time of contact: further education or training, employment, or
military service.

* What is especially telling is that the effectiveness of the ECI program does
not appear to be attenuated over time. Thus studies taken two and one-half
years after departure from the program show that the percentage of former
Clinic students engaged in constructive activities had risen to 67 percent, while
the five-year study found 71 percent in constructive activities.

These statistics are all the more impressive given the pool of young people
from which ECI draws its clientele, a pool comprised entirely of those who
have already failed at school at least once. The data would also seem to
indicate that the positive changes effected in young dropouts by the ECI
program are not dependent upon a continuation of the kind of intense,
supportive environment that the clinics provide. Rather, it would seem that the
clinics provide a setting and impetus for continued growth over at least the
next five years of the experience of a typical hardcore dropout.

Cost-Effective Partner for Public Schools

One significant feature of the educational clinic approach in Washington and in
California is that the clinics are tuition--free to the students. This is of course a
virtual necessity, since the vast majority of dropouts come from homes which
have neither the means nor the inclination to pay for an alternative education
for their child. That is one reason theyre dropouts.

The clinics are tuition-free because the states of California and Washington
have enacted legislation that allows the tax dollars which would have paid for
a young persons public schooling to "follow" him, after dropping out, in order
to fund his "treatment" at an authorized educational clinic. Some of the clinic
providers receiving these funds are non-profit community-based
organizations, some are private for--profit businesses, some are operated by
public school districts, and some are a hybrid of these last two.

Does this then mean that the resources are being taken away from the public
school system? Not at all. This is because clinics serve a different market:
those students who have completely dropped out of a public school for in most
cases at least a month. In the state of Washington, the average ECI enrollee
has been out of school 3.9 months. A public schools budget in that state is
based upon what is called its Attendance Entitlement (AE). An educational
clinic, by enrolling a student who is able to advance (on average) 1.3 grade
levels in approximately three months, is then preparing that student to be
able to return to his public school. The clinic thus adds to that public schools
AE, since approximately 40 percent of ECI students do reenroll in public
school. (Another 35 percent receive an equivalency certificate by passing the
GED exam.)(11)

Thus educational clinics do not ultimately represent competition to the public

schools. Both systems have the same objective: the education of young
people. By addressing the specific needs of a segment of the school
population which, for a variety of reasons, is not being served by the public
schools, the clinics are simply a vehicle by which society sees to it that those
children are not left out on the street

Rex Crossen, president of Educational Clinics Inc., uses the expression

"professional educators in private practice" to describe clinic teachers and
administrators. This is reflected not only in the programs demonstrated cost--
effectiveness, but also in the fact that it is performance--based. The clinic
teacher is held to a high degree of accountability for his work. If a student
does not show up on any given morning, or even misses a single period, the
clinic receives no money from the state for that student for time he is not in
class. Since an ECI clinic is a profit--making enterprise, teachers who are not
able to attract, retain, and succeed with their ex--dropouts will clearly not
themselves be retained as staff members. Likewise a clinic itself, whether
operated by ECI or a non--profit community--based organization, must
demonstrate its effectiveness continuously if it is to continue receiving state
funds.

Who oversees the states interest in this contractual arrangement with private
clinics? In Washington it in the Office of the Superintendent of Public
Instruction. In addition, the Employment Security Department oversees for
the state of Washington private grants made to the clinics. This underscores
the fundamental relationship between educational clinics and the future
workforce. In Denver, the Secretarys Regional Representative for the U.S.
Department of Labor, Joe Nunez, supports educational clinics because of their
potential to help correct the mismatch between the kinds of jobs the future is
creating and the skills and education levels of future workers.

In California, Sacramentos Grant Joint Union High School District and Elk
Grove Unified School District oversee the clinics activities on behalf of the
state. In a sense, ECI is a subcontractor for these districts, taking on a
specific segment of their clientele. Such an arrangement is the ultimate
expression of the win--win synergy --rather than competition or rivalry--
between education clinics and public schools.

In fact, Grants Directors of Research and Development, Instruction, and Public

information have this to say about their partnership with ECI: "Our educational
clinic will help bridge this gap [between what a drop--out needs and what he
perceives his public school offers him] by providing a means for dropout
youth to eventually reenter our schools. The benefits are an additional
opportunity to turn our failures into successes and increased funding in the
form of ADA [Average Daily Attendance, Californias form of AE]. Potential
community benefits may include lowered social welfare dependence and
lowered crime rates (the state of Washington estimates that 70% of prison
inmates are dropouts)."(11)

Balancing the Equity and Excellence Agendas

It has been determined repeatedly that students who are tracked in the most
advanced learning group of a given school progress five times faster than
those in the least advanced group.

The question then arises: Will efforts undertaken to hold on to and bring up
at--risk students come at the expense of a schools ability to push along
advanced students? Do the reforms aimed at raising standards, increasing
class time, demanding competency not just "seat time" for grade
advancement -- do these efforts tend to push out the marginal student and
close the door on the potential re--enrollee? Must the "excellence" agenda
come at the expense of what has been called.. the "equity" agenda? At the
expense of dropouts and at-risk students?

This question represents a very real dilemma for many school boards and
superintendents and principals. Answering it comprehensively is beyond the
scope of this paper, but it is clear that educational clinics can be part of the
answer. By essentially assigning a segment of the student population to
educational clinics, a school district can obviate the compromise inherent in
the dilemma. A school would not have to reallocate scarce resources to design
a program to entice dropouts back to the school they have already rejected
once, would not have to train special teachers or lower standards.

Instead, a school can maintain its integrity, keep maximum resources directed
at its core program, while contracting out to educational clinics the task of
educating those not yet ready for the system. As one participant in a
conference on dropouts put it: "The fear of many educators who deal with at-
risk students is that these new demands for competency are like asking a high
jumper who cannot cross a four--foot bar to jump a six--foot bar instead."(12)
This demand is made worse when society doesnt offer an alternative to those
not clearing the bar. Now educational clinics provide such an alternative.

Helping "Second Chance" Reach More Dropouts More

Effectively
Question: Where do educational clinics fit in with Colorados Second Chance
program, part of the Educational Quality Act passed by the Legislature in
1985?

Answer: Clinics, if authorized by law, would broaden the range of alternative

educational settings which the administrators of the Second Chance program
can draw upon to meet the diverse needs of the states dropouts.

The dropout problem in Colorado is so severe that there surely can be no

concern about any institution cornering the market on dropouts! Young people
drop out for a complex variety of reasons; in all likelihood it will take an array
of generally small and flexible learning environments to meet the range of
needs of this group of young people and return them to a productive role in
society.

The Second Chance law could be improved in two ways: First, as mentioned
earlier, Colorado needs to face reality and recognize that thousands of
children under 16 do drop out, and need to be included in all programs for
dropouts. Second, the enormity of the dropout problem in Colorado demands
that the state recognize and encourage and support any institution which can
effectively educate and recover hardcore dropouts. What better way to
determine which institutions can do this most effectively than to let the market
decide.

If a storefront clinic operated by a LA RASA or the Urban League or New Pride

or the Denver Public Schools or the Denver Indian Center or ECI can
consistently meet criteria established by the state for such institutions, and
consistently return a high proportion of its young clientele to productive
society -- then the state of Colorado clearly ought to reward them for doing
so.

Can Colorado afford not to do so? It cannot. Not morally, not financially.

Consulting economist Dr. L. Charles Miller, in a follow-up study of ECI

students, found that the percentage of students involved in the welfare system
went from 45 percent prior to their enrollment in ECI to 20 percent two-and-
one-half years after their completion of the program. Whereas 17 percent of
the students were involved in the justice system before enrollment, only 10
percent were two--and--one-half years later. Nine percent of them were
involved in both the welfare and justice system prior taking part in the
program; this declined to 0.9 percent two--and--one--half years later.

Millers measurements are equally dramatic in employment. Only 16 percent of

the students were working either full- or part-time prior to enrollment in ECI;
two--and--one-half years later 64 percent were either working or in the
military or taking further training or education.

Miller also finds the bottom line to be impressive: "The annual cost savings to
government due to the decrease in welfare and justice system expenditures
for these students was $703.80 per student. In addition, local, state, and
federal taxes paid by this group had increased from the time they entered ECI
by $370.54 per student per year. The total annual fiscal benefit of $1,074.34
per student exceeds the government--paid tuition cost of $968.73, for an
annual rate of payback of 111 percent."(13)

This figure is probably conservative, particularly since the income gap would
likely widen over time. Another study has determined that the average annual
earnings of male dropouts between the ages of 25 and 64 is $14,568 --$5,000
less than that of high school graduates and $13,000 less than for those who
attend college-- which of course very few high school dropouts ever do.(14)

Criteria for Success

The Institute for Educational Leadership convened a major conference
focusing on dropouts and published its findings in the book School Dropouts:
Everybodys Problem last year. In the chapter titled "What Works?" Gary
Wehlage of the University of Wisconsin detailed the characteristics common to
successful alternative education programs:

1. Small size

2. Program autonomy

3. A committed teaching force

4. Nontraditional curricula

5. Experiential education

6. Positive atmosphere and supportive peer culture (15)

In both the general outline given above, and in Wehlages elaboration of each
criteria (too lengthy to cover here), the ECI program could hardly be better
summarized. While the idea of educational clinics is new to Colorado, it is not
experimental, but rather the distillation of many years of work on the problem
by a wide cross--section of educators and social scientists.

How did the idea of bringing educational clinics to Colorado come about? The
history says something about the breadth of the appeal of the idea.

In April 1986 the Colorado Opportunity Network, a group of black, Hispanic,

Anglo, and American Indian community leaders (see appendix for a list of its
Steering Committee), focusing on new answers to old problems in the minority
and poor communities, held a conference on "Economic Growth that Leaves
No One Behind." Speaking at that conference were representatives from ECI.
The Network, a project of the Independence Institute, formed task forces ---
on education, economic development, and welfare and the family -- as a way
of making concrete the ideas presented at the conference.

The Education Task Force of the Opportunity Network began to meet regularly
in the summer of 1986, and chose to focus on the dropout problem,
specifically dropout recovery (see Appendix). Under the leadership of people
like John Garcia of the Hispanics of Colorado, Naomi Bradford of the Denver
Public Schools Board, and Bill Brown of the Black Education Advisory Council,
the task force began to systematically examine ways of addressing the
dropout problem. Over the months, educational clinics became the most
compelling option.

The task force gradually expanded its involvement to include people working
in the dropout programs of Denver Public Schools, the Governors Job Training
office, the Mayors office, the Second Chance program, U.C. Denver, Metro
State, the Colorado Alliance of Business, the Denver Broncos Youth
Foundation, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, the Frost Foundation, the
East Denver Ministerial Alliance, the Urban League, the Black Leadership
Forum, IBM, and the state legislature. Skepticism was a common initial
response. But eventually, although formal endorsements were not sought
from those involved, there was consensus among the task force members
that educational clinics deserved a careful look by Colorado. The process was
speeded when the Rocky Mountain News endorsed the clinic idea in a
December editorial (see Appendix).

Conclusions and Recommendations

The policy case for educational clinics is overwhelmingly clear. Only the
questions of implementation remain:

Will Colorado rise to the challenge presented by its very serious dropout
problem? Will Colorado decision--makers rise above their own initial
skepticism, concerns about turf, and politics to be willing to propose
something creative in response to what is surely a grave challenge to the
future of this state? Or will it be business as usual?

Every indication is that business as usual will not get the job done. We must
do more. That more should include making it possible for educational clinics to
flourish in Colorado.

1) Citizen Involvement: The Education Task Force of the Colorado

Opportunity Network is an open process. Participating in its meetings --or
sending a representative -- is the best way to get your questions answered
and help advance the idea. Perhaps you know of others who would want to be
aware of the idea, or of organizations which might want to take advantage of
the opportunity to operate their own clinics.

2) Legislative Action: A bill is scheduled to be introduced into the legislature

in the coming weeks which will authorize educational clinics as eligible to
receive state funds for recovering school dropouts. The legislation will
establish criteria which must be met by any organization--public, private, or
non-profit--seeking to operate a clinic. When this bill is introduced, legislators
will need to hear from their constituencies. The quickest response may be a
knee-- jerk reaction against a perceived threat to the status quo of education
interests. The least vocal, least organized response will be from the group
most affected -- dropouts themselves. Concerned Coloradans who care about
the dropouts plight will need to speak up on their behalf.

What are the consequences of not acting? Listen to an educator from the front
lines, Ramon Cortines, Superintendent of the San Jose Public Schools:

"[Nobody] can wash their hands and watch the statistics grow. . . . The
students will be educated in school or on the street. Unless schools reclaim
those they lose, cities and communities will bear a heavy burden."(16)

ECIs Rex Crossen characterizes this burden as a potential "Third World" of

angry, undereducated, minority youths in our midst. Colorado has the
opportunity to reshape that future. Will it?

Notes
(1) High School and Beyond, U.S. Center for Educational Statistics, quoted in
The Research Bulletin of the Hispanic Policy Development Project, New York
and Washington, D.C.

(2) Status of K-12 Public Education in Colorado, 1986, Colorado State Board of
Education, page 9.

(3) School Dropouts: Everybody's Problem, The Institute for Educational

Leadership, Inc., Washington, D.C., 1986, page 2.

(4) Margaret Le Compte, former director of research and evaluation in a

Houston school district, in "Dropping out now 'gentrified,' says education
expert," Rocky Mountain News, 2/10/87.

(5) Information in the previous two paragraphs, unless otherwise indicated, is

available in the "Briefing Memorandum on the Hispanic Student Dropout
Problem," by the Colorado Advisory Committee of the Rocky Mountain
Regional Office of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Denver, Colorado,
pages 2--5

(6) "Resolutions for Immediate Implementation in DPS," Unite Parents for

Progressive Education, Denver, December 16, 1986.

(7) School Dropouts, page 4.

(8) Quoted in "For school dropouts.., a prescription for success," an

Educational Clinic brochure.
(9) As paraphrased in School Dropouts, page 27.

(10) Description and Results of the ECI Program, Educational Clinics, Inc.,
November 1982; and Longitudinal Study of Former High School Dropouts Who
Participated in the ECI Program, Charles Davis, Ed, a study prepared for the
U.S. Department of Education, November 1984.

(11) According to recent data available from ECI: Charles Davis, Educational
Clinics, Inc., 1414 Alaskan Way, Suite 515, Seattle, Washington 98101.

(12) "Educational Clinics: Recovering Dropout Youths," Ivan Klimko, Cornelia

Whitaker, and Karen Wilson, in Thrust, May/June 1986, page 23.

(13) School Dropouts, page 28.

(14) Fiscal Benefits of the ECI Program for Dropout Youth, L. Charles Miller, a
study prepared for Educational Clinics, Inc., March 1982.

(15) "The Dropout Problem," in Education Update, The Heritage Foundation,

Washington, D.C., Summer 1986.

(16) School Dropouts, pages 33-34.

(17) Ibid, page 5.

Appendix
Rocky Mountain News Editorial, Friday, Dec. 5, 1986

Education clinics worth try

WHEN kids drop out of school, they haven't so much given up on education as
on themselves. Whatever they may say publicly, most of them know a solid
education would improve their futures. But school has become uncomfortable,
humiliating or pointless for them, and so they say farewell.

There are thousands of such dropouts in Colorado. In Denver alone, the non-
graduating rate is reported at 40%. If these youngsters are to be reached and
the loss of talent halted, more than a single strategy must be employed.

One possibility: educational clinics.

The idea comes courtesy of the Colorado Opportunity Network, a project of

the Independence Institute that seeks practical solutions to problems plaguing
the state. Last week in Denver, network members and several out-of-state
guests explained how the clinics work--how, in fact, they already function in
Washington and California.

In both states, educational clinics are run by a private firm called (what else?)
Educational Clinics Inc. Generally storefront operations far removed from
schools, they offer individualized instruction in basic academic skills. No
credits are given: The clinics are transitional and meant to provide a bridge
back to public school. The average stay is only a few months, with the actual
length determined by the progress and ability of the individual. Most students
test out of the program about in 1 1/2 grades higher than the level at which
they entered it.

In short, the clinics seem to work. Not every dropout responds, of course. Not
every dropout makes his or her way to a clinic, either. Each must come
voluntarily. The fact that so many do in the communities where they've been
tried, and that followup finds a great number of them still hard at work 18
months later, demonstrates the residual interest many dropouts retain in
learning.

Would similar clinics work in Colorado? Many members of the opportunity

network - from John Garcia, president of Hispanics of Colorado, to Denver
school board member Naomi Bradford believe they would. The network would
like to set up a single pilot clinic in Denver, which Educational Clinics officials
would operate for one year, reaching 500 dropouts, for $400,000.

The Opportunity Network intends to raise the money privately. If it succeeds,

and if the clinic fulfills its promise, state and local officials looking for a way to
reverse the tide of dropouts will have a model program to inspect and imitate
right on their doorstep.

Rocky Mountain News, Wed.. Aug 1,1986.

Dropouts form 'new 3rd World,'

Educator Warns

By JAMES G. WRIGHT

Rocky Mountain News Education Writer

Colorado will face a "new Third World" of angry, undereducated minority

youths unless it cures high school dropout rates and poor minority
performance on test scores, a Washington state educator said yesterday in
Denver.

"There's a high level of emotion (among dropouts) and a tremendous burn,

tremendous hate," Rex Crossen, president of Seattle-based Education Clinics
Inc., told members of the Colorado Opportunity Network and other minority
group leaders in a forum.

"You've got a Third World coming up out there, and you need to recognize it,"
said Crossen, who sprinkled his presentation with anecdotes of violence and
drug abuse by high school dropouts.

Dropouts--disproportionally minority students and often victims of physical

and sexual abuse--can't cope with an educated society, Crossen said.

"They apply for a job, but they don't get hired," he said.

"They lack the attitude, they lack the skills and they lack the confidence to
fake it."

Once rejected, failed students become part of a dangerous underclass, turning

to violence and drug abuse in their frustration, Crossen said.

Crossen's presentation was the first in a series sponsored by the network,

which is a task force created by the Independence Institute, a Golden-based
conservative think tank. The group is studying Colorado's high school dropout
rate, which ranges as high as 50% for Hispanics, and will propose solutions to
state lawmakers in January.

Crossen urged the group to consider alternatives t6 traditional public

education - including private clinics - for unsuccessful students.

He is testing the waters for a Denver clinic and is likely to seek a state or local
school district contract to serve roughly 500 students between the ages of 13
and 19.

Crossen's company has operated two of the largest private education clinics in
Washington since 1978 and recently opened two in California.

The clinics offer intense 3-month counseling and remedial education programs
as well as courses on resume writing

and job interview skills. In Washington, where the stste also operates
alternative schools and dropout prevention programs, the students in private
clinics can return to school, attend vocational school or enter the job market.

Crossen said 75% of his clinic's students complete the program. Of those who
finish, 62% are involved in school, work or the military within 6 months, he
said.

Dropouts who receive no alternative education generally face higher

unemployment, more dependence on welfare and more legal problems than
clinic graduates, he said.

Harry Johnson, supervisor of testing and evaluation for the Washington

superintendent of public instruction, said Crossen's figures are correct but
added that state-run alternative schools may offer the same results.

While not yet endorsing Crossen's move to Colorado, participants at the forum
said private enterprise may be a good possibility.

"There is a mindset, especially toward Hispanics who are viewed as a genetic

pool contaminated by the attitudes of their parents," said John Garcia,
president of Hispanics of Colorado and a forum participant. "That's pervasive
in Colorado schools, and it is dangerous."

AUTHOR: The late DAVID S. DEVELYN was Vice President of the Independence
Institute and Director of the Colorado Opportunity Network, and spent nine
years as a teacher and administrator. He also created Colorado's charter
school law.

EDITOR of this Independence Issue Papers was John K. Andrews, Jr.,

President of the Institute.

Copyright 1999 -- Independence Institute

THE INDEPENDENCE INSTITUTE is a Colorado nonprofit corporation. It is

governed by a bipartisan board of trustees and holds Its public policy
research focuses on state-level issues, education reform, and the moral
dimension of U.S. foreign policy. http://i2i.org.

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Please send comments to Independence Institute, 14142 Denver West Pkwy.,
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Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily representing the views of the Independence
Institute or as an attempt to influence any election or legislative action.
Please send comments to Independence Institute, 14142 Denver West Pkwy., suite 185, Golden,
CO 80401 Phone 303-279-6536 (fax) 303-279-4176 (email)webmngr@i2i.org

Copyright 1999