The state of Nevada is facing perhaps the largest challenge to the education system in decades. Students are dropping out of school at alarming rates – nearly 11 percent of Nevada’s students dropped out of high school in 2005 as compared to the national average of 7 percent. With the help of Communities In Schools of Southern Nevada (CISSN), students are given the chance to beat through the innovative programs and services that help them stay in school and prepare for life.
The gap between high school dropouts and those who have achieved a higher education is widening as opportunities increase for higher skilled workers and all but disappear for those who are less skilled. According to the ERIC Clearinghouse on Urban Education, in the last 20 years the earnings potential of dropouts doubled, while it nearly tripled for college graduates. Dropouts make up nearly half the heads of households on welfare and nearly half the prison population. When putting these figures into the statewide economy and the future of the community.
CISSN has a proven track record of helping at-risk students in Clark County succeed in school. It focuses its programs and services around five basic principles that each child deserves: a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult; a safe place to learn and grow; a healthy start and a healthy future; a marketable skill to use upon graduation; and a chance to give back to the community.
Through its service center at Reynaldo Martinez Elementary School in the heart of the homeless corridor, CISSN offers both on-site and outreach programs, such as a medical and dental clinic, weekend food-to-go program, birthday parties, a clothing closet, as well as mentoring and career programs. With the recent groundbreaking of its second service center at Cynthia Cunningham Elementary School, CISSN will expand its impact in the community. To date, CISSN has provided medical services to over 4,200 students and plans to serve an additional 1,000 students during the first year of operation at the second service center.
“We know that most students who dropout of school are dealing with a variety of obstacles in their lives such as poverty, drugs and violence, of which only a few are actually school related,” said Louise Helton, CISSN’s executive director. “We work with the students to decipher the maze of available resources, and take the time to connect them with programs and services to help them achieve success and stay in school,” she added.
Two new programs specifically focus on decreasing the dropout rate through a partnership between Nevada Partners and the Clark County School District called the Fellows Academy and Sigma Delta. These programs target disengaged middle and high school students to reconnect them with the system and expose them to meaningful career exploration and internship opportunities. “We found that if a middle school student didn’t move on to high school with their peers, they had virtually no chance of graduating and that many of them dropped out of school before they even enrolled in high school,” noted Helton. In order to keep their peer group relationships in tact, these students are allowed to transition to high school while continuing to work on middle-school proficiency through the new programs. “We are encouraged by the success that we already see these students having and look forward to helping even more students stay in school as this program grows.”
Communities In Schools of Southern Nevada
Louise Helton
(702)592-5330
www.cisnevada.org