Nevertheless, half a million high school students still drop out each year, and questions loom about whether some students who recover lost credits graduate without demonstrating vital competency and readiness.

In response, district leaders have enhanced credit recovery programs with wraparound supports while also recommitting to proactive efforts to keep students from falling too far behind in the first place.

Success with a shorter school day

In suburban Cincinnati, Lakota Local School District’s Career Readiness Academy offers a small, personalized learning environment for students who need extra academic support. “The academy is unique because students are in the driver’s seat controlling the curriculum pace” Principal Nicole Isaacs says.

Each Academy student follows a blended, individualized learning plan. Sixty percent of the time, they work through online content. For the remainder, students work with a teacher on in-depth projects that align with state standards.

Students can propose a project in an area they’re interested in and then present their work at an academy showcase. Each student works on the same curriculum that is followed in traditional Lakota schools, but with a shorter day.

The academy offers three-hour learning sessions in the morning, afternoon and evening.

Students must work 15 hours each week on closely monitored online courses to make up for class time. “A lot of our students go to work before or after they come to school” Isaacs says. “Going from six classes in a traditional bell schedule to only three in our schedule is helpful.”

To encourage students to think about the future and set career goals, the academy also brings in various experts and industry representatives, such as members of an electrical union who told students about training programs.

Academy students also participate in mock interviews and in college tours, and learn about postsecondary vocational training and financial aid.

They must meet the same graduation requirements���and will receive the same diploma���as other district students. Isaacs attributes the academy’s 90 percent graduation rate to the supportive, family-like environment. “When a student doesn’t come to school, everyone notices” she says.

Fran Morrison, Lakota schools’ director of secondary curriculum, helped create the academy. She points to flexibility���to attend, to master content and in the approach to instruction���as another key factor.

“More and more students are going to request or require this innovative education approach” she says.

Self-pacing in summer school

Grandview R-2 school district’s Missouri Online Summer Institute offers flexible, student-centered, virtual learning that’s free and available to students statewide.

Students can recover core credits lost during the school year, take courses not offered in their home districts, or accelerate studies to make time for dual enrollment, work obligations and internships.

Through the institute, also known as MOSI, students work at their own pace and choose from more than 100 courses, including electives and advanced placement. Mentors provide technical support and general course guidance while advisors intervene when students fall behind or fail to submit assignments.

Elaine Schlett, the institute’s coordinator, acknowledges that virtual education may not be embraced by every district or provide the right solution for students who need more supervision. However, she believes the institute gives many students a valuable alternative.

The institute, for instance, helped a homeless student who was living in his car find internet access so he could complete online courses.

Schlett notes that some other students who lack internet access at home get online at local shelters, the library or at youth and community centers.

“We have also had students who needed one class to graduate and we worked with them to finish one day before the deadline” Schlett says. Teachers, mentors and advisors stay in daily email contact with those students to provide encouragement and assistance.

The five-year-old program has grown from 300 students to nearly 1,300 enrolling each summer, from both rural and suburban areas. “MOSI has created a statewide interest in virtual education and how it can enhance other districts” says Schlett.

Study hall for all

In Newman-Crows Landing USD in California, 20 to 30 percent of the 200 rising sophomores who enter Orestimba High School have not met eighth-grade requirements. “Many do not believe that school course work is connected to their future” Principal Justin Pruett says.

Located in a small agricultural community, Orestimba also receives credit-deficient transfer students from other districts. Additionally, some students face challenges���such as job schedules, family responsibilities and medical issues���that hinder academic performance.

Assistance begins with a study hall class that every Orestimba student takes. Having study hall built into the daily schedule helps ensure that all students have designated time and support on campus to focus on coursework. Students not on pace to graduate must enroll in an online credit-recovery program. Orestimba provides each of those students with a computer and Wi-Fi access.

Students needing more supervision have a structured study hall, with a lower student-teacher ratio, where they focus on coursework for classes in which they have fallen behind. “We don’t relive [students’] mistakes” Pruett says. “We meet them where they are and make a plan for the time they have left to graduate.”

In addition to 24-hour online access to credit recovery courses, tutoring takes place before and after school, and counselors meet with students regularly to check progress. The study hall blocks also provide time for teachers to meet, review data, discuss teaching strategies, set goals and check progress. “This [helps] ensure high-quality instruction for every student the first time” Pruett says.

No risk of failing

Over 20 years ago, Chugach School District in Anchorage, Alaska, found that its students’ classroom struggles persisted after graduation. Consequently, the district transformed its traditional curriculum into a personalized, performance-based model.

“[We are] not a credit-based district, so traditional credit recovery programs are not needed” says Debbie Treece, executive director of student services.

From preschool through high school, Chugach students move through benchmarks toward a diploma. They develop at their own pace in 10 content standards until 80 percent proficiency is demonstrated; then, they move to another level.

Teachers and staff provide individualized support and education through thematic, holistic lessons.

“Because students focus on content targets until they demonstrate readiness to move forward, the risk of ‘failing a class’ is not an option” says Treece. The district’s grading system includes “emerging” “developing” “proficient” and “advanced” levels.

The district’s graduation rate is 87.6 percent over the past nine years. Treece notes that some students graduate earlier than traditionally expected, while others take longer.

Teachers, students and parents regularly review each learner’s detailed transition and graduation plans. They map progress each semester based on a student’s dominant learning styles and academic strengths���all with an eye toward success after high school.

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The varied reasons underlying school food waste can be hotly debated. However, many schools are devising successful strategies and programs to redistribute, recycle and conserve cafeteria food and other, non-organic waste.

School to farms

“We have become a convenience-based society” says Karyl Kent, director of nutrition services for Lamoille North Supervisory Union and School District in Vermont. “It is easier to dump everything into one receptacle and move on, thinking, ‘It’s just one fork,’ or ‘just this one time,’ which can happen over and over.”

Lamoille North, whose 450 employees serve about 1,800 students, has been composting lunch waste for five years with help from a local compost company. The program has kept more than 35,000 pounds of food scraps from landfills and reduced the amount of edible food that is discarded, according to local reporting.

Additionally, Lamoille North high school students, with help from a sustainable agriculture program, collect and take kitchen food scraps to a local farm to feed laying hens.

“To complete the circle, students learn to cook what they produce and sell farm products back to the school kitchen” Kent says.

To further engage older students, Kent advocates peer guidance and student-led sustainability and environmental clubs. To involve the youngest students in recycling and composting, Lamoille North uses hands-on activities such as gardening with compost materials.

“Starting composting programs in elementary schools is probably the most exciting and effective way to teach students about food systems and the (potential) value of food waste” Kent says. “Younger students get very excited about where trash, recycling and food waste go and are eager to participate.”

Caf��息 to community

Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia, which enrolls nearly 80,000 students in one of the most affluent counties in the U.S., also relies on students to reduce waste. Through “food recovery” programs, students donate unwanted, nonperishable and unopened lunch items, which are later distributed to local food pantries.

The programs were implemented in 2014 amid estimates that almost 10 percent of Loudoun County children lived in food-insecure households where financial problems forced families to make trade-offs between basic needs and more nutritious food.

In 2016-17, nine participating schools recovered five tons of food, says Charlene Stoker Jones, executive director of the Dulles South Food Pantry in Loudoun County. The pantry also operates a program that sends a bag of groceries home with students in need each Friday.

“Last year, almost every one of the 4,337 food packs contained snacks, juice boxes, dried fruit and fruit, or cereal cups that came to the pantry through food recovery” Jones says.

A similar program has launched at Top of the World Elementary School in Laguna Beach USD in Southern California.

“We found room for a repurposed refrigerator and started collecting unopened food, beverages and whole, unconsumed fruits and vegetables” says Anakaren Ureno, Laguna Beach USD’s public communications liaison.

A law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in September 2017 allows California schools to collect and donate unopened items and untouched fruit. Under previous state law, schools were prohibited from donating items other than milk and food that had not been served. Schools also had to have someone supervise share tables where students placed unopened, unwanted food for use by others.

At Top of the World, the recovered food provides snacks for the district’s after-school program and the remainder goes to a local food pantry.

Since the program’s September 2017 launch, the average recovery has been 13 pounds of food and beverages per week, with a few weeks peaking at 25 pounds, Ureno says.

Healthy and ‘smarter’

For many schools, reducing lunchroom waste does not end with recovery, redistribution and recycling. In recent years, some schools have embraced the Smarter Lunchrooms movement.

Championed by a nonprofit organization with the same name, and by the US91心頭 through its HealthierUS School Challenge grants, “smarter lunchrooms” use research-based, low-to-no cost strategies to entice students to try new foods and eat what they put on their trays.

“Through one high school, we found out that the students would not eat in the lunchroom due to the no-cell phone policy” says Katie Bark, project director of Montana Team Nutrition.

In 2014-15, Bark and fellow Team Nutrition members worked with five Montana high schools to implement Smarter Lunchroom strategies. Cafeterias throw out less when the food produced is eaten by students, even off-campus.

“With open-campus policies, it can be difficult to entice students to eat lunch in the cafeteria” Bark says. “A food service director came up with the solution of offering a balanced, grab-and-go combo meal in the hallway so the students could access it before they left the building during lunchtime.”

Montana Team Nutrition also reduced waste by encouraging schools to adhere to US91心頭 rules that allow students to refuse two of five food groups, by instituting a share table for unopened items and by letting students take part of their lunch from the cafeteria to eat later. Other effective strategies included slicing or quartering whole fruit into smaller pieces that younger students would be more likely to eat.

Signs also encourage students to take only what they will consume.

Finally, because hungrier students eat more, K8 schools also are encourages to send children out to recess before lunch.

Raising community awareness

Whatever the lunchroom strategy, student involvement and programmatic education about the value of food conservation are crucial to overcoming associated challenges. Montana Team Nutrition implemented a lunch advisory council at each school to engage students in giving input on menu options, which also helped reduce cafeteria waste, says Bark.

Seattle Public Schools has required recycling since 2005 and composting since 2015.

Rina Fa’amoe-Cross, a resource conservation specialist for the district, says educating students and staff about which waste goes in what container is challenging. She points to significant cost savings as one reason to keep outreach���through district-created videos and flyers���that are engaging enough to maintain student and staff interest.

“Our garbage is hauled by rail to eastern Oregon and is four times as expensive as recycling” Fa’amoe-Cross says. “So anything diverted from the garbage to recycling or compost saves money.”

In addition to share tables at lunch, many Seattle schools have gardens with signs that detail how scraps returned to the soil produce more food, Fa’amoe-Cross says. “Educating students about recycling and composting raises community awareness” she says. “[Students] take home those messages and teach their families.”

For Jones, whose Virginia food pantry is visited by 40 to 50 families each week, the logistics of food recovery���coordinating volunteers, finding drivers to transport recovered food, and making sure schools have space and equipment to store food���can be difficult.

However, the significant ���big-picture��� benefits for students, schools, the community and the environment eclipse those hurdles.

���Hungry [students and their families] get more nutritious food and the amount of waste going to the landfill is reduced,��� Jones says. ���School food recovery and redistribution [and similar] programs really are a win-win for everyone.���

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