"Every 90 seconds, an American student drops out of school..."

Chmelynski, C. (2006). Getting High-School Dropouts Back in School, The Education Digest, 72(2).

In an effort to curb this trend, drop-out prevention and other programs intended to support students to graduate from high school are increasingly common throughout the U.S. Beginning in the fall of 2007, The Evaluation Center at the University of West Georgia partnered with the Carroll County Schools to evaluate the 12 for Life program, a drop-out prevention program jointly sponsored by the Carroll County Schools and Southwire, Inc.

The program was initiated in early 2006 and combines traditional classroom instruction with employment and job training in a manufacturing facility designed by Southwire specifically for this program. Students learn job skills and earn a paycheck, as well as, earn credit toward their high school graduation. Aimed at keeping at risk students in school and improving graduation rates, the 12 for Life program seeks to provide students with a balanced education and meaningful employment skills.

The primary purpose of the evaluation is to “tell the story” of the 12 for Life program in ways that are meaningful to a range of audiences. Over a nearly three-year period The Evaluation Center will collect data on the operation of the program, impacts of the program on participating students and adults, and factors that would affect replication of the program. Dr. Tamra Ogletree, Assistant Professor of Curriculum & Instruction is Project Director of the evaluation and is assisted by Dr. Mary Hancock and Dr. Julie Chibbaro, both Assistant Professors of Educational Psychology. The current evaluation is designed to provide holistic, objective information about the program that can be used not only to improve the 12 for Life program, but also to inform other efforts to support students’ high school graduation.

The Evaluation Center operates under the auspices of the College of Education at the University of West Georgia. The Center is designed to support research, evaluation, and data use among agencies or institutions in fields associated with the development of human capacity.

To learn more about The Evaluation Center and our ongoing projects, visit our website at http://eval.westga.edu. More information about the 12 for Life program can be found at the Carroll County Schools website www.carrollcountyschools.com.

"Every 90 seconds, an American student drops out of school..."

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