Graduation and Drop Out Rates Remain Stable for Northeast Michigan Schools

Michigan High School students are graduating and drop out rates are remaining stable, and that includes Northeast Michigan High Schools. According to the Michigan Center for Educational Performance and Information, and Michigan School Data, for 2016, Alpena High School has over 86% of its students graduating with only 6% dropping out.

Principal, Matthew Poli said it’s about keeping students engaged with new programs.

“We’ve been able to bring in some things in the past couple of years to really help kids stay engaged in school. One of them is, our career and tech program where students can actually get certified. I will use welding as an example; they can go through our program. There’s a lot of kids, schools not their cup of tea, it’s hard for them. They don’t necessarily like what we do or how we do it. But if we get them into a program where they have a passion, whether it’s in welding, automotive, or healthcare occupations where they can do what they really haven’t been able to do before, they really start to see the value in it . They start to say ‘well if I do this, I can go out and start making a living now,'” Poli explained.

Poli adds that teachers and staff keep an eye on students by having a connection with them.

“We have a lot of kids that struggle for a lot of different reasons. It might be home life, it might be again, and school might not be their interest. It’s two things we teach in education, and that’s reading, writing, arithmetic…but you really have to teach socialization. How do you connect them? I think one of the great things we do here, and we continue to do is try to connect with kids,” he said.

Other local high school graduation rates were also shown. Rogers City High School’s graduation rate was 98%. Posen was 95%. Atlanta high school’s rate was 62%. Hillman’s rate was 69%.