Fuel For Thought

Operation Comeback: Districts Battle Dropout Rate

City, School Leaders Plan Walk To Encourage Students To Return To School

DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ― "Whatever it takes" is the motto the Dallas Independent School District and city leaders have adopted as they join Houston and other Texas cities in a statewide initiative to combat the drop out rate.

The effort, called "Operation Comeback," launched Thursday to get students who have not yet returned to school, back in class. DISD has 1,000 enrolled high school students who haven't shown up to classes yet.

DISD's first line of attack will be a phone bank that went online Thursday. Volunteers working in city hall were making hundreds of phone calls to households with truant students.

On Saturday, DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa and Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert will be among the volunteers who plan to walk door to door encouraging missing students to come back to school.

The Reach Out to Dropouts Walk grew from Houston Mayor Bill White's desire to improve the drop out rate. Since 2004, he's grown the initiative and now six major Texas cities – including Dallas and Fort Worth – have joined the effort.

Educators and city leaders believe the bottom line is that students need to be in school in order to get the education that will lead to good jobs, college and productive lives. Graduating high school is where all of that begins, they say.

Hinojosa has said he wants DISD to be the best urban school district in the nation and that won't happen if students aren't in class, or are lax in returning.

Every day of instruction missed puts students behind, making it harder to catch up and putting that student at risk for dropping out as frustration mounts, officials say.

Keeping students in class also keeps money flowing to the school district. DISD receives funding based on enrollment.

Leppert has said fighting the dropout rate is crucial for Dallas' economic future. He believes an educated workforce is an absolute necessity for attracting and keeping well-paying employers in the city.

While preparing to lace up his walking shoes, Leppert added that if it takes going door-to-door to let these kids know that someone cares and that their being in school matters, then, that's just what they'll do.

Many of the kids on DISD's truant list haven't actually dropped out; they've simply moved to other districts. But if DISD can't document where they are or get them back in a Dallas School by Sept. 30, the student will be labeled a dropout.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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