I'm a high school teacher, but I worked at the Deer Lake elementary school for four years. The greater impact is going to happen at the elementary school level. To be honest with you, I do not want my job as a graduation coach to exist in 20 years. I don't want there to be a need for it. We shouldn't be playing catch-up.
Let's help students at the right age, at those early ages, so that they experience success early. It's not fair for these students to go through their entire schooling career with huge gaps. They internalize these failures. It's so much harder for them. It's not fair. It's not right.
I promise that if we invest early in childhood education, and if we offer supports to families that are struggling, that will make a huge difference in these statistics and in the lives of these students and their families.