Climbing Graduation Rates In Houston School District

HOUSTON, Miss.(WCBI)- Good news out of Chickasaw County. Graduation rates are on the rise in the Houston School District.

For the last five years roughly 30 to 40 students didn’t make it across the graduation stage.

Since that time the school district has been working nonstop to ensure the success of their students both in and out of the class room.

“We would love to see 100% that’s always our goal,”said Houston Superintendent Tony Cook.

The Houston School District believes you have to start early to accomplish that goal.

“We’ve made it a K-12 focus graduation rate is not a high school focus. It’s a K-12 responsibility. We start talking about graduation and college and career when students walk in the door at pre-k now. Our teachers wear college t-shirts on Friday’s. We have colleges on our walls of where every teacher went to school and we make it a friendly competition on Friday’s at times we just have an emphasis on the opportunities that graduation provides for students,”said Cook.

Houston Superintendent Tony Cook says it’s taking a while to allow this formula to set in but their hard work is starting to pay off.

“From 2012 to about 2016 the graduation rate was anywhere from the high 50’s to the mid 60’s. That means 30 to 40 students a year were not graduating. That creates a drain on the local economy and I think that is what creates an apathetic attitude toward graduation. Parents who dropped out don’t see the importance of their students graduating and the opportunities that can open up for them sometimes. Some of them do and that’s great,”said Cook.

Senior Kyler Spencer says he is getting ready to head into the real world and thanks to the teachers in the Houston School District he’s never felt more confident.

“They started this class called A.C.T. prep and all the Juniors could take it and it really taught me a lot about the act and helped me with the A.C.T. All the teachers I’ve ever had, they’ve always loved me and told me to do my best and just really poured them selves into me like a teacher should,”said Spencer.

District leaders says there are many keys to success. Principal John Ellison says simply showing up is probably the biggest one.

“When we have them here we’re able to help them. It’s so easy to get behind and once you get behind to get caught back up. When you’re here it makes a lot of difference so we push that all grades, K through 12 we do a lot of incentive as we do a lot of publicity about it. We reward our students for being here each day so attendance is a huge part of that,”said Ellison.

Cook says as they continue to work toward that 100 % graduation rate. He will continue to relay these thoughts to his students faculty and staff.

“When a student graduate high school, we know that now they have an opportunity to have a successful life. The opportunities that we would want them to have. It opens up doors to college. It opens up doors to better paying jobs and allows them to take care of their families in the future, much better. Graduation rates to me is the best indicator of Academic success in any district,”said Cook.

The Houston School District Just upgraded from a D to a B school.