Currently, 20% to 25% of students are failing to complete high school; mini classes on Verde Campus begins the effort to address this issue early in the academic lives of students
The Cottonwood Community School, with the support of the Verde Campus faculty and administrators of Yavapai Community College, has launched an aggressive effort to reduce the outrageously high number of students failing to complete high school in the Cottonwood area. According to the experts who addressed the Yavapai Community College District Governing Board in May 2022, from 20 to 25% of students living in the Cottonwood area drop out of high school.
The goal of the Community School effort is to create a pathway that will stimulate and encourage students to attend and remain in high school, and consider college. To accomplish this, one of the first steps the community school has taken is to create a series of mini-classes for eighth grade students that are taught on the Yavapai Community College Campus. Students are transported to the Verde Campus, which is a mile or so from their school to campus, using a bus provided by Yavapai Community College. The classes are taught at a high level, much like they might experience in college.
The mini-classes that were selected to kick off the project for its first year were: Law enforcement, construction, culinary arts, nursing and agriculture. Those in charge of the program report that the classes were extremely well received by students.
Anecdotal stories about students in the classes strongly suggest the experience is generating real interest in terms of pursuing additional education, especially in areas involving the classes they took. In at least one case, where a student had already decided to not complete high school, the student made it clear to the instructors the program had changed his mind. The student was even considering college.
The faculty learned that some students, although attending middle school located a little over a mile from the Verde Campus, were not aware it existed as a community college.
The instructors hope to expand the program by the fall 2022 to include the following additional classes: Art, CNC, Fire Science, Allied Health, and Biology.
All of the details regarding this tremendous effort can be found on the videotape clip you can view by clicking here. The video clip presentation by the Community School experts takes about 18 minutes. It is well worth viewing.
Note: Photos are from presentation made to the Yavapai Community College Governing Board by the Cottonwood Community School.