Having an education is the foundation for success in today’s world. However, currently only 84% of students in East Chicago, IN are obtaining their high school diploma.
While this percentage has been increasing over the years, it is still below the state of Indiana’s rate of 90%.
One collaboration of organizations in East Chicago has taken it upon itself to ensure that more students experience academic success and graduate. The organizations that make up this coop are: Communities in Schools of Lake County, School City of East Chicago, Ivy Tech Community College, HealthLinc and Geminus Corporation. These organizations, with funding from Foundations of East Chicago, have worked to implement a program called Integrated Student Services (ISS) into East Chicago Central High School, Block Middle School and West Side Middle School.
The goal of the ISS program is to address the academic and non-academic factors that prevent students from achieving success in school and graduating. In addition to struggling with course material, things like lack of access to healthcare and involvement in high-risk peer groups can cause students to become non-graduates. ISS provides services such as tutoring, mentoring, support groups, health services, life skills training and substance abuse education to help combat many of the issues students face.
For this academic year, a total of 200 students from the three East Chicago schools are participating in the program. At the start of the year, the struggles and needs of each of these students were evaluated based on surveys of parents, teachers and the student, the student’s beginning GPA, the student’s grades in core subjects and the age of the student. The results of these evaluations help to determine each student’s customized strategy so that they can achieve success.
For more information on the ISS program and what it is doing for East Chicago students, visit foundationsec.org.
