2008 Woodie Awards
Dean shares excellence with high school programs
By Ryan Johnston
Issue date: 2/29/08 Section: News
Originally published: 2/28/08 at 10:10 AM CSTLast update: 2/28/08 at 4:59 PM CST
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Ruben Flores, dean of evening, weekend and distance education, spoke with faculty senate about San Antonio Independent School District's dropout rate and improvements that have come within the last couple of years.
"We want to enable some of these people to close the gap and come to college," Flores said.
Flores credited a recent article in the San Antonio Express-News that stated Bexar County has a 57 percent dropout rate, while the eight high schools in SAISD were 45-50 percent.
Flores also talked about the individual retention rate of students who completed school from Burbank, Edison, Highlands, Houston and Lanier high schools.
Burbank and Edison both had a 58 percent retention rate, while Highlands had 56 percent, Lanier had 52 percent and Houston had a 50 percent retention rate of students who graduated by the time they were seniors.
In 1998, this campus initiated a summer program for inner-city high school students, where they recruited students with low B and C grade averages. The program focused on helping Jefferson, Edison, Fox Tech and Lanier high school students.
Since 1999, the program has recruited more than 1,400 students, mostly from inner-city schools and 70-75 percent have transitioned to this campus. However, the program has an overall transition rate of 90 percent.
"That's 90 percent of students who probably never thought of going to college in the first place," he said.
Other programs have come out of the department, such as Consejo de Educacion, or Educational Councils. With this program, volunteers provide 80 hours of tutorial, mentoring and educational outreach to students.
Their most recent venture into helping high school students, however, was the Summer Bridge program, where students from Edison, Fox Tech and Jefferson are brought onto the campus to expose them to a college environment.
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