May 2019 | Vol. 16 Iss. 05
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GRANITE DISTRICT WORKS TO HELP AT-RISK AND REFUGEE STUDENTS GRADUATE By Heather Lawrence | heather.lawrence@mycityjournals.com
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our Bilal has seen both sides of Cottonwood High School. She currently works at Cottonwood, but less than a year ago she was a student there. As both a student and employee, she’s been involved in a Granite District program designed to help more students, especially those at-risk or refugees, graduate. “My story is a little interesting, because I graduated from Cottonwood last year. A lot of students thought that I just love school so much that I came back to work. The story is really not about me loving school but it’s about helping those students and giving back to the community,” said Bilal. Principal Terri Roylance said Granite District in general and Cottonwood High specifically have some unique challenges. “We are a student body that comes from five different cities. Every day, an army of buses drop off our students. They come from Holladay, Murray, Taylorsville, South Salt Lake and Millcreek City,” said Roylance. Though Cottonwood and other GSD schools have robust honors programs and ambitious scholars, they also have students whose education and social opportunities are limited. These students are at risk of not graduating. Roylance said Cottonwood’s answer to helping at risk students is a multifaceted approach. Records have been helpful. “We have been very meticulous about looking through those students who have left our school. If parents don’t come and officially check out our students or tell us they’re moving, we follow up on those things,” Roylance said. Roylance utilizes Cottonwood staff and AmeriCorps volunteers. “AmeriCorps has five volunteers here. Our counseling team identifies students who are academically at risk. We meet weekly to discuss things and then communicate what we talk about with students, parents and teachers,” Roylance said. One challenge throughout the district is helping the refugee population. “Among our students we have a significant refugee population. These students may not have had the opportunity to attend school in their home country. They come to us as a junior or senior and they have not had schooling,” Roylance said. Bilal was one of those students. Her family came to Utah in November 2014 from Damascus, Syria. Though she’d had access to schooling, there was still a language barrier as her native language is Arabic. “People say it takes seven years to learn a new language. We partnered with the nonprofit One Refugee. They’ve paid for two teachers at our school who take students with refugee status one class period every other day. They can also get a
Nour Bilal, who is originally from Syria, graduated from Cottonwood High in 2018. Now she’s back working at Cottonwood to make sure atrisk students graduate. (Photo courtesy Nour Bilal)
scholarship to SLCC for up to four years,” said Roylance. Yuri Perez teaches math and science at Cottonwood. “My students are 100% English learners. Sixty to 75% of them are refugees and the rest immigrants from a variety of countries. I believe the support Cottonwood gives to this population of students is one of the reasons why there is an increase in graduation rates,” Perez said. Perez saw engagement and achievement outside the classroom this year when his students formed a robotics team and competed in the FIRST robotics competition. In addition to limited schooling, there are other barriers for at-risk students. “These students come with emotional baggage and cultural and distance barriers. If they are within walking or close driving distance to the school, then they can participate in more activities at our building. But if they aren’t we need to help them,” said Roylance. Roylance’s team went above and beyond. “We are trying to eliminate barriers in all possibilities. We have a social worker who goes to students’ homes, with an interpreter if necessary,” Roylance said. Cottonwood also does a summer program which helps “a little bit.” Peers who are in National Honor Society (NHS) help out,
too. “Monday morning is our late start day. Our NHS students go to the library Monday morning and anyone can come in for tutoring. We also have an after school program where students can get help 2:10–5:30 every afternoon,” said Roylance. School districts are required to report their graduation rates each year. In GSD, that responsibility lies with Rob Averett. Averett is director of research and has been with the district for 24 years. “We are seeing improvements across most schools in Granite District, especially since 2016. Cottonwood went from a graduation rate of 75% in 2016 to 80% in 2018. Cyprus High’s graduation rate in 2016 was 76%; in 2018 it was 84%. Overall, Granite District’s graduation rate in 2016 was 73%. In 2018 it was 76%,” Averett said. Averett said communities need to be realistic about their changing demographics. “Refugees and other immigrants have come and they are here to stay. World conditions place us in these circumstances. We need to deal with the situation. If we don’t help them, we’ll have a less capable and more violent society,” said Averett. For the general population, “it’s a known, provable fact that income potential is higher the more education a person has. Employability is higher. The Bureau of Labor publishes statistics on earnings potential, which shows that educated people have higher median weekly earnings,” said Averett. “Individual students need to take the long view and master education so they can compete in the modern world. Graduates can make larger contributions to society. They are comfortable working in our society,” Averett said. When it comes to Cottonwood’s roughly 400 seniors, Roylance said the connection between graduation and community is making a difference. “People in our valley are reaching out, seeing a need, and answering that need. We have awesome teachers and counselors, and a special emphasis on looking at educational equity. Combine that with the awareness piece and that is why we have success.” For people like Bilal, who’ve been on both sides of the issue, the results are rewarding, especially when students feel like they’re being given a fair chance and a voice. “I have had seniors who started to do better when I followed up with them. I think it’s because they don’t like to be told what to do, but shown what to do,” Bilal said. Bilal said her goal is simple: “I tried my best to have students feel safe and comfortable when they to talk to me. All I really want is to make sure those kids gets the right help, and are able to graduate.”. l
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