In South Texas, Luring Dropouts Back By Sending Them to College
From: The National Center for Media Engagement
Series: PBS Newshour
Length: 08:00
Hoping to stem a high school dropout crisis, one Texas superintendent is luring many students back to school by giving them a taste of college coursework. Special correspondent John Merrow reports as part of our American Graduate series.
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Broadcast History
July 4, 2012
Transcript
RAY SUAREZ: Next: another chapter in our series on the high school dropout problem.
The NewsHour's special correspondent for education, John Merrow, looks at a program that offers dropouts college courses to make learning more stimulating.
This story is part of the American Graduate project.
JOHN MERROW: In the Rio Grande Valley on the Texas-Mexico border, life is hard. Unemployment is higher here than anywhere else in Texas.
Almost all of the 31,600 students in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District are Hispanic and live in low-income households. If any students do go to college, it's just about guaranteed they will be the first in their family.
Then Daniel King came to town.
DANIEL KING, Pharr-San Juan-Alamo School District Superintendent: So, the first thing was, stop the bleeding. Work with the dropout situation.
JOHN MERROW: The new superintendent made a decision. He would...
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