SCHOOL HELPS NONTRADITIONAL STUDENTS TO SUCCEED
Mark Thimmig, Cleveland
November 12, 2005 — In its Nov. 3 editorial, The Plain Dealer
states that "too few students" in our Life Skills Centers completed
state testing requirements. Fortunately, the editorial also acknowledges
that we do, indeed, serve a different kind of student. In serving that
population, we adhere to the testing requirements established by the
Ohio Department of Education, and we welcome its scrutiny.
However, the implication that Life Skills Center students are not being tested is patently false. During the 2004-05 school year, 5,214 students out of our total enrollment of 7,411 took the Ohio Proficiency Test. More importantly, if not for our ability to engage students who would otherwise continue as dropouts from traditional public schools, these students would never have been tested at all.
Life Skills Centers have always held students to higher graduation standards than traditional public schools. Our students must pass all state-mandated tests and complete all required credits, and in addition must be employed to earn their high school diplomas. In the last five years, more than 6,000 students have done just that.
The Life Skills Centers are among the most successful dropout recovery programs in the nation. Ours is a program that Ohioans should be proud to raise up as a standard for other urban educational systems to emulate.
Mark Thimmig, Cleveland
Thimmig is president of Life Skills Centers, White Hat Management.
Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.