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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 LifeSkills 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 LifeSkills 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.

LifeSkills 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 LifeSkills 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 LifeSkills Centers, White Hat Management.

Originally published in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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