Freshman Academy designed to reduce dropout rate at Rogers

Salve Regina has started a Freshman Academy at Rogers High School – a partnership designed to support and retain at-risk ninth graders and thereby reduce the school’s dropout rate.

The program kicks off for the academic year on Monday, Sept. 16 with a team building and leadership training day at the University of Rhode Island’s Alton Jones campus. Participants include 10 Rogers faculty members, 32 Rogers freshmen, faculty members from Salve Regina’s Department of Education and Salve Regina students enrolled in the course Tutoring and Mentoring in a Multicultural Society.

The Freshman Academy is part of Salve Regina’s sustained “Targeted Intervention Model of Dropout Prevention” program, designed in partnership with Rogers High School and generously funded by the Van Beuren Charitable Foundation.

Dr. Kathleen Vespia, assistant professor of education, launched the effort in 2010 to help at-risk students meet the state-mandated requirement to demonstrate minimum level of proficiency on the NECAP test to graduate from high school.

Additional activities during the 2013-2014 academic year will include monthly planning and evaluation meetings, student goal-setting sessions, mid-year performance reviews, and field trips from Rogers to Salve Regina’s campus to expose targeted students to college and to assist them in personal goal setting.