Cash Glenn
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Rural Nevada teens who just don’t fit traditional schooling now have another option to dropping out– The Beacon Academy.
Three weeks ago West Wendover High School principal Terry Carsrud remarked that this years graduating class held the record for having the lowest dropout rates in the history of the school.
“We were at just about 50 percent,” he said. “Yeah I know we still have a long way to go.”
The fact that just half of the 2007 West Wendover freshman class actually received a diploma in 2011 is indicative of a problem that transcends West Wendover and is endemic across the state. Indeed the graduation of all Nevada high school students is the lowest in the country falling between 44 and 48 percent according to Education Week.
Education Week is a United States national newspaper covering K-12 education. It is published by Editorial Projects in Education (EPE), a nonprofit organization, which is headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. The newspaper publishes 37 issues a year, three of them special annual reports. And for at least the past ten years Nevada has consistently ranked near or at the bottom of high school graduation rates.
According to both state and local educators the reason for the state’s dismal showing year after year are complex but at least in part due to the tourist industry and the wide availability of service industry jobs.
While relatively low paying the easy access to employment at a young age often puts teens in the position of dropping out.
“Look I know that a lot of families really need the income their children make,” said one local educator. “You begin to see it at around 14 or 15 when they can get their first jobs. A motivated teen can do both work and study but the at risk kids. They begin to work and slowly but surely they begin to fall behind. Their grades suffer and pretty soon they drop out. It is sad.”
Perhaps it is not a coincidence that Wendover reported its highest ever graduation rate while the city’s gaming industry was hit by the Great Recession and still has not fully recovered.
Apart from competition with work there are of course a myriad of other reasons for West Wendover’s and Nevada high drop out. Everything from bullying to teen pregnancy to just not being able to get up in the morning or a combination of two or many have resulted in thousands of Nevada teens leaving high school without a diploma, year after depressing year.
Partly to overcome that dismal distinction the Beacon Academy was established two years ago. The free on line full time high school is based out of Las Vegas Nevada.
Unlike home schooling where parents supervise their child’s studies a full high school load of classes is taught by teachers.
“Beacon was a godsend to me and my boys,” said Kelly Kelsey of West Wendover. “They were having some real problems at school especially after their grandfather died and I just didn’t know what to do. Then I heard about Beacon, it has been fantastic.”
According to Kelsey her two sons easily enrolled and were given laptops for their school work.
“It’s about four or five hours of school work a day, a little less than going to school,” she added. “The staff has been really great to work with. I have never had a problem getting in touch with them or they with me. The boys grades have even improved. I am not saying Beacon is for everyone but for us it really was a lifesaver. I don’t know if my son would have graduated this year if not for Beacon.”
This year Kelsey said Beacon had three students enrolled from West Wendover and next year that number could well grow not only in Wendover but all through the high desert.
For the first time Beacon is setting up open houses in Ely, Wendover and Elko to explain the program this July.
