EDITOR'S NOTE: The start of a new school year is a time for opportunities and challenges. Today, Jamilla Shabazz, a 14-year-old, starts high school. Jamilla is like other teens, with hopes and dreams. She has goals and the desire to succeed, but it's a long way to graduation day in 2013. How will her journey fare? We'll check on Jamilla and her progress in school.
Today is the first day of high school for Jamilla Shabazz. She has her outfit picked out: Hot pink sneakers, a spray paint Obama graphic print T-shirt and Bermuda shorts.
Jamilla, 14, has a goal for her freshman year at T.W. Josey High School: to be on the A/B honor role.
"If I don't, I'm going to be a big failure for myself," Jamilla said.
She also is looking beyond freshman year. Jamilla wants to be a registered nurse or a cosmetologist, eventually owning her own salon, both of which require schooling past high school.
She has a lot going for her: Jamilla was a good student in middle school, and she's involved with a community group and her church. But she also must overcome some potential stumbling blocks, factors that place her at risk to drop out of high school before graduation. She's from a single-parent home, and one parent didn't graduate from high school, factors associated with dropping out.
Only 62.6 percent of Josey students made it through high school to graduation, according to the Adequate Yearly Progress report for 2008-09.
Freshman year is crucial to success, said Steven Page, assistant professor in teacher education at Augusta State University.
"That grade traditionally has the highest failure rate," he said.
It's also the transition from middle school to high school, both academically and emotionally.
Jamilla is being raised by her mother, who didn't graduate from high school. Jamilla moved to Augusta three years ago from Long Island, N.Y., in March of her fifth-grade year.
"It just became too financially hard," said her mother, Aveanne McKnight. She moved her four children and her brother's twins, who are also under her care, after coming to visit.
"I saw it was peaceful," she said.
Jamilla's family lives with her aunt, eight people in a four-bedroom house. Ms. McKnight says she has looked for another place to live, but right now she would like to buy a car so she can drive herself to work. Finances are tight with bills to pay and seven other people -- including Ms. McKnight's mother, who has multiple sclerosis -- depending on her paycheck.
Ms. McKnight works 40-60 hours a week as a personal care aide. Sometimes she works shifts that keep her from coming home. Jamilla's aunt helps out with her and the other children.
Jamilla has some things going for her: She sometimes attends Teens in Action With Goals and is involved with her church, Macedonia Baptist. Last year, she was the manager of the girls' basketball team at Glenn Hills Middle School. She makes good grades, ending the eighth grade year with a B average.
"My mother didn't graduate high school, so that's what I want to do," Jamilla said.
Ms. McKnight had her oldest child and dropped out of school at 17. She doesn't expect Jamilla to drop out.
"She knows what I've been through," Ms. McKnight said.
Reach Sarah Day Owen at (706) 823-3223 or sarah.owen@augustachronicle.com.
RISK FACTORS
Lack of accurate data has led to under reported dropout rates. Students who have dropped out are sometimes counted as transfers. Graduation rates, too, are estimates, because Georgia does not yet have the ability to track individual students.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION REPORTS SAY: In Georgia, 6.4 percent of students dropped out of high school in the 2006-2007 school year. The national dropout percentage for the same year is 4.1 percent.
KIDS COUNT DATA SAYS: Ten percent of teens ages 16-19 in Georgia are not in school and not high school graduates. In South Carolina, it's nine percent.
The percentage of Richmond County residents 25 and older without a high school education is 22 percent, while Georgia's is 21 percent and the national percentage is 17 percent.
Sources: Georgia Department of Education Report Card and 2000 Census data compiled by University of Georgia's Dr. Doug Bachtel, who creates the Georgia County Guide; Kids Count Data Center.
Factors that contribute to students' failing to complete high school:
- Extra years spent in high school
- Falling behind in credits
- Ethnic/gender distinctions
- Age, and age when entering high school
- Economically disadvantaged
- Disabilities
- Excessive days absent
- Georgia High School Graduation Tests, failing or not attempting
- Achievement scores in math and/or reading
- Suspensions
- Lack of involvement in extracurricular activities
- Pregnancy or teen parent
- Family status
- Educational attainment of parents
- Language other than English in the home
- Employment, more 20 hours per week
Source: Worksheet of Common Risk Factors: Peach State Pathways Student Confidential Information and Potential Risk Factors, Georgia Department of Education.
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