Students who are at-risk are referred to the Genesis Program and parents are required to meet with Catechis individually four times a year for a conference. Students can participate in Career Orientation Days where roundtable discussions are held between the students and people working in the surrounding community. Once students complete course work in the Genesis Program, they don t have to come to class. Many who have completed their course work before the end of the school year have enrolled in the local community college and some have gotten jobs. The program also features an after-school program where students can either catch up with the rest of their class or work ahead and graduate early.
Students here take charge of their own learning.
Teachers are not dictating the lesson. Students have more responsibility on themselves to get their work done because they can pace themselves. Some programs in the country are just beginning to tackle the problem. Even so, they ve had small successes in a short period of time. Fourteen of the schools in Albuquerque s Rio Grande area have a dropout rate of 40 percent.