Thursday, September 6, 2001

Ferrari heads local school initiative
By Jacque Petersell
Staff Reporter

Chancellor Michael Ferrari is searching for nominees to be a part of a Blue Ribbon Commission on Fort Worth Independent School District’s stay-in-school initiative.

Ferrari was named head of the initiative Aug. 23. Two specific goals have been set for the stay-in-school initiative, Ferrari said.

The first is to have the FWISD annual dropout rate reduced from the current 2.7 percent to be at or below the state average of 1.6 percent by 2004. The second is to put Fort Worth in the top 5 percent nationally of public urban school districts by the end of the decade.

Commission members will research and implement ways to lower the number of students that drop out of FWISD schools. Ferrari said the plan is to choose members over the next few weeks, then to put together an agenda based on feedback from them and the community. He said it was important to get people outside of the school system involved.

“It’s not the schools’ problem, it’s a Fort Worth problem,” Ferrari said. “What is it we could think about, as a community, to encourage students to stay in school?”

Ferrari said he is looking for community leaders and university students, faculty and staff to take part in the commission and research.

Sam Deitz, the dean of the School of Education, is helping put together a task force of faculty and staff to research other stay-in-school initiatives.

“We’ll be like the worker bees underneath,” Deitz said. “We’ll be reporting to the chancellor to help him accomplish his goals.”

Deitz said he had 12 faculty and staff members already on the task force, but he said he would like to have some student involvement. Students will be helping other task force members do research for the commission. He said he hopes to have the task force up and running by mid-September.

Ferrari said he was approached by former mayor Bob Bolen a few months ago about the job. FWISD administrators were looking for someone in the corporate or professional communities to head the program. Ferrari said they wanted someone prominent in the community to be an advocate for the program.

“It’s an extremely important matter,” Ferrari said. “It’s so critical to the health of our society. I would make time in my schedule to be of assistance. I’m honored and pleased they asked me to do it.”

Since then, Ferrari said he has done research on the reasons why young students leave school.

“We’ll be interviewing a number of young people and parents so we can understand the reasons for dropping out,” Ferrari said.

Some of these factors include disciplinary actions, lack of interest, low interest, jobs or pregnancy, Ferrari said. Combating these factors that push students from school will be one focus of the initiative, he said.

He said the commission’s job isn’t to replace what the schools have been doing, but to supplement the programs already in place, such as YMCA after-school programs.

Ferrari said part of the research would be used to find ways to relate to high school students. He said many students who drop out of school do so in the ninth or 10th grade. However, he said commission members will have to look back to see if a pattern may have been created in middle school or earlier.

“If roughly 1,000 youngsters grades seventh to 12th leave school early, that’s a significant loss,” Ferrari said.

Ferrari said students, society and the work force suffer from the drop-out problems. Deitz said that’s why it’s important for the university to get involved in the community. Students interested in applying for the task force should contact Dietz at (817) 257-7663.

Jacque Petersell
j.s.petersell@student.tcu.edu