 ANCHORAGE – The hardest lesson of Jake Carlson’s teenage years hasn’t been taught in a textbook. Perhaps the hardest lesson of his life, so far, has been dealing with loss.
Neither of Jake’s parents will see him graduate from high school. When he was 13 his mother, Lynn, died of a long-term illness. Last May, at the end of Jake’s junior year, his father died unexpectedly. “Grief sucks,” Jake said. To be with his family, Jake missed several final exams. He returned to the high school to see what could be done and was told he would need to re-enroll as a junior. Hearing his only choice was to become a “super senior” made Jake consider dropping out. It was a very low point at the end of that summer, he said. He decided to leave West High School to find a school where he could learn at his own pace in order to catch up on credits. His savior would appear to be just that — SAVE High School.
ANCHORAGE – May marks the beginning of summer in Alaska and the end of a long road for the state’s high school seniors. Anchorage alone will see around 3,100 high school graduates in the upcoming weeks, according to the Anchorage School District.
With a city-wide graduation rate of 80.2 percent, one out of every five students still aren’t getting to the graduation stage. With so many students still failing to get there, many community leaders, organizations, schools, teachers and parents are facing a tough question: What more can be done to get students their diplomas and what is holding them back? |
