Hampton schools attribute rise in graduation rate to grad specialists: ‘We do not give up, no matter what they say or do’

Daziyah Brown was not sure she’d make it to Mother’s Day. The 18-year-old single mom had been struggling with mental health problems, including depression and suicidal thoughts, for years.

“I definitely felt like I just didn’t want to be here any more, like life was too hard,” Brown said.

She reached out to her school counselor, and spent a few days at an inpatient facility.

“They really helped me to see that no matter what, my son comes first, but I also have to be there for him,” she said.

She was released from the facility on Mother’s Day, and turned her attention to finishing her senior year of school. Before transferring to Phoebus High School, she was homeschooled for two years in a program that did not transfer to Hampton schools, so she was making up 10th and 11th grade coursework in addition to her 12th-grade classes.

She had been doing well maintaining the heavy workload, school officials said, until her mental health began deteriorating in the spring. In addition to her schoolwork, she was also working full time to support her son. After her release, she began to doubt she could graduate at all.

When she realized she wouldn’t be able to graduate in June with her peers, she felt like giving up. But Nichole Boston-Blanchard, one of Hampton’s five graduation specialists, wouldn’t let her.

On Aug. 11, Brown walked across the stage as a Hampton summer graduate, “ready to join the big world,” as she said in her graduation speech.

Over the past decade, Hampton’s school district has seen the area’s greatest increase in its on-time graduation rate, improving 13.31 percentage points since 2012, according to data from the Virginia Department of Education. In 2022, Hampton edged York County from its decade-long position as the area leader in graduation rates. Hampton’s 2022 rate was 97.64%, surpassing York County by 0.1%, according to Daly Press analysis.

The other largest gain in graduation rates also was on the Peninsula, with Newport News showing a growth of 12.78 percentage points since 2012. Its 2022 graduation rate was 95.75%. The next highest growth in Hampton Roads was Virginia Beach, rising just over 8 percentage points since 2012 to its 2022 rate of 94.93%.

Hampton school officials attribute much of their growth to the work of graduation specialists. In 2010, the division hired its first two graduation specialists, who worked with students at all the high schools. Today, each high school, as well as the Adult and Alternative Learning Center, has its own specialist.

Boston-Blanchard, the graduation specialist at Phoebus, said the work is all about building relationships with students from the moment they enter ninth grade, and understanding that the most at-risk students may have difficult family or home circumstances.

“We do not give up, no matter what they say or do,” she said.

In Brown’s case, that meant Boston-Blanchard worked with her to get through a handful of classes during summer school so she could graduate in August. Some days, that meant babysitting Brown’s toddler son so she could complete her coursework.

Dana Kirts, one of the first graduation specialists hired by the division in 2010, works with students at the Alternative Learning Center. She said the job encompasses determining what each student needs to move toward graduation, whether that’s housing support or extra time on assignments.

“We actually had a student that was refusing to come to school because her clothes weren’t clean,” Kirts said. “So you know what, we bought a washer and dryer. So now we tell them just discreetly bring it and we’ll take care of your laundry, we’ll teach you how to do your laundry so you’ll have clean clothes.”

Kirts and the other graduation specialists also have worked with supervisors to get work schedules shifted, asked teachers to meet with students after hours, driven students to and from school, took course materials to jails and conducted graduation ceremonies in hospitals and detention centers.

“When you go that extra step — kids aren’t used to that,” Kirts said. “And when they start to see that, and realize that we really will do what we say we’re going to do, they tend to change quite a bit.”

As can be said about many educators, the work of the graduation specialists is not a 9-to-5 job. They work evenings and weekends, and use inclement weather days as a chance to find students at home. It’s rewarding work, but also emotionally taxing, they said. To do the job, you have to love it.

“These are my kids,” Boston-Blanchard said of each student she’s helped reach graduation.

Lonnette Heckstall-Davis is the graduation specialist at Hampton’s Bethel High School. She said her “why” is that she knows what it takes to succeed in society, and that’s what she wants for her students.

“I know what life looks like without education,” Heckstall-Davis said. “So that’s the part that motivates me, because I come from this neighborhood, I come from this area. So I see people who didn’t graduate, or friends who aren’t doing so well because they don’t have their education.

“So I’m constantly pushing that there’s more to life than what you see. And this is a basic necessity for you just to compete with everybody else. So I want to see you win.”

Heckstall-Davis said research also shows that students with a high school diploma are more productive and give back more to society. In that way, their work goes beyond just serving the students, but also serves the city, she said.

Raymond Haynes, Hampton’s chief of secondary schools, said the district begins looking at “success indicators” such as attendance, grade-point average and the rate of successfully completed classes when students enter ninth grade. The systems the division has in place to monitor these indicators allow for early identification and intervention for at-risk students, he said.

In addition to the work of the graduation specialists, Haynes said the Academies of Hampton model the division adopted in 2017 has contributed to the higher graduation rates. The model divides high schools into smaller learning communities, with cohorts of students focused on certain career or college pathways.

Haynes said research shows that smaller learning communities contribute to higher graduation rates and lower dropout rates, which was one of the original objectives of Hampton schools when it transitioned to the academy model. Additionally, the model has helped make learning more relevant and engaging for students.

“So we’re seeing the fruits of our labor as we continue with the wall-to-wall academies in our division as well,” he said.

Graduation rates have been rising nationwide over the past two decades, coinciding with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, which held schools accountable for their graduation rates. A 2020 Brookings report looked at whether the rising rate was “real” or a result of more schools using “strategic behaviors” such as teaching to the test; making it easier to graduate; or offering credit recovery programs that, in some cases, allow students to earn credits simply by passing a test rather than receiving any meaningful instruction.

Though the report attributes some of the rise in graduation rates across the country to these “strategic behaviors,” the report finds that most evidence suggests the gains can be attributed to such things as schools increasing teacher quality and finding better ways of engaging students and “helping them see the value of high school for future life success.”

Kirts said Hampton schools has checks and balances in place, and no student is “spoon-fed” a diploma.

“These kids leave Hampton City Schools with an education, with the education they need to go out and be a success in society,” she said.

Nour Habib, nour.habib@virginiamedia.com