PHOENIX — Five years ago, the Phoenix Union High School District started a program called Freshman House, trying to improve graduation rates among its students.
Through this, schools provide wrap-around services specifically for freshman students, making sure that they stay on track through the years.
There are teams of teachers, social workers, and other staff who keep tabs on certain groups of students, as high schools can have big populations. At Camelback High, they split the freshmen class into four different groups and those educators stay with them throughout the year.
With the end of this school year, this would be the first in-person school group, due to COVID, that went through this program.
At Camelback High School, they're seeing the most success, saying the on-track rate of kids from freshman year and staying on course to graduate grew from 42% in the 2019/2020 school year to 87% in the first semester of this school year. The high school is also seeing a record for scholarship totals for students this year at around $20 million, which doubled from two years ago.
“It's no surprise that that first group of in person ‘Freshmen House’ kids have the highest scholarship totals in our history, have the highest college credit attainment in our history and they're just kicking butt and breaking records everywhere,” said Principal James Arndt.
In the video player above, ABC15's Elenee Dao has the latest on this program that is changing the lives of students with the goal of brighter futures.
