Asbury High School improving drop out rate | People

One Marshall County school is ahead of the curve implementing anti-drop out programs over the course of the last two years.

Their graduation rate has increased more than 30 percent in the last three years.

When Luke Laxton arrived at Asbury High School this year everything was working against him.

"Didn't really have a stable environment you know, kinda moving house to house."

Buddy Sweat is also new to the school, coming as a graduation coach as part of a new program to fight the dropout rate.

"Yes, we had some red flags when he came here," said Sweat.

Sweat uses a program that tracks attendence, discipline, and grades.

"The computer program can identify those kids and throw up a red flag and that's an opportunity for us to begin working with that child immediately," said Patrick Smith, counselor at Asbury High.

With attendence problems, Sweat and the parent involvement specialist go to work.

"Me and her usually jump in our cars and we start making home visits," Sweat continued.

Other initiatives, like credit recovery, give hope to students who slip by. This allows them to make up portions of a failed class to still get credit.

These programs are helping Asbury with better graduation rates.

"We've moved our graduation rate from in the fifties to over eighty percent," Smith continued.

Luke may not know anything about how the programs work, but he knows why he's doing better.

"People really actually caring you know about me instead of just saying here's your work, get it done. If you don't it's up to you," said Luke Laxton.

Bottom line, Luke will not be in the dropout figures for this year.

"Oh definately, definitely. I'm walking across that stage, 13 years coming," said Laxton.