According to a recent What Works Clearinghouse review, the most effective dropout-prevention strategy is to directly connect schoolwork to students’ career aspirations. Towpath Trail High School in Akron is a real life embodiment of that strategy. Author Lyman Millard of the Bloomwell Group offers a fascinating look at a school that engages at-risk young people through career and technical education. He also gives us a look into the lives of three students. One young woman—a refugee from the war-torn Middle East—found a new home at Towpath Trail. She has thrived there and now dreams of becoming a heart surgeon. This is the story—the human face—of dropout prevention done right.
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