Consider a high school sophomore. We’ll call him Jack. Jack hates school. He’s bored and restless. He’s not learning anything that interests him. He wants to work with his hands, not spend all his time in the classroom learning about dead Europeans and poetry he doesn’t like or understand. Math is okay, but it’s not enough. His grades aren’t what they should be, and he’s not interested in college anyway. He’s at a vulnerable age when he could make some very bad decisions that will put him on the wrong track for the rest of his life.
What do we do about a problem like Jack?
If Jack is fortunate enough to live in eastern Wisconsin and in one of the over 50 school districts that are part of the program developed by GPS Education Partners, we might just let him drop out of high school. That sounds counterintuitive, but over the past 15 years, more than 300 young people like Jack have done that and benefited instead from the GPS intern program.