The latest report card is out on local schools and Dothan’s two high schools are failing.

Both schools have graduation rates at less than the ninety percent required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Some other Wiregrass high schools are also falling behind. Abbeville and Headland high schools have a graduation rate of just 64 percent. Houston and Dale County high schools are at 66 percent and Dothan High sits at 70. Geneva High has a 75 percent graduation rate, Daleville High is at 77, and Ariton comes in at 80 percent. Northview recorded 81 percent, while Elba is at 82. And finally, GW Long notched an 83 percent graduation rate and Wicksburg High is at 88 percent.

Dothan's two public high schools have one year to meet AYP standards or the state department of education could step in. School administrators and advocates spoke about what's next and what they plan to do to make the grade.

“It's a problem for us and it's a problem for school systems across the country and you look at what we were deficient in, our reading scores and the subgroups that we were deficient in those are the areas that we need to focus a lot of our energy on and correct because they're all correlated.”

Appearing on Live At Lunch with Angie Casey, Superintendent Nichols says they've taken steps to help improve scores. They are implementing a seven day period this year. They are continuing to use a school improvement specialist and implement ninth grade academies and coordinators to help give the students a support system to make them successful. Bridging the gap between middle school and high school will be a challenge.

“When you have kids that are not performing well they get behind in school and the next thing they'll do is to drop out of school so it's all tied together and we're trying to be as proactive as we can and working with our principals and with our staff at both high schools to make a real difference in the student achievement levels.”

The "Yes We Can" initiative is another way that administrators are hoping they can garner community and staff support to help students achieve better scores. Staff and parents give their input as to what they think will work to help students achieve better scores. It's a program that has had tremendous results in mobile and educators are hoping that Dothan will see the same success.

“Yes we can do better, mobile did better and they have greatly improved the gap between poverty students and non poverty students, the gap existed between black and white students. Mobile children are not smarter than Dothan children; if they can do it we can do it.”

"Yes We Can" meetings are underway and will wrap up in the next couple of weeks. At that time, results will be presented to the school board and everyone's input will be combined to create a community agreement. This document will be the plan for successful education in the schools going forward.

This community agreement will be a measuring stick for how successful the Dothan city school system is at meeting and achieving its goals.

It will come up for review at some point in the year and it will be interesting to see where the school system stands.

Representatives of "Yes We Can" hope to present a community agreement by the October school board meeting.