FOX19.com and FOX19 News, weather, traffic, and sports for Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky | Taft High School Makes Miraculous Turnaround With Help From Local Company
Member Center:
A high school in Cincinnati has made a miraculous turnaround and it has been happening off of the radar.
Taft High School, a school that had one of the worst reputations for attendance, academics and graduation rates now has a waiting list of students wanting to get in.
Students at the downtown high school are getting the tools needed to get ahead in the world of technology. Like Kaelin Reid who wants to be a physical trainer one day. She received a laptop and a mobile phone with just one catch, she has to study.
"It's a really good thing they're doing for the community and the kids," said Reid. "It pushes kids more to get good grades because they look forward to something they're getting."
Students at Taft with a 3.3 grade point average can get the items and keep them just so long as their average doesn't drop.
After five years, the program headed up by Cincinnati Bell CEO Jack Cassidy, is turning young lives around.
"We choose Taft High School and working with the principal Anthony Smith because we pretty much decided it was the worst high school in Cincinnati and if you're going to make a difference, I think the place you go is the place with the most challenges," said Cassidy.
Cincinnati Bell not only donates computers and phones but employees also give their time by tutoring students twice a week.
"A large part of it is for the students to know that someone cares enough about them to spend the time to help them pass the test," said Bell employee and tutor Evelyn King. "And once they have the sense of someone caring about them, you can see they're motivated."
In the past three years, 100 percent of the students who took the Ohio Proficiency Test passed. Parent involvement is up as well. From 20 parents to 350 helping out.
Cassidy sums up the payoff of all of the work that he and other employees do for the school, "how cool is it that you come to an assembly in the middle of Over-the-Rhine and kids are getting standing ovations for achieving high grade point averages."
Out of the hundreds of laptops and mobile phones that have been given out since the program began, not one has been taken back. Which means that the student's grade point averages have stayed up.
Report: FOX19 News
