Hail to region’s 2018 grads as commencements begin

Thousands of college students and high school seniors in the Mahoning and Shenango valleys will walk proudly across stages over the next month to collect their reward for years of dutiful attendance, responsible conduct and academic growth.

The processionals begin today when an estimated 1,676 students receive college sheepskins at Youngstown State University in the university’s Spring 2018 Commencement. The size of this spring’s class is so large that it has been broken into two distinct morning and afternoon ceremonies.

Then on Sunday, members of the first high school commencement program for the Class of 2018 in the region – Youngstown Early College – will usher in the season of pomp and circumstance at the DeYor Performing Arts Center downtown. There, those top-notch high-achieving students who attend high school and college simultaneously will receive their diplomas, which represent their passport to the future.

We offer our congratulations to all the graduates as well as their supportive parents, teachers and other mentors and motivators.

VINDICATOR KEEPSAKE PAGES

Once again this year, The Vindicator will recognize the thousands of high school graduates at Valley high schools with a week of special keepsake pages in their honor beginning June 4. Several Valley high schools and, more importantly, the students who populate them stand out this year. Some have singled themselves out for superlative academic standings.

Their hard work has helped their schools win impressive honors, such as the coveted Silver Award from U.S. News and World Report’s newest rankings of America’s Best High Schools. Included in its list of the top 100 in Ohio, in decreasing order of rank, are Columbiana, Bristol, Boardman and Lakeview high schools. Other schools making the national publication’s honor roll released last week include Poland, Springfield, Struthers, Beaver Local, Hubbard, Salem, Joseph Badger, Mineral Ridge, South Range, Brookfield, Howland, Maplewood and Youngstown Early College high schools.

The ceremonies at schools large and small in our region and our nation serve as a reminder of the value of a high school diploma. They also should signal the urgency to increase the shamefully low graduation rates in many secondary schools across our region, state and nation.

VALUE OF DIPLOMA

Students indeed sacrifice many personal and societal benefits when opting out of attaining that one valuable piece of paper. According to the U.S. Department of Education, a high-school diploma recipient without a college degree:

Earns an average of $8,400 a year more than a high-school dropout.

Contributes more to a state’s economy and requires less public assistance than high-school dropouts.

Becomes substantially less likely to be imprisoned or require public assistance.

Realizes a net lifetime benefit of more than $470,000.

In the Mahoning Valley, graduation rates show significant disparities. According to the latest Ohio Department of Education Report Cards released last fall, Poland schools had an impressively high rate of 98.4 percent – already far surpassing national educational goals. But in the nearby district to its north, Youngstown City Schools had a distressingly low rate of 73.8 percent.

Although the city school district’s graduation rate has increased by about 10 percentage points in recent years, clearly it has a long way to go. District leaders, including Chief Executive Officer Krish Mohip, must continue to make increasing that rate a top academic priority.

But in Youngstown, as in any school district, education leaders can only do so much. Parents and guardians of young people must work diligently to instill a culture that values learning and achievement. That includes monitoring their work closely, keeping lines of communication with teachers open, dishing out applause for good performance and punishing children when they purposely fail to apply themselves.

When schools, families and communities work together toward a common goal of educational excellence, our community, state and nation can more confidently entrust the future to those who proudly earn their ticket out of public schooling this spring and every spring.