Afternoon Announcements: May 16, 2012

As the days get warmer and spring starts creeping toward summer, high schools around the country are starting to prepare for Graduation Day.

Today, we get two separate profiles on high school graduates who faced long odds, but who will be receiving their high school diplomas. The first, from the Journal News (Hamilton, OH), focuses on J’aime Murray, who had lost the ability to move when doctors removed a tumor from her brain in 2008. She missed months of school after her surgery and has spent her summers since eighth grade catching up. The second, from the Middletown Journal (OH), spotlights Jennifer Frongia, who spent time in two high schools and several home school programs before finding the right fit for her at Middletown’s Success Academy, which features smaller classrooms.

Reminding us how every high school graduate benefits the community in which they live is KUT, the public radio affiliate in Austin, Texas. Citing data from the Alliance for Excellent Education, the article points out that cutting the high school dropout rate in half in the Austin metro area would translate into $38 million more annually in earnings, an extra $59 million on home purchases, and $2.4 million annually on vehicles.

As the summer months begin to draw near, Soapbox Cincinnati focuses on the "summer slide." No, that's not the great ride at your local water park, it's a time when "many disadvantaged and/or low-income students experience a deterioration of concepts and skills they’ve learned throughout the year," the article notes. It spotlights Cincinnati Public Schools' "Fifth Quarter" program, which combines reading, writing, and arithmetic in the morning with fun outings in the afternoon to places like King's Island, the self-proclaimed "largest amusement and waterpark in the midwest." King's Island doesn't have a summer slide, but it does have a Aruba Tuba.