Catalyst EDU - Why Does Our Community Need Catalyst?

Catalyst Academy - Igniting achievement in resilient teens

"We love helping kids. Our staff has decades of experience working with all kinds of teens in a variety of educational and therapeutic settings. Nothing satisfies us more than helping adolescents regain confidence and develop the desire and the academic and social skills they need to step out and take on the world."

-- Ed Porritt, Founder of Catalyst EDU

Why Does Our Community Need Catalyst EDU?

Another answer: fortunately, public high schools work for most students – some do very well, while many put in their time and manage to get by. Colorado only spends 4% of its legislative budget to fund schools, far below the national average. Naturally what money there is must be allocated to serve the greatest number of students possible. Given the financial situation, we are fortunate that so many students do as well as they do in our public schools. Unfortunately, the students who demand more attention or meaningful challenge are excluded. The number of unmotivated, alienated, or isolated students, who are either unwilling or unable to function in their schools, families, and in the community is staggering.

Sometimes the disenfranchised student who leaves the large public school finds a charter school or private school -- smaller versions of the traditional “left-brain” school -- that works. But often students remain unresponsive to what they perceive as “just another school.” These students cannot tolerate the tedium, chaos, or anonymity they experience in these relatively traditional school settings. Sometimes families feel it is necessary for their student to leave home for expensive wilderness programs or boarding schools.

In vain, many of these students keep trying to feel successful or to fit in and never do. Hundreds actually do drop out of high school. Some students begin to hurt themselves or turn to alcohol or drugs. That is a scary situation when you live in a state where suicide is the second leading cause of death among teenagers. These students are lost. They, their families and the community suffer now, and often for decades to come.

These students – the demanding, the creative, the depressed, the bright, the traumatized, the stigmatized, the bored -- are looking for a safe environment, with caring teachers and a personally meaningful and challenging education. These students strike gold when they find Catalyst Education of Colorado.

Catalyst is Built Upon a Model of Success
Which Students Are Candidates for Catalyst?
Catalyst’s Commitment to Academic Achievement
Catalyst’s Commitment to Emotional and Social Growth
How You Can Help Catalyst

Dropping out of high school is costly to the individual and to the community.

Only about two-thirds of the students who enter ninth grade will graduate with a regular diploma five years later.
- The SchoolMatch Institute

Dropouts constitute 75 percent of state prison inmates, 59 percent of federal inmates and are 3.5 times more likely to be incarcerated than graduates.
- William L. Bainbridge, The Florida Times-Union

If even 33 percent of current dropouts could graduate from high school, the federal government would save $11 billion each year in food stamps, housing and temporary assistance for needy families.
- U.S. Department of Labor

The nearly 19,000 students who failed to graduate from Colorado schools in 2004 will cost the state almost $5 billion dollars in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes.
- Alliance for Excellent Education

Fifty-five percent of young adult dropouts are employed, compared to 74 percent of high-school graduates and 87 percent of college graduates.
- U.S. Department of Education

According to the 2005 Boulder County Youth Risk Behavior Study, among Boulder County High School students:
• 44.9% had used alcohol in the past month
• 22.8 had ridden in a car driven by someone who had been drinking alcohol
• 1.8% of white students reported feeling afraid to go to school while that number was 8.8% for Hispanic students and 14.9% for gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or questioning students
• 25.4% of girls had injured themselves intentionally during the past month
• 30.5% of senior girls had experienced unwanted sexual contact
• 23.2% of boys admitted to carrying a weapon to school during the past month
• suicide was the 2nd leading cause of death for teens in Colorado
• while only 4.1% of girls were statistically overweight, 30.6% thought that they were overweight
• 36.3% of sexually active students did not use a condom during their last intercourse