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To fight ‘dropout factories,’ school program starts young

The day has barely begun here at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, a middle school in the city’s northeast corner, and Adam Jackson already is using his cellphone, hoping to get a parent on the other end.

The north Philadelphia native, 22, is an unlikely truant officer in an experiment to get more city kids to graduate from high school.

Moments earlier, as he wandered through the sixth-grade homeroom he’s assigned to, Jackson noted that two students were absent. As the group made its way to the first class of the day, he slipped into a quiet courtyard, popped his cellphone from a belt case and traced his finger down a list of phone numbers.

"A lot of kids, they see their older brothers and sisters not in school, and it influences them to run around as well," he says.

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Full Story: http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2010-05-20-1Adiplomas20_CV_N.htm

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