Youth ChalleNGe offers high school dropouts a way to turn their lives around...

Kyle Ardery lives outside Morgantown, W. Va. At age 18, his grade point average was so low there was little chance he’d ever get his diploma from Morgantown High School. 

Ardery’s mother, Terri Sivak, says she had tried “everything” to get her son in an environment where he could learn—public school, private school and back into public school. But his discipline problems and lack of focus remained.

A school administrator told Sivak about the Guard’s program, known in West Virginia as the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy. After years of frustration and failure, it was a last chance for Ardery to succeed.

Sivak recommends it to parents looking for something to help their child.
“This is the best thing that they can do. It’s the best program out there,” she says. “There was nothing about this I didn’t like.”

In every state, students spend their days in classes recovering lost academic credits or improving their math and reading skills. All programs offer some type of academic credential. In West Virginia and Georgia, for example, the General Educational Development certificate (GED) is the standard. In some states, students can recover credits or even earn their high school diploma.

Students in every academy are assessed upon entry using the Test for Adult Basic Education (TABE), which gives instructors an idea of each student’s grade level knowledge. They also take the TABE when they leave. Nearly all show improvement.

Ardery’s TABE score, for example, jumped from 9.5 to 11.2, a leap of almost two grade levels.
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Travis Davis enrolled in the Mountaineer ChalleNGe Academy after he’d heard about it from friends. He wasn’t motivated at Morgantown High School to succeed, and he admired the military lifestyle. He thought he might enlist someday.

After the 16-year-old finished the program, he decided to go to college. He plans to take the American College Testing exam and enroll in ROTC.

“I’d still be a freshman if I was in school,” says Davis. “Now I have a plan for the future.”

Davis wasn’t even aware that he could go to college and become a military officer. Similar realizations strike students at the other ChalleNGe academies.
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For the complete article from the National Guard Association of the U.S.