A Dos Pueblos High School program that targets students at risk of dropping out of high school has proven its success, graduating 100 percent of the students who participated from 2009-2012. As a result, The Academy at Dos Pueblos High School  is expanding, and the 32 students currently participating in the focused, supportive education experience will be joined by a second cohort of sophomores in Fall 2013. More often than not, their school life was being made challenging by difficult home lives, lack of support for their studies and sometimes conflict.  Of the 32 students who were part of the Academy’s first class, most admitted they were at risk of leaving school altogether if they stayed on a traditional track, said Kelly Choi, Academy Director. Others were likely to have become involved with gangs or drugs. “The idea was to embrace these kids and not let them fall off the radar. They need a connection here at school to make them interested in staying at school,” Choi said. The 32 Academy students stay with their classmates for all of their classes, and have the same teachers for their core classes (math, English, science and social studies) during all three years of the program. The idea of sticking with the same group of 32 for three years is unique in a high school setting, where students typically bounce from group to group in classes, clubs, sports teams, and social settings.  The Academy’s “school family” brings support and accountability, which the students may not have at home. And it requires mediating past personality conflicts so that the group can stay cohesive, a valuable life skill. For the recently graduated seniors, it was the part of the program “that they hated the most in the beginning, but...