Carroll County School System’s 12 for Life program may soon be the model that other school systems across the state mimic as they work to improve graduation rates.

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs, DCA, has asked the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute to conduct a study to determine what makes 12 for Life such a successful program. The state agency has targeted poverty and increasing graduation rates and was impressed with what the local program has accomplished.

“I wasn’t surprised (the program was one to study), but I was impressed,” said Louise Hill, one of the primary Fanning faculty members, organizing the research.

The team determining what aspects of the program they should study. Interviews will be conducted beginning in January to assess what elements of the program help make it so successful. Hill said it is not an in-depth study and will probably be completed within a few months.

“The first time someone described 12 for Life to me, they said the students all take breaks together and look like they’re having fun. Is that important to the success of the program? I don’t know, but that’s what we’ll be finding out,” she said.

The program is the cooperative effort of Southwire and the Carroll County School System. It started four years ago and has had 171 students graduate from the program and from high school, a 98 percent success rate.

Douglas Wright, 12 for Life coordinator, said about 80 percent of those students would have been unlikely to graduate from high school. Students work four-hour shifts at a Southwire factory developed specifically for the program. They attend regular classes in high school.

“There’s no question about it,” Hill said. “It’s a premier program with good success rate.”

Hill does not think all the programs need to be focused on factory work, but that will be part of the study, too. She said she knows Southwire has been active in education, but she was impressed with the commitment the 12 for Life factory represents.

Hill said only the program in Carrollton will be studied.

Elsewhere others have tried to duplicate what is happening here.

There is a small program in Alabama that was recently started and earlier this year, Monroe County Schools and the Georgia Department of Corrections brought five students into state correction offices, after researching 12 for Life.