DECATUR - Millikin students are seeking Decatur residents to participate in focus groups that could change the direction of the city's efforts to lower its high school dropout rate.

Focus group participants will be asked if they are aware of dropout prevention activities by the Decatur School District and the Joint Dropout Task Force, given information about those activities and asked for their opinions.

"We will also offer opportunities for people to become a part of this network of citizens working to lower the dropout rate," said Erica Melton, 22, a senior finance major who is coordinating the project. "We don't want interest in this issue to die down."

Funding comes in the form of a $300 Raise Your Voice grant from Illinois Campus Compact. Melton is also asking local businesses to donate gift certificates and/or merchandise that can be given away as door prizes during the focus group meetings.

Melton hopes to line up 25 to 30 people for each of two focus groups to be held at Decatur's public high schools, one April 11 and the other April 14. People interested in participating should call Melton at 464-8605 or Christine Pinckard, dropout prevention coordinator for Decatur schools, at 424-3300.

Pinckard, who has helped Melton structure the project, hopes the focus groups provide valuable feedback and a source of new volunteers. "It's a wonderful opportunity to find out what the community thinks," she said.

The Joint Dropout Task Force was organized by the Decatur branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Chamber of Commerce for Decatur and Macon County in 2001 - the year Decatur's four-year high school dropout rate peaked at nearly 40 percent.

It is estimated to be 34.5 percent for the Class of 2004.

Initiatives that have grown out of the task force include the hiring of a dropout prevention coordinator, expansion of the Making Right Choices after-school tutoring program to both high schools, implementation of a middle school incentive program and an attendance incentive program at MacArthur High School, training teachers how to reach students living in poverty and an increase in school mentors through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Macon County.

Theresa Churchill can be reached at tchurchill@; herald-review.com or 421-7978.