An innovator in dropout prevention, Central Wake High School invites collaboration

When Tzara Albiter Acosta, 18, first arrived at Central Wake High School in Raleigh, her self-confidence was at a low ebb. “I thought, ‘This is just going to be another school,’” she said of the public charter school, which specializes in dropout prevention and recovery.

She, like other students at Central Wake, had tried a number of different educational experiences.

Middle school was fraught academically. “I failed so many classes,” said Albiter Acosta, who has Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Resignation had set in. “This is going to be the same thing,” she said.