Increasing The Graduation Rate: Promising New Data

            There is some promising news coming out of public education.  According to data by America’s Promise Alliance, the high school graduation rate nationally rose 3.5 percent from 2001 to 2009.  While the increase is modest, the increase raised the overall national graduation rate to 75% and reduced the number of schools considered as “dropout factories by 450[i]. 

            Although the increase in the graduation rate is good news, what has many educators optimistic is the approach being taken to reduce the dropout rate.  According to a report published by the Everyone Graduates Center at Johns Hopkins University, a number of school districts across the country are focusing their efforts on 1) getting all students to read at grade level, 2) raising the compulsory school attendance age to 18, and 3) developing “early warning systems” to identify students who may be at risk for dropping out.  The report further stated that aiding the cause was a 2008 mandate by the Bush administration that required states to use the same method to compute graduation rates[ii].

            Educators are excited about this approach because it is showing progress in Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona where there has been a steady increase in the graduation rate over the past three years.  However, the greatest gains have been in Washington County Maryland.  The school district has increased the graduation rate to 92% despite having an unemployment rate that was higher than the national average and large number of students utilizing homelessness services[iii].

            Washington County’s high graduation rate is due to the district providing multiple pathways for current students and dropouts to earn credits toward graduation.  Dropouts can recover or earn credits online or take evening classes.  For pregnant and teen parents who have dropped out, the district has funded a family center where teen parents can attend classes and earn credits.  Lastly the district has also focused on data indicators that identify students who maybe at risk for dropping out.  Monitoring indicators such as attendance, and academic performance, the district has appointed Intervention Specialists to re-engage students and parents.  Intervention Specialists conduct home visits and connect students and/or the family to resources that may allow them to overcome the obstacle(s) that caused the student to dropout.

            The successful increase of graduation rates in several states should remind legislators and educators that taking a student-centered approach to improving areas of need can change lives and produce sustainable results.  When NCLB became the national education policy, it shifted the attention away from the learning differences of individual students’ and prescribed a one size fit all approach to learning, students suffered.  As NCLB proved to be flawed in its approach to have data drive instruction and academic achievement, under the Obama Administration, states have been able to opt out of many of the NCLB mandates by developing a district improvement plan to address areas of need.  Placing the responsibility back to states and individual districts has refocused attention on a student-centered approach.

            Finally, the successful increase of graduation rates also forces districts to finally embrace non-traditional approaches to instruction and space.  Many districts have been slow to embrace virtual technology as a legitimate tool of instruction.  However, there are examples of districts that have utilized virtual classes for credit recovery at non-school sites.  By focusing on getting the services to where the dropouts are, provides opportunities for dropouts to re-engage in school.  Utilizing spaces such as churches, mosques and community centers, are spaces that support education and would be a protected space for dropouts to eliminate the fear of failure that prevents many from re-engaging in school. 

Hopefully in the future districts will offer courses and webinars on improving areas of academic need for credit, hold virtual office hours for parents and students to talk with teachers, counselors, administrators, and offer tutoring sessions. 

            Increasing the graduation rate is one of a many avenues that need to be addressed before our educational system is able to produce graduates that can compete in the global economy.  As long as our efforts remain student-centered, educational reform can be achieved.

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[i] www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/19/report-us-makes-modest-ga_n_1360131

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid

Teacher Morale

            As school districts across the country struggle with budget cuts, loss of staff, loss of programs, and intense scrutiny, there is a tendency to forget that teachers are being affected by these massive changes. According to the annual MetLife Survey of the American Teacher, teacher morale is at its lowest point in more than 20 years. The survey further stated that one in three teachers stated they are likely to leave the teaching profession within the next five years[i]. 

            For the first time in decades, teachers are concerned about job security and their ability to perform their duties while being under intense scrutiny.  Contributing to their angst is the test cheating scandal and ending some of the benefits afforded to them through collective bargaining.  However, what concerns teachers the most is the call for greater accountability through evaluation.  According to the MetLife survey, 40 percent of the teachers felt pessimistic about student achievement increasing, despite the emphasis on test scores, emphasis teacher quality and cuts to programs and staff[ii].

            With the scrutiny surrounding public education, there is a tendency to forget the physical and emotional toll this is having on teachers.  Teachers have been dehumanized, viewed as incompetent and lazy.  However, there is a tendency to forget they are parents, spouses, friends, and neighbors.  More importantly, they are human beings who have a life outside of teaching.  They are expected to do their job under a cloud that threatens to take their job and they are expected not to worry about the consequences to the livelihood of their family if they are laid off or if there are severe changes to their benefits. 

Teachers are rarely lauded for the supplies they purchase at their personal expense, the late nights grading papers and developing curriculum plans, and trying to educate an array of students with a myriad of needs.  The myriad of student needs range from academic (gifted to remedial), students with disabilities (learning, physical, intellectual and emotional), parental involvement (high parental involvement, over involvement, or no involvement), and students with social obstacles (homelessness) are all in the same classroom and are expected to perform at grade level and pass the state exams. 

With the current state of education, there needs to be meaningful change.  Overhauling the teacher evaluation process is one way to make systemic change and increase teacher morale.  In order to make systemic changes to the recruitment, retention, and credentialing of teachers, you have to have an evaluation system that identifies effective teachers, teachers who are in need of additional support/training, and non-effective teachers.  A strong evaluation process will ensure students are receiving the effective instruction they deserve, prevent teacher complacency, and reestablish a respect for the teaching profession. 

Additionally, a strong evaluation process will remove the across the board yearly compensation all teachers receive regardless of their effectiveness in the classroom and compensate teachers based on effective instruction.  While teacher unions are not in favor of merit pay, corporations and other entities have used merit pay as an incentive to keep their workers engaged and responsible for productivity.  Public education must do the same in order to put an end to the practice of rewarding equal compensation to both ineffective, complacent teachers and effective, engaged teachers.  By providing every teacher with equal yearly compensation, public education will never be able to make the necessary changes to have its students compete on a global level.

Lastly, teacher morale is low for the wrong reasons.  Low morale should be about failing our youth and dooming them to a life of mediocrity and unmet potential.  Unfortunately, low morale stems form the selfishness of some adults to maintain a broken system that tolerates complacency and ineffectiveness at the expense of children. 

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[i] www.nytimes.com/2012/03/08/education/teacher-morale-sinks-survey-results-show.

[ii] ibid

The Relationship Between a City and School District

                The relationship between a city and its school district is a relationship that is often underestimated.  While the city and its school district are separate entities, they are mutually dependent on each other for their prosperity.  

A city prospers by attracting corporations to conduct business in their city.  The quality of life in a city increases as corporations hire residents from the city and surrounding areas and relocate employees from other cities.   The increase in the quality of life leads to growth in the home ownership, which generates a rise in tax revenue for the city.  The school district benefits from the increased tax revenue and they are able to attract high quality teachers,  they are able to upgrade and maintain its infrastructure, they are able to provide the resources to deliver a quality educational program, and produce an ongoing stream of graduates who are workforce ready.  However, when both entities fail to acknowledge their dependency on each other, the result is a decaying city and a failing school district. 

An example of this scenario is being played out in Kansas City, Missouri.  The Missouri Board of Education revoked the district’s accreditation due to meeting only three of the fourteen state proficiency standards.  According to a published report, the district received failing grades for attendance, graduation rate, math, reading, and writing scores[i].  Compounding the situation is the decline in student enrollment.  There are less than 16,000 students enrolled in the Kansas City School District. 

With the loss of accreditation and declining student enrollment the state of Missouri introduced legislation to disband the Kansas City school district and make the adjoining districts “absorb” Kansas City’s schools.  While absorption is a drastic step, there is already a piloted absorption program that has been successful in turning around a former Kansas City high school.  The high school, which was, absorbed a couple of years ago by a neighboring school district, improved test scores and graduation rates of students who live seventy percent below the poverty line[ii].

Critics of absorption argue that the success of the piloted program should not become the blueprint for the whole district.  They further argue that Kansas City should be allowed to work through its districts problems.  Citing evidence that the district has met two additional state standards this year, critics believe they just need more time.  The Mayor expressed this same belief, but added an additional concern that demonstrates the importance of the school district to the future prosperity of the city.  According to the Mayor:

 

                                “I can’t think of anything that I am supposed to do

                                as Mayor of this city that isn’t some way affected

                                by or built on education..the education system

affects everything, from lowering crime to creating

jobs and making the city grow[iii].”

                The statement by the Mayor demonstrates an understanding of the symbiotic relationship the city and the school district have.  More importantly, the Mayor knows that a city without a school district is a city whose growth will be stunted.  Without a school district, the tax base will erode, as tax revenues will be sent to the surrounding districts that absorb its schools.  Additionally, it will be harder for the city to attract new businesses or maintain current businesses since the pool of graduates will be greatly diminished.  If the state takes away Kansas City’s schools, it better have a plan to save the city, because neither can thrive without the other.

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[i] www.npr.org/2012/02/25/147393076/saving-kansas-city-schools-means-rescuing-a-city

[ii] ibid

[iii] ibid

The True Cost of High School Dropouts

            In a recent NY Times article by Henry M Levin and Cecilia E Rouse entitled: “The True Cost of High School Dropouts,” the authors posit that if the dropout rate was cut in half, it would yield 700,000 new graduates.  The addition of the new graduates would provide the public with nearly 90 billion dollars for each year of success in reducing the number of dropouts[i].

            Levin and Rouse base their theory on the notion that the completion of high school is the most significant requirement for economic growth.  They argue that while our high school completion and college graduation rate is declining, our economic competitors are increasing both.  Evidence of their argument, can be seen in 1970 when the US had the world’s highest rate of high school and college graduation.  Currently, the US is twenty-first in high school completion and fifteenth in college completion.  Further exacerbating the problem is currently seven out ten ninth graders will obtain a high school diploma [ii].

            In order to reverse this trend, Levin and Rouse argue that an ideological shift is needed to cut the dropout rate in half.  They believe the country should focus its efforts on preschool children since preschools already utilize the interventions and strategies (small class size, small group learning, etc.) that are being considered to at the high school level.

            The theories posited by Levin and Rouse are short sighted.  First they ignore the fact there is a federally funded preschool program called Head Start, which has been in existence for over 40 years.  Over the past several years, there have been attempts to improve upon Head Start by expanding it to a full day program and making it mandatory.  However, these ideas have been rebuffed at both the federal and state level.  It would have been better for Levin and Rouse to advocate for upgrading Head Start instead of trying to “reinvent the wheel.”

            Second, Levin and Rouse fail discuss the lack of urgency at the sate and federal level when it comes to education.  We are constantly told our educational system is a threat to “National Security,” but there is no sense of desperation at the federal and state level.  In fact, it seems every election year Republicans attempt to dismantle the Department of Education.  We have fallen behind because our competitors view the education of youth as source of national pride and a source of family honor. 

            Lastly, Levin and Rouse failed to address the how the growing economic gap across racial lines reinforces educational inequity.  It is well documented schools on economically distressed communities have the worst infrastructure, a mediocre/poor teaching staff, and outdated materials.  More importantly, these communities have the highest rate of unemployment and incarcerated individuals who are undereducated dropouts.

            Until our country takes our educational crisis as serious as the War on Terror, we will continue to educationally fall behind our competitors in the global market.  Our country spends billions of dollars rebuilding the educational systems of other countries in the name of democracy, but fails to take the same care of our educational system at home.  That is the “True Cost of High School Dropouts.”

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[i] www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/opinion/the-true-cost-of-high-school-dropouts

[ii] ibid

A Parent Uprising in California

            There is a small parent uprising in California that could spread across the nation and revolutionize parent participation.  In California, a group of parents led by Doreen Diaz have asked the State of California to give them the power to make change to their school.  Unhappy with the education the neighborhood school is providing their children, Diaz and other concerned parents utilized a seldom used state law that allows parents to take over control of a school from their local school district.

            The law which has been named the “Parent Trigger” Law, allows parents to close a failing school, change its staff, or turn it into a charter school if a majority of the parents agree to the change. Ms. Diaz gathered 280 parent signatures beyond the required majority needed by law and the parents have requested control over hiring a new principal who has the authority to hire and fire teachers[i]. 

            Diaz and the local school district are in negotiations to comply with the decision to turn control over to the parents. School districts and parent groups across the country are watching to see how the transfer from local control to parent control is arranged.  Once the transfer is complete, both parties will be closely monitoring the changes being implemented, how the changes will be implemented, and will the changes result in significant improvements.

            The school in which Diaz and parents are taking over control is considered one of the worst performing schools in the State of California.  Two thirds of sixth graders are not proficient in English and Math[ii].  Although the report did not provide further details on the parents plans post takeover, there are several common challenges that need to be addressed in order to successfully transform a poor performing school.

            First is leadership.  Diaz and the parents are going to have to develop a leadership team that hires staff who will implement their vision and goals for the school.  A majority of people would believe leadership begins with the principal which is partially true.  However, it is the teachers, secretaries and other support staff that support and sustain the academic endeavors of a school.  The Principal is responsible for ensuring the details of the vision are implemented and the goals are achieved or exceeded.  The hiring of teachers and other support staff are of equal importance to the transformation of a poor performing school.

            Next is increasing the support from the surrounding community.  Although Diaz and the parent group exceeded the required number of parent signatures needed to gain control, absent from the report was how much support did they receive from local businesses, social service agencies, and higher education institutions in the surrounding area.  Partnerships with other agencies and institutions are vital to the transformation of a poor performing school.  Community buy into the vision and goals of a school will provide new opportunities for teachers and students and benefit the wellbeing of the community.  Teachers and students will become connected to the community, which instills pride and self-esteem.  Examples of this occurrence are seen in many small and medium towns across our country. 

            Last, is changing the perception of school among students.  The tasks of breaking the cycle of years of accepted mediocrity and low expectations by school staff and the community will not be easy.  Gaining students’ trusts in their abilities, breaking poor learning habits and instilling new ones will only succeed if the prior two challenges are in place.  Good Luck parents!

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[i] www.cbsnews.com/2012-18563_16257381430

[ii] ibid