Dropout problem drags Texas down

[sonias]

Texas Tribune 11/4/09
Dropout problem drags Texas down
(snip)
The story of Reyes’ six children — that a third of them dropped out — plays out all across Texas, many experts believe. The U.S. Department of Education puts the Texas graduation rate at 71.9 percent — ranking the state 36th nationally. That would put the dropout population for each year’s graduating class at roughly 130,000 — or about the size of McAllen. Another estimate, using a formula called the Cumulative Promotion Index, indicates only 64.5 percent graduate in four years.

The Texas Education Agency has come under fire for releasing much lower estimates. The number TEA most commonly cites, a “completion rate,” is 88 percent.

“No one outside of that building believes that 12 percent number,” says Bill Hammond, president of the Texas Association of Business, referring to the inverse of the state rate.

(snip)

Rep. Scott Hochberg, D-Houston, who represents an impoverished southwest Houston district where the dropout problem is both stratospheric and impossible to quantify, has watched several rounds of dropout debates with dismay.

“I represent a district that has 80 percent renters, 70 percent of people speaking a first language other than English, where there’s a high school with 42 languages and 40 percent turnover of the student body every year — now tell me how you plan to calculate the dropout rate,” he said. “I will stipulate that it’s too big — let’s just start there. I wish we fought over solutions as much as we fight over the number.”

See this is the kind of story I was expecting to find from this new media group - Texas Tribune. This is an important story.

Sonia

[hobbit709]

1. It's exactly what NCLB was designed to do.

The PTB want the masses to stay uneducated. An educated serf is a thinking serf and that turns into an uppity serf and that is the last thing they want.

Says me who comes from a long line of surly peasants-and proud of it.

[sonias]

3. I'm an uppity peasant too right along with ya!

The powers that be have it all wrong. If they don't make sure the masses get a good education, we make less money as a state. And then who will have enough money to pay for even the basic of services?

They are so short sighted. But a free public education is in our Texas constitution. The conservatives would love to destroy that too.

The Texas Constitution - Article 7
ARTICLE 7. EDUCATION

Sec. 1. SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE SCHOOLS. A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.

Sonia

[kjackson227]

2. I would also include corrupt school districts in the mix also. Dallas ISD is STILL...

having big problems which is taking the emphasis away from teaching. It is so bad here that at least two to three high schools were due to close because of low test scores, but they MIRACULOUSLY survived somehow. Parents, teachers, students, and administrators have got to step up.

[montieg]

4. As an educator dealing with NCLB fallout

The inescapable conclusion to which I have been driven is that Bush's lackeys set up NCLB and designed the system so that public education can not succeed. If more than 3% of your student pop. tests off-level (11th grader performing at 6th grade level) they are automatically failure. Test them on level---they fail.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

[sonias]

5. NCLB

"Leave no child a dime" - best description of that program ever. (No Child Left Behind)

First problem with the NCLB mess was they of course failed to provide adequate funding. So they have the stick part of the equation to beat schools and students with, but no carrots for you!

The thing that really struck me in the story with the Reyes family is the program she found for her second family kids - MECA – Multicultural Education and Counseling though the Arts. Plus she admits that it really took her involvement and dedication to their education.

There is no doubt that any process to improve the results and performance needs the whole family approach. And like the story of the Reyes family that came when the home situation was stabilized (second marriage vs single Mom). All families need additional help but certainly single family homes that are barely getting by don't have the time to give their kids the help and support they need.

There was another section in the article about another program for flexible learning.

About five years ago, Amstutz responded to the problem by starting a unique program that today has grown into a new campus — Liberty High School, a 200-student, six-day-a-week, afternoon-and-night campus, serving mostly older students.

The creation and financing of the school required legislative help in Austin, which Hochberg provided in a bill that allowed for flexibility in the timing of the school day and year. Previously, the state would only finance students who attended on the school’s schedule and only allowed them to go to school until age 21.

Now, Amstutz can educate students up to 26 years old and get prorated financing for them even if they don’t attend full-time. It’s a model worthy of expansion, he said.

"It’s so easy for kids to drop out. We have to make it just as easy for them to drop back in," Amstutz said. "Clearly we have to look at the traditional 175- or 180-day calendar — it’s broken. It works for some students and others not at all. We don’t need to stop learning for three months... and we have kids that come enroll all throughout the year."

Solutions for different kinds of problems. That's what we need more of.

Sonia