omg we aren't #1 at this!! we must improve!

[mi_nombre_es]

http://news.aol.com/story/ar/_a/one-in-10-schools-are-dropout-factories/20071029143809990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001




We can't let other states be worse than us!

[TheCapitalist]

"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the Johns Hopkins researcher who coined the term "dropout factory."

Johns Hopkins, eh? Smart guy. Equal opportunity means you have a chance. The school is there. If you don't learn, whos fault is that? Just because you are surrounded by a culture that values ignorance does not mean one cannot achieve. Bunch of BS that we federally funded no doubt.

[Astra]

This link (http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DROPOUT_FACTORIES?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US) has a list of all the schools on the list. You know what? My high school is on it. I'm not surprised, and I certainly don't chalk it up to the people doing this study being money-wasting intellectuals.

When I started, I was in a class of over 200 students. An awful lot of my classmates were in 9th grade and had low elementary reading ability. Some could barely do basic math and there was no way they could handle algebra. Most of them really were not dumb kids - but it was like they had never been challenged. The bar was so low in elementary and middle school that basically showing up every day was enough to get them passed to the next grade.

When they got to high school, they were lost. Classes were crowded and teachers didn't have time or resources to offer much extra help. The school itself had nothing in the way of tutoring or remedial resources. The guidance counselors were generally worthless and frankly spent more of their time deciding where to go on their two-hour lunches than they did attending to student matters.

There was a vocational program and it didn't take much for students having trouble in their other classes but excelling with that kind of work to decide maybe they should just drop out. When confronted with the idea of making $10+ an hour or showing up to a school with teachers and administrators who have made it clear that you're just a waste of their time and aren't worth dealing with (but you sure better show up or else they'll lose their precious funding), the choice seems even easier. Especially when you're coming from a family where high school graduation isn't that big of a deal, much less an expectation.

Even worse, I saw kids who genuinely wanted to learn and to graduate forced out. It happened most often with pregnant girls. It didn't matter if they were honor roll students, the guidance counselors would harass them about how difficult they were making their lives and how hard it must be to go to school while they were starting to show. A couple ended up changing schools rather than dropping out altogether to avoid the harassment, but most just gave in and dropped out.

By 12th grade, my class had shrunk down to about 120. Half a class, gone by the time graduation came around. I have no doubt that most of them could have easily graduated, but they listened to the wrong people and gave up on themselves. I think it's a sad, pathetic thing when school personnel are the ones driving students out of schools, but that's what happened.

I don't disagree that the school being there provides "a chance," but I can tell you from personal experience that a 40% dropout rate doesn't just come from a school being located in the middle of a patch of stupid people. Bad circumstances exist, sure... but to reach levels of suck that high takes effort on the part of people involved. People who encourage and perpetuate the problem because it makes their own lives easier.

Everyone gets cranky when one of these studies comes out and Mississippi is first (and not in a good way), but I sincerely doubt it's just a case of some yuppie Yankees who like to pick on the South. This state needs to look at these numbers and take them seriously. EVERY state needs to take them seriously.

At the very least, what does it mean when a school is operating but the majority of students fail to graduate? From a financial aspect (which was the only one my high school cared about) isn't that a bad sign that something within the school is probably not working? Even in the worst communities that seems like an abnormally high number.

[58ford]

In many cases I think that a child's achievements in school are directly linked to poor parenting. Not much the school or teachers can do about that. Except in a few cases where parents are held to legal consequences when their children are routinely truant, but how much does that really help, if a parent truly has no interest in their child's education.

[TheCapitalist]

astra and 58ford, good points each. I know there are a lot of factors involved, and i'm not part of the system and privy to the inner workings. I will say that it irks me that public education differs so greatly from one to another ( in terms of results). 58ford hits it on the head, as parenting, home life, etc. play a big factor, all other things being equal. It's a cruel world.