District Administration - January 2007 - (Page 32)

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S ince a Nation at Risk, the 1983 report that warned that the U.S. education system’s mediocrity would jeopardize the nation, some school and state education department ofﬁcia ls have unsuccessfully been trying to get a grip on the high school dropout problem. Dropping out forces young Americans into dead-end jobs where they make little money to support their families, or worse, they turn to unhealthy lifestyles and crime. T he statistics are striking: Ever y nine seconds, a student drops out, according to the America n Youth Policy Forum report, Whatever It Takes. One-third of publ ic school students fail to graduate with their class, and nearly half of all blacks and Latinos fail to do so. They’re bored, disengaged, or feel no one truly cares if they stay or go. Some choose to leave school to work for their families, or they become parents themselves. Most states and districts use their own formulas to calculate the numbers, so comparing dropout rates is impossible, but most agree it’s a crisis. The only answer for national economic, social, and healthy prosper it y is to squash the problem with more money, more time, and more community support. “This issue is on life support,” says Weaver. “If we don’t do something, it will slip out of our grasp.” W h i le Weaver claims there are many ways to address the problem, the NEA plan is the most promising based on a wide range of experience and data. And NEA’s plan has the support of U.S. Rep. Ruben Hinojosa, D-Texas, who is co-authoring a Grad32 January 2007 uat ion for All bill in Congress with U.S. Rep. Susan Davis of California. Additional support comes from Verizon, offering programs to help students, and from John Bridgeland, co-author of The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropout, a report by Civic Enterprises with Peter D. Hart Research Associates for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The epidemic report offers its own policy recommendat ions that are fairly consistent with the NEA’s plan. “If we want to say it’s the responsibility of one group, we’ll never be successful,” Weaver said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure these kids have a chance to go to school.” Some educators, asked to comment on the plan showed a wide range of responses. For example, some claimed certain points were unrealistic or old ideas repackaged differently, such as making graduat ion or equivalency compulsory up to age 21. But most also admitted that much of the plan’s ideas are worthy. Most of the ideas demand money and resources, which are in short supply, and lack how-to implementation recipes for individu a l districts that vary in size, locat ion , and ethnic and racial makeup, some say. “T hey are saying, ‘Take these 12 things and do them everywhere,’” says Bruce Hunter of the American Association of School Administrators. “There are about 25,000 seconda r y schools in America. Some of them have 25 kids and some have 5,000 kids. This cookie-cutter approach doesn’t apply.” But the NEA thinks this approach, like other successful 12step programs, could be an answer. Bridgeland agrees with the plan that making learning more engagi ng and relevant to students’ lives would keep more of them in class. His own report’s recommendations range from improving teaching and curricula, to showing links between school and work and developing early warning systems to identify students who might fall through the cracks. “Students are telling us this is a good plan,” Bridgeland says. “It’s been high on the public agenda, and ﬁ nally someone is doing something about it.” NEA’s 12 Steps Mandate high school graduation or equivalency as compulsor y for everyone below age 21. To compete in the 21st century, everyone needs a high school education. Bridgeland’s report agrees the nation should be committed to seeing students graduate through senior year of high school and raising the legal dropout age from 16 or 17 to 18. But some educators in the ﬁeld ﬁ nd this odd. Some say it’s an admirable goal for which schools should strive, but they doubt government or schools can force anyone to graduate from high school. Some people aren’t ready to gain enough credits to graduate until after age 21 or have too profound disabilities to graduate. “When you set unrealistic goals you breed a disrespect for the goals you have,” Hunter says. “There is no way to make or force the child to learn or meet the performa nce standards,” adds Superintendent of Schools Charles “Pat” Proc- 1. District Administration dropoutJP.indd 32 12/13/06 3:07:42 PM Warning : Unknown : The session id contains invalid characters, valid characters are only a-z, A-Z and 0-9 in Unknown on line 0 Warning : Unknown : Failed to write session data files . Please verify that the current setting of session.save_path is correct /var/lib/php/session in Unknown on line 0

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - January 2007

Contents
Editor's Letter
Update
Inside the Law
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Overheard on the Pulse...
Teaching Techniques for Supervisors
Why Buy New When Used Might Do?
Past Becomes Future
Financial Rescue
Speaking Out
The Online Edge
Research Corner
Problem/Solution
Computer Literature
New Products
Calendar of Events
Understanding the Times

District Administration - January 2007