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http://www.newsmax.com/us/dropout_factories/2007/10/29/44854.html
1 in 10 Schools Are 'Dropout Factories'
Monday, October 29, 2007
WASHINGTON -- It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout
Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who
start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more
than one in 10 high schools across America.
"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."
There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit
that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data
conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That's 12 percent of
all such schools, about the same level as a decade ago.
While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, says
Balfanz. The data look at senior classes for three years in a row to make
sure local events like plant closures aren't to blame for the low retention
rates.
The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or
high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high
proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around
because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones _ the
need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social
services.
Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is
the only state without a dropout factory. Florida and South Carolina have
the highest percentages.
"Part of the problem we've had here is, we live in a state that culturally
and traditionally has not valued a high school education," said Jim Foster,
a spokesman for the South Carolina department of education. He noted that
residents in that state previously could get good jobs in textile mills
without a high school degree, but that those jobs are gone today.
Washington hasn't focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left
Behind Act, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger
students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give
high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve on
graduation performance, and the Bush administration supports that idea.
The current NCLB law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low
scores on math and reading tests, and this fallout can include replacement
of teachers or principals _ or both. But the law doesn't have the same kind
of enforcement teeth when it comes to graduation rates.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a
regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to
about half.
The legislative proposals circulating in Congress would:
_Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic, and
other subgroups and are judged on those results. That's to ensure that
schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but also are
working to ensure that minority students get diplomas.
_Get states to build data systems to keep track of students throughout their
school years and more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates.
_Ensure that states count graduation rates in a uniform way. States have
used a variety of formulas, including counting the percentage of entering
seniors who get a diploma. That measurement ignores the obvious fact that
kids who drop out typically do so before their senior year.
_Create strong progress goals for graduation rates and impose sanctions on
schools that miss those benchmarks. Most states currently lack meaningful
goals, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates
for poor and minority children.
The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high school,
and those tests take on added importance because of the serious consequences
for a school of failure. Critics say that creates a perverse incentive for
schools to encourage kids to drop out before they bring down a school's
scores.
"The vast majority of educators do not want to push out kids, but the
pressures to raise test scores above all else are intense," said Bethany
Little, vice president for policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education,
an advocacy group focused on high schools. "To know if a high school is
doing its job, we need to consider test scores and graduation rates
equally."
Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged to
enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People who pass
that test get certificates indicating they have high-school level academic
skills. But the research shows that getting a GED doesn't lead to the kind
of job or college success associated with a regular diploma.
Loretta Singletary, 17, enrolled in a GED program after dropping out of a
Washington, D.C. high school that she describes as huge, chaotic and
violent. "Girls got jumped. Boys got jumped, teachers (were) fighting and
hitting students," she said.
She said teachers had low expectations for students, which led to dull
classes. "They were teaching me stuff I already knew ... basic nouns, simple
adjectives."
Singletary said a subject she loved was science but she wasn't offered it,
and complaints to administrators went unanswered. "I was interested in
experiments," she said. "I didn't have science in 9th or 10th grade."
A GED classmate of Singletary's is 23-year-old Dontike Miller, who attended
and left two D.C. high schools on the dropout factory list. Miller was
brought up by a single mother who used drugs, and he says teachers and
counselors seemed oblivious to what was going on in his life.
He would have liked for someone to sit him down and say, "'You really need
to go to class. We're going to work with you. We're going to help you',"
Miller said. Instead,"I had nobody."
Teachers and administrators at Baltimore Talent Development High School,
where 90 percent of kids are on track toward graduating on time, are working
hard to make sure students don't have an experience like Miller's.
The school, which sits in the middle of a high-crime, impoverished
neighborhood two miles west of downtown Baltimore, was founded by Balfanz
and others four years ago as a laboratory for getting kids out on time with
a diploma and ready for college.
Teachers, students and administrators at the school know each other well.
"I know teachers that have knocked on people's doors. They want us to
succeed," 12th-grader Jasmine Coleman said during a lunchtime chat in the
cafeteria.
Fellow senior Victoria Haynes says she likes the way the school organizes
teachers in teams of four, with each team of teachers assigned to a group of
75 students. The teachers work across subject areas, meaning English and
math teachers, for example, collaborate on lessons and discuss individual
students' needs.
"They all concentrate on what's best for us together," Haynes said. "It's
very family oriented. We feel really close to them."
Teachers, too, say it works.
"I know the students a lot better, because I know the teachers who teach
them," said 10th-grade English teacher Jenni Williams. "Everyone's on the
same page, so it's not like you're alone in your mission."
That mission can be daunting. The majority of students who enter Baltimore
Talent Development in ninth grade are reading at a fifth- or sixth-grade
level.
To get caught up, students have 80-minute lessons in reading and math,
instead of the typical 45 minutes. They also get additional time with
specialists if needed.
The fact that kids are entering high schools with such poor literacy skills
raises questions about how much catch-up work high schools can be expected
to do and whether more pressure should be placed on middle schools and even
elementary schools, say some high-school principals.
"We're at the end of the process," says Mel Riddile, principal of T.C.
Williams High School, a large public school in Alexandria, Va. "People don't
walk into 9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem."
Other challenges to high schools come from outside the school system. In
high-poverty districts, some students believe it's more important to work
than to stay in school, or they are lured away by gang activity or other
kinds of peer or family pressure.
At Baltimore Talent Development, administrators try to set mini-milestones
and celebrations for students so they stay motivated. These include more
fashionable uniforms with each promotion to the next grade, pins for
completing special programs and pizza parties to celebrate good attendance
records.
"The kids are just starved for recognition and attention. Little social
rewards matter to them," said Balfanz.
Balfanz says, however, that students understand the biggest reward they can
collect is the piece of paper handed to them on graduation day.
Without it, "there's not much work for you anymore," he said. "There's no
way out of the cycle of poverty if you don't have a high school diploma."
1 in 10 Schools Are 'Dropout Factories'
Monday, October 29, 2007
WASHINGTON -- It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout
Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who
start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more
than one in 10 high schools across America.
"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."
There are about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide that fit
that description, according to an analysis of Education Department data
conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press. That's 12 percent of
all such schools, about the same level as a decade ago.
While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, says
Balfanz. The data look at senior classes for three years in a row to make
sure local events like plant closures aren't to blame for the low retention
rates.
The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or
high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high
proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around
because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones _ the
need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social
services.
Utah, which has low poverty rates and fewer minorities than most states, is
the only state without a dropout factory. Florida and South Carolina have
the highest percentages.
"Part of the problem we've had here is, we live in a state that culturally
and traditionally has not valued a high school education," said Jim Foster,
a spokesman for the South Carolina department of education. He noted that
residents in that state previously could get good jobs in textile mills
without a high school degree, but that those jobs are gone today.
Washington hasn't focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left
Behind Act, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger
students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give
high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve on
graduation performance, and the Bush administration supports that idea.
The current NCLB law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low
scores on math and reading tests, and this fallout can include replacement
of teachers or principals _ or both. But the law doesn't have the same kind
of enforcement teeth when it comes to graduation rates.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a
regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to
about half.
The legislative proposals circulating in Congress would:
_Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic, and
other subgroups and are judged on those results. That's to ensure that
schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but also are
working to ensure that minority students get diplomas.
_Get states to build data systems to keep track of students throughout their
school years and more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates.
_Ensure that states count graduation rates in a uniform way. States have
used a variety of formulas, including counting the percentage of entering
seniors who get a diploma. That measurement ignores the obvious fact that
kids who drop out typically do so before their senior year.
_Create strong progress goals for graduation rates and impose sanctions on
schools that miss those benchmarks. Most states currently lack meaningful
goals, according to The Education Trust, a nonprofit group that advocates
for poor and minority children.
The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high school,
and those tests take on added importance because of the serious consequences
for a school of failure. Critics say that creates a perverse incentive for
schools to encourage kids to drop out before they bring down a school's
scores.
"The vast majority of educators do not want to push out kids, but the
pressures to raise test scores above all else are intense," said Bethany
Little, vice president for policy at the Alliance for Excellent Education,
an advocacy group focused on high schools. "To know if a high school is
doing its job, we need to consider test scores and graduation rates
equally."
Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged to
enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People who pass
that test get certificates indicating they have high-school level academic
skills. But the research shows that getting a GED doesn't lead to the kind
of job or college success associated with a regular diploma.
Loretta Singletary, 17, enrolled in a GED program after dropping out of a
Washington, D.C. high school that she describes as huge, chaotic and
violent. "Girls got jumped. Boys got jumped, teachers (were) fighting and
hitting students," she said.
She said teachers had low expectations for students, which led to dull
classes. "They were teaching me stuff I already knew ... basic nouns, simple
adjectives."
Singletary said a subject she loved was science but she wasn't offered it,
and complaints to administrators went unanswered. "I was interested in
experiments," she said. "I didn't have science in 9th or 10th grade."
A GED classmate of Singletary's is 23-year-old Dontike Miller, who attended
and left two D.C. high schools on the dropout factory list. Miller was
brought up by a single mother who used drugs, and he says teachers and
counselors seemed oblivious to what was going on in his life.
He would have liked for someone to sit him down and say, "'You really need
to go to class. We're going to work with you. We're going to help you',"
Miller said. Instead,"I had nobody."
Teachers and administrators at Baltimore Talent Development High School,
where 90 percent of kids are on track toward graduating on time, are working
hard to make sure students don't have an experience like Miller's.
The school, which sits in the middle of a high-crime, impoverished
neighborhood two miles west of downtown Baltimore, was founded by Balfanz
and others four years ago as a laboratory for getting kids out on time with
a diploma and ready for college.
Teachers, students and administrators at the school know each other well.
"I know teachers that have knocked on people's doors. They want us to
succeed," 12th-grader Jasmine Coleman said during a lunchtime chat in the
cafeteria.
Fellow senior Victoria Haynes says she likes the way the school organizes
teachers in teams of four, with each team of teachers assigned to a group of
75 students. The teachers work across subject areas, meaning English and
math teachers, for example, collaborate on lessons and discuss individual
students' needs.
"They all concentrate on what's best for us together," Haynes said. "It's
very family oriented. We feel really close to them."
Teachers, too, say it works.
"I know the students a lot better, because I know the teachers who teach
them," said 10th-grade English teacher Jenni Williams. "Everyone's on the
same page, so it's not like you're alone in your mission."
That mission can be daunting. The majority of students who enter Baltimore
Talent Development in ninth grade are reading at a fifth- or sixth-grade
level.
To get caught up, students have 80-minute lessons in reading and math,
instead of the typical 45 minutes. They also get additional time with
specialists if needed.
The fact that kids are entering high schools with such poor literacy skills
raises questions about how much catch-up work high schools can be expected
to do and whether more pressure should be placed on middle schools and even
elementary schools, say some high-school principals.
"We're at the end of the process," says Mel Riddile, principal of T.C.
Williams High School, a large public school in Alexandria, Va. "People don't
walk into 9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem."
Other challenges to high schools come from outside the school system. In
high-poverty districts, some students believe it's more important to work
than to stay in school, or they are lured away by gang activity or other
kinds of peer or family pressure.
At Baltimore Talent Development, administrators try to set mini-milestones
and celebrations for students so they stay motivated. These include more
fashionable uniforms with each promotion to the next grade, pins for
completing special programs and pizza parties to celebrate good attendance
records.
"The kids are just starved for recognition and attention. Little social
rewards matter to them," said Balfanz.
Balfanz says, however, that students understand the biggest reward they can
collect is the piece of paper handed to them on graduation day.
Without it, "there's not much work for you anymore," he said. "There's no
way out of the cycle of poverty if you don't have a high school diploma."