Shelbyville, Indiana made Time‘s Dropout Nation cover in 2006 with a 75 percent graduation rate. Learning Matters TV looks at what the town is doing to prevent dropouts, including offering online “credit recovery.”
Why no gains in 12th-grade math?
April 29, 2012 by
Math scores are improving, especially among low-performing students, in elementary and middle school, writes Fordham’s Mike Petrilli. But high school math scores haven’t moved much. And reading scores have declined in high school. Are increased graduation rates to blame?
One hypothesis is about fade-out: The improvements at the elementary level are ephemeral, perhaps because the way math or reading is taught doesn’t set students up for future success. In reading, for example, it’s quite likely that a heavy focus on phonics is helping students to decode better—and post better scores as nine-year-olds—but isn’t giving them the vocabulary or content knowledge to keep making progress in middle school. Another hypothesis is that our high schools aren’t as strong as our elementary schools, perhaps because they haven’t been the focus of as much reform and attention.
Higher graduation rates could be a factor too, Petrilli writes. “We have twelfth-graders in school today who previously would have dropped out. And those students are likely to be very low-achieving.”
LA requires college prep, but a D will do
April 20, 2012 by
Eight years ago, under pressure to qualify more Latino and black students for college, Los Angeles Unified’s school board voted to make the college-prep courses required by state universities a graduation requirement. That policy goes into effect for ninth graders this fall. Fearing massive dropouts, district officials propose to let students graduate with 25 percent fewer credits, reports the Los Angeles Times. Students could pass with a D, even though the state universities require a C or better in what’s known as A-G classes for admission.
Currently, a student must earn 230 credits to graduate. Under the proposal, that requirement would be reduced to 170 credits, the minimum set by the California Department of Education. Among the requirements to be dropped are: health/life skills, technology and electives that cover a broad range of subjects, including calculus and journalism.
. . . Students who pass all their classes typically would earn a minimum 180 credits by the end of their junior year.
District officials hope to require students to earn at least a C in college-prep courses starting with the class of 2017.
Some argue that students benefit from taking college-prep courses, even if they scrape by with a D.
“These courses are the markers of a more rigorous curriculum,” said USC education professor Guilbert Hentschke. Since most students don’t attend a four-year university, a college-prep curriculum also “should have a giant effect on success in a two-year community college,” Hentschke said.
With fewer credits required for graduation, students will be able to retake classes they’ve failed — advanced algebra is a killer — during the school day, officials say.
In 2011, nearly half of graduating seniors failed to complete the A-G classes. Many students had dropped out by then. Fifteen percent of those who started high school four years earlier were eligible for state universities.
Requiring all students to pass the A-G requirements was “magical thinking,” not leadership, editorializes the Times.
D students will not succeed in community college. They’ll end up in the Bermuda Triangle of higher education — remedial math, writing and reading — from which few emerge with a degree or even with the ability to pass a single college-level class. Sadly, most C students don’t qualify for college-level classes at community colleges or state universities. If teachers lower expectations — inevitable when they’re teaching lots of poorly prepared students — the B students are likely to end up in remedial classes too.
Low college grad rates have high costs
April 10, 2012 by
High dropout rates at community colleges are costly for students and taxpayers, concludes an American Enterprise Institute report.
The report is “shoddy” and “pseudo-academic” counters the American Association of Community Colleges, which contends success rates — including transfers — are higher than the AEI’s estimates.
Late graduation pays off
April 3, 2012 by
It’s better to graduate late than to earn a GED, concludes a Center for Public Education study. Late graduates do significantly better than GED recipients in education, work, health and civic participation.
. . . when the data is controlled to compare students of equivalent socioeconomic status and achievement level, late graduates come close to on-time graduates’ achievement.
In high school, late graduates earned higher grades than dropouts but similar test scores. Persistence, rather than academic ability, is the difference.
Late graduates are slightly more likely than GED recipients to enroll in college (59 percent vs. 51 percent), but much more likely to complete an associate or bachelor degree. Again, they persist.
More late graduates than GED recipients and dropouts are employed and more hold full-time jobs. Late graduates are also less likely to earn incomes at the low end of the income scale.
Persistence shows up again in voting.
Although late graduates are no more likely to be registered to vote than GED recipients, late graduates are significantly more likely to have voted in a recent election (40 percent versus 29 percent).
Late graduates also exercise more and smoke less than GED recipients and dropouts.
“Dropout recovery” programs that make it easy for students to make up credits may not support the character traits that lead to greater success for high school graduates.
‘You didn’t finish high school? Start college!’
March 29, 2012 by
“You didn’t graduate from high school? Start college today!” With that slogan, a low-income, nearly all Hispanic Texas school district is persuading dropouts to enroll in a center that lets them start job training while finishing high school, transitioning to college courses when ready. By the end of ninth grade, all students can choose a career pathway and take “early college” classes.
Neediest students will lose federal aid
March 22, 2012 by
People who lack a high school diploma or GED will lose college aid eligibility on July 1. Currently, they can prove their “ability to benefit” from college classes by passing a test of earning six college credits. The new federal budget cuts aid to these students to save Pell Grant money.
Community colleges are cutting programs, such as sports teams and enrichment classes, to save money.
One third of college students transfer
February 29, 2012 by
One third of college students transfer before earning a degree, often going from a four-year to a two-year school. Federal data counts transfers as dropouts.
California community colleges have cut 20,000 courses this year, making it hard for students to complete a degree or vocational certificate, but still offer Playing the Ukulele for Older Adults and Reclaiming Joy: Meeting Your Inner Child.
Dropouts check out in elementary school
January 29, 2012 by
Requiring school attendance through age 18, as proposed by President Obama in his State of the Union speech, won’t make a difference, argues teacher Marilyn Rhames in Ed Week. Students drop out mentally long before high school — as early as third grade, she writes. By high school, it’s exceptionally difficult to save the 16-year-old illiterate or the 16-year-old expecting her second baby or the 16-year-old who “doesn’t feel safe at school because of bullying or gang activity.”
Reform efforts to lower the high school dropout rate must be focused on supporting the under-performing students in elementary and middle schools. This is where we can get the best bang for our buck. Of course, high schools would also need systems in place to continue to motivate students to stay in school. I believe that it is never too late to try to help a student, but by the time students prone to dropping out reach high school, they may be in need of an organ transplant—a radical, life-changing intervention. Just forcing him to spend a couple more miserable years in school until he reaches 18 is just prolonging the inevitable, especially if the learning credits are not there.
Some 1.2 million students drop out of high school every year, Rhames writes.
Oklahoma may cancel graduation requirements
January 5, 2012 by
Oklahoma may repeal its brand-new graduation requirements for fear of high failure rates, reports the Tulsa World.
The class of 2012 is the first group of students to face the state graduation requirements created by lawmakers in 2005 as part of Achieving Classroom Excellence legislation.
Each student is required to pass four of seven end-of-instruction exams to get a high school diploma. The exams are in Algebra I and II, English II and III, Biology I, geometry and U.S. history.
Rep. Jerry McPeak, D-Warner, predicts 80 percent of legislators will support repealing the higher standards.
Even Rep. Jeannie McDaniel, D-Tulsa, a co-author of the original bill, wants to rethink the legislation. Schools haven’t been able to give students enough remedial help, she said.
Several states are backing off on higher graduation requirements, notes the Hechinger Report. Georgia eased its requirements last year, cutting the number of exams from four to one.
Other states are raising standards to ensure a passing score signifies college readiness.
New York has vowed to make its high-school graduation exams tougher after a study last year showed that even students who pass the math test may be placed in remedial math classes in college. Florida recently raised its cut-off scores on all standardized exams, including those in high school, and is developing additional end-of-course assessments.
Statistics showing that large numbers of high-school graduates are unprepared for college coursework have fueled the push to make tests more difficult. Right now, many of those who do earn a diploma must enroll in at least one remedial course in college.
Nearly a quarter of high school graduates who seek to enter the military fail the entrance exam, which tests subjects such as word knowledge, paragraph comprehension, arithmetic reasoning and general science, Hechinger reports.
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