Posted on 11/07/2004 7:16:50 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
Why can't Johnny get a 2.0?
Below C level
FLINT
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Sunday, November 07, 2004
By Matt Bach
FLINT - Last year, six out of 10 Flint ninth-graders couldn't manage a C average, falling below a 2.0 grade point.
It's a surprisingly bleak statistic and a problem that runs deep, touching everything from the many students who drop out after the ninth grade to the number who can play sports (Flint requires a 2.0 GPA or a waiver to play).
Then there are the individuals who suffer: A seemingly bright student who has failed the ninth-grade once and has a 0.2 GPA; a frustrated teacher who lets students sleep in her class because waking them would disrupt the ones trying to learn; a harried mom whose son is failing because he doesn't get to school on time despite her best efforts.
Meanwhile, little seems to be done to solve the problem.
The Flint Board of Education has spent more time trying to learn to work as a team and debating issues such as whether to build a salt storage shed for its maintenance department than discussing how to raise academic performance, said one member.
"It's not been said by our board, 'This is our No. 1 problem,' " said Anne Nichols, who was the 1967 valedictorian of her small high school in Mississippi. "We're not addressing it. We don't like to talk about it. We've collaboratively failed.
"It's sickening because it's like a generation of failure and it's not going to get any better."
Others on the board disagree.
"It's nobody's fault, it's ... societal. We should never say all our children are failures," board President Christopher Martin said in response to Nichols' statement.
Eugene Rutledge, chief of academics for the district, said administrators have spent the past year and a half working on a plan.
"A year and a half? It seems there should be some stuff in place already. You always hear, 'I'm working on it, I'm working on it,' " said Diane Malone, who has five children enrolled in the district.
"If it wasn't for kids, they wouldn't have a job. Sometimes these administrators have to set aside all these meetings and get right down to the kids because it's for the kids."
Wide-ranging worry
This isn't just a Flint problem.
In the Carman-Ainsworth School District, for example, 71 percent of ninth-graders had a GPA below 2.0 last year - worse than Flint's 60 percent. Widely respected Grand Blanc, by contrast, had only 18 percent with less than C for a grade-point average.
Still, Flint - whose grade-point averages The Flint Journal is focusing on in a yearlong series - is Genesee County's largest school district and the fourth-largest in the state. What happens in Flint is a barometer for the city's and area's climate.
And there's more to GPAs than might meet the eye.
For one thing, they're a symptom of a larger, better-known problem: dropping out. Flint school administrators point to underperforming students who struggle, lose interest, feel helpless and quit - when they turn 16, the legal age to do it.
"I think about dropping out all the time," said Estrella Oritz, 17, a 10th-grader at Flint Schools of Choice with a 2.05 GPA. "My parents don't care if I go to school or not. But I need a high school diploma to go in the military, to go to the Navy."
Normally, a ninth-grader would be 14 going on 15, but in Flint it's common to be 16 in the ninth grade because of having been held back a grade at an earlier age.
Good students often suffer from others' low performance.
College-bound graduates can find themselves academically behind their counterparts on campus after having sat through four years of high school lesson plans slowed or watered down for the sake of underperformers.
Or they might have been ignored while teachers focused on disinterested troublemakers.
In 1999, Flint had 1,935 ninth-graders, but four years later had 827 graduates. That's a loss of roughly 57 percent. Some dropped out, some transferred, some moved and some just vanished from the district's sight.
Think that's a lot? It was actually an improvement over the previous four years - 1998 to 2002 - which saw a 66 percent student loss.
The reasons are many
So why do so many students fail to earn a 2.0 or higher GPA? You can make as long a list as you like:
Parents who don't care.
A struggling economy resulting in students coming to school hungry, improperly clothed and generally unprepared.
Teachers out of touch with student needs.
A school board and administration unable or unwilling to address the issue.
Students who just don't value education.
One of the top reasons: Students who don't show up - either mentally or physically.
In teacher Annie Turner's class at Schools of Choice, only about 15 of the 29 ninth-graders regularly attend.
She taught an English lesson recently while two students slept at their desks. She let them, rather than wake them and risk disrupting class.
She knows it'll take those staying awake - most of whom are below-grade-level readers - two weeks to understand a reading lesson that should take two days.
"You just teach it much slower," Turner said. "Not all will get it. You'd be happy if six students can come up and do it."
Schools of Choice, geared toward students who've previously struggled in traditional school settings, occupies the former St. Michael Catholic High School off Fifth Avenue. It houses an alternative school for ninth-graders, an alternative school for 10th- to 12th-graders and an education program for young mothers, most of whom are 12, 13 or 14 years old.
On any given day at Schools of Choice, three to four out of every 10 youths will be absent - and the numbers are even higher on Fridays and Mondays because most students view those days as an extension of the weekend, said one student.
Melissa Koronka teaches physical science at Schools of Choice and in the first marking period failed more students than she passed, most because of poor attendance. And some who do show up might as well not have.
In a recent class, she sent a student out to the hall because he was more interested in talking about an upcoming concert and men's hairstyles than focusing on her lesson on simple machines and the lunar eclipse.
"It's frustrating, very frustrating," Koronka said. "Most of the students have the ability, very few can't do the work. But most of my work is in trying to teach responsibility."
Parents have to get involved
Some Flint students already possess responsibility - or get it from home.
"Why can't Johnny get a 2.0? My personal opinion is it's because Mommy and Daddy don't make Johnny do the work," said Zach Alick, 16, a senior at Flint Southwestern Academy with a 3.83 GPA. He received a perfect 4.0 in the first marking period this year.
"If I got a bad grade, my mom would whip my tail."
Others struggle.
Jamila Richardson, 16, has already flunked the ninth grade once. So far this year, she's received 4 E's and a D - a dismal 0.2 GPA.
But at Schools of Choice, her poor grades are normal: Last school year, 87 percent of freshmen had below a 2.0 GPA - and 70 percent had below a 1.0 GPA, a D average.
Jamila came to Schools of Choice at the start of this year after failing at Northwestern-Edison last year when she didn't pass algebra. The hope was to go to Choice, catch up, get promoted to the 10th grade in January and return to Northwestern.
It won't happen unless her grades improve.
"Mine was bad," Jamila said of her first marking period report card. "I felt out of place when I came here with all these bad kids and pregnant people. I should be in a normal school with normal kids."
Jacqueline McBride, meanwhile, said she'd agree with criticism that it's her fault her son isn't getting to Northern High School on time. He's repeating the ninth grade.
"He says he can't get up in the morning," McBride said. "I'm constantly fussing and yelling to get him out of the house."
McBride also has a daughter at Central High School who is doing well.
"I have to get my daughter to the bus stop at a certain time and I expect him to get up by the time I get back," she said. "But he's not up, and right there I'm upset."
How to fix it?
There is help for families such as McBride and her son. The district's Youth Projects office has workers and counselors who help truant students and their parents, getting them everything from alarm clocks to shoes that fit, said Larry Watkins, acting director of pupil personnel services.
The district also has hired people to track down students not in school and has teamed with the Flint Police Department to search the streets for students skipping school, Watkins said.
"Many parents aren't aware the help is available," he said. "We need to do a better job of letting parents know help is available."
There's also the academic plan.
But for all the time spent preparing it, Flint's plan to tackle poor student performance is short on specifics. Essentially, it aims to address the needs of each student: A student without proper clothing would get clothes. A poor reader would get extra help to improve, said Rutledge, the chief of academics for the district.
Nichols calls it a "generic academic plan" done without the school board identifying the main problems of the district. Rutledge said it's driven by data and is based on input from parents, students, staff and community members. Martin and Harbin said the plan is a good start.
Other efforts are already under way, as shown in moderate student gains on the all-important Michigan Educational Assessment Program tests and better grades on school report cards mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Martin and Harbin said.
Superintendent Felix H. Chow also maintains that the district must focus on the big picture and not just one or two issues, such as raising grade-point averages or improving MEAP scores.
"Yes, these things are important, but this is like the dip stick for your oil in your car. Is it important? Yes. If your car is out of oil, it can die," Chow said.
"But if you only pay attention to the oil and you don't check the air in the tires or the brake fluid, then your car is still in bad shape."
---------------
QUICK TAKE
By the numbers
Here are some of The Flint Journal's findings in a study of student grade-point averages from 2003-04: 48 percent of all Flint high school students (ninth through 12th grades) had below a 2.0 GPA - that was 2,117 out of 4,398 students.
60 percent of all Flint ninth-graders had below a 2.0 GPA - 1,043 out of 1,737 students.
87 percent of ninth-graders at Schools of Choice, Flint's alternative high school, had below a 2.0 GPA, and 70 percent of them had below a 1.0 GPA.
70 percent of Northern High School ninth-graders had below a 2.0 GPA.
How they compare
Here's a look at the rate of ninth-graders failing to get a C average in Flint and selected other school districts in 2003-04:
Flint School District 60 percent
Flint Schools of Choice (alternative program) 87 percent
Flint Northern High School 70 percent
Flint Central High School 67 percent
Flint Southwestern Academy 41 percent
Flint Northwestern-Edison High School 21 percent
Carman-Ainsworth School District 71 percent
Lansing School District 50 percent
Lansing alternative programs* 62 percent
Mt. Morris School District 44 percent
Grand Blanc School District 18 percent
* More than 200 of Lansing's alternative students are not included because they are graded on a pass-fail basis.
Source: School districts
By the numbers
Here are some of The Flint Journal's findings in a study of student grade-point averages from 2003-04:
48 percent of all Flint high school students (ninth through 12th grade) had below a 2.0 GPA ?that was 2,117 out of 4,398 students.
60 percent of all Flint ninth-graders had below a 2.0 GPA ?1,043 out of 1,737 students.
87 percent of ninth-graders at Schools of Choice, Flint's alternative high school, had below a 2.0 GPA, and 70 percent of them had below a 1.0 GPA.
70 percent of Northern High School ninth-graders had below a 2.0 GPA.
How they compare
Here's a look at the rate of ninth-graders failing to get a C average in Flint and selected other school districts in 2003-04:
School/District Below 2.0 GPA
Flint School District 60 percent
Flint Schools of Choice (alternative program) 87 percent
Flint Northern High School 70 percent
Flint Central High School 67 percent
Flint Southwestern Academy 41 percent
Flint Northwestern-Edison High School 21 percent
Carman-Ainsworth School District 71 percent
Lansing School District 50 percent
Lansing alternative programs* 62 percent
Mt. Morris School District 44 percent
Grand Blanc School District 18 percent
* More than 200 of Lansing's alternative students are not included because they are graded on a pass-fail basis.
Source: School districts
First in a series exploring grade-point averages in the Flint School District.
They know they don't have to achieve. They will simply become Democrats and demand they be given whatever their hearts desire.
Isn't this where Michael Moore is from, or at least exploits?
http://www.patriot-paradox.com
The upside is that there's apparently no grade inflation problem in Flint.
Why graduate, when they can take a GED? LOL
One word...VOUCHERS!
Isn't this where Michael Moore is from, or at least exploits?
Not just FROM... but where he was elected to the schoolboard right after he graduated High School.... That might be ONE reason for the low student performance....
I doesn't sound like they care enough for vouchers to help.
BLUE STATE
My question is, could the TEACHERS do any better?
After putting 7 kids through public schools here in MI, I have reason to doubt.
Great minds thing alike!! That is exactly what I was going to say. Now, at least the students/parents of Flint KNOW they have a problem. The problem is staring them right in the face; it is NOT being masked by grade inflation.
If the school can't perform, close it. Let teachers find another job. Let parents deal with their children. Let the students work for their food and shelter.
The truth is, they know they will be fed and clothed. Teachers know their salaries will be paid--nobody has any incentive for responsibility.
Good grief! What a bunch of losees.
vudine
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com
Make Garrison Keillor Superintendent. As I recall, Lake Wobegon is the place where all the women are strong, the men are good looking and the children above average. (Of course, you might have to listen to the Democrap drivel.)
-PJ
Ah yes...Flint, Michigan, where being a democrat is mandatory and they have the schools to prove it!
He's from Davison, a suburb of Flint. Plays up Flint so he can call himself a working class hero.
He was elected to the Davison board. Not Flint. BIG difference.
Decade-old Michigan school finance system under the microscope.
It's utterly amazing that for almost $7400 per student they can't do the job right.
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