High Schools Producing the Most Dropouts Identified

Newswise ^ | Released: Thu 24-Jun-2004 | Johns Hopkins University

[seastay]

This report describes the drop out rate as being high in neighborhoods such as mine in CA where the schools have a very high concentration of an illegal foreign population. The report furthermore blames this , not on the culture of the students who reject western teachings and authority, but on us, the government for failing to provide enough funds. This is simply not the case!!!!

In our school district for example, the school is funded based on the number of children, with minority children (code word for students with illegal immigrant parents) receiving more money than the students who are US citizens . I am no longer sending my child to these failing schools specifically when they are not interested in catering to us, and when the other children, get more money per pupil yet refuse to learn! As a tax payer I am very angry that my money supports these schools, while I am having pay our tuition separately out of my own pocket!!!

[Temple Owl]

Milton Friedman, who may be the smartest man on this planet suggested we issue school vouchers and give each American kid a choice of schools. This was about 50 years ago, Friedman still thinks that way and I still think he is the smartest man on earth. We should have vouchers now.

[Drango]

several solutions to these under-performing high schools: more effective middle schools so students come to high school prepared; comprehensive high school reform, which includes changes in the way schools are organized, courses geared to the needs and interests of students, and extensive training and support for teachers; and a substantial increase in the resources available to transform or replace the high schools that produce the greatest number of dropouts.

One word...VOUCHERS

[taxesareforever]

These schools have “weak promoting power,”

Come again? Are they suggesting that these schools just don't promote students because they deserve it? Sounds like it to me.

I heard on a news report that for the first time in ages the Philadelphia school system was going to have a balanced budget. However, they also said that 50 per cent of the graduates couldn't read. I guess you would have to say that they don't have a "weak promoting power".

[mlmr]

Actually, I think drop outs are a good idea. Why should every one finish high school. There are people who never will or should finish high school. Stop turning into some sort of social goal. We are not Sweden...with a homogeneous population.

[GSlob]

You are right, of course. The same idea was expressed pretty well in 1530:
"Learning inflicted upon weak minds does not improve them, and is frequently ruinous" (Guicciardini).

[Lizavetta]

Actually, I think drop outs are a good idea. Why should every one finish high school.

Agreed. Let them get out of prison and work, start earning money, and start getting a taste of reality.

[Captain Rabbit]

I agree. And Kerry, if elected... (shudder)... will just make the next illogical step and allow everyone to go to college for "free".

In 20 years we'll see a report about college "drop out factories" and the crisis of an uneducated adult population over the age of 23.

Education only matters if you want it to. If it doesn't matter to you, then you need to stop wasting your time and get into the workforce.

[chudogg]

lol! and college grads who can't read!

[Old Professer]

Has anyone noticed that the silk purse industry has gone the way of the buggy whip manufacturers?

[cyborg]

In Sweden, you can go to school till you are sick of school thanks to the massive welfare state built around higher institutions of learning.

I disagree that drop outs are a good idea. How do we know if kids are dropping out because they can't learn or because of other issues?

[cyborg]

I went to a Roman Catholic school where graduation was 100% there weren't different tracks of study either. EVERYONE had to get the same regents level diploma.

[BJungNan]

Wait a minute. I just heard a radio ad by the Teachers association that said there has been great advancements in education. Somebody must be lying!

[vpintheak]

All I know is this fact: In the past teachers had a larger sized class on average, got paid less, and we spent less on education, and students were graduating. The education dilemma is a social dilemma carrying over into the schools.

[valkyrieanne]

What do vouches have to do with any of this? You're talking about a subset of the population that no private school is going to touch - because if they do, there go the rest of the paying customers.

[valkyrieanne]

I went to a Roman Catholic school where graduation was 100% there weren't different tracks of study either. EVERYONE had to get the same regents level diploma.

In St. Louis, most of the Catholic K-8 parish schools will not accept students who have learning disabilities, especially in those parishes with "better" schools that have waiting lists. In my neighborhood, Catholic kids with LDs went to the public schools until their LDs were resolved & they re-entered the Catholic system.

The tracking at the Catholic high school level takes place during the high school admission process, where better students apply to the top-tier high schools. There are low-tier high schools for poorly performing students, and there are a few large "all-purpose" high schools that have tracking within the schools.

[jonsie]

As a teacher you are so right. Here in North Carolina, vocational schools do not exist because they believe that every child can learn and go to college. The problem is that in order to graduate students have to pass Algebra and many students take it 4 - 6 times before they can pass. Curriculum is watered down in order to promote the weak students. I know of special program students who can't read (a teacher reads their tests to them)who go on to college and receive special programs there. We need more vocational schools for those students who are good with their hands and not their minds. The mind comes later to many of them as they mature.

[valkyrieanne]

All I know is this fact: In the past teachers had a larger sized class on average, got paid less, and we spent less on education, and students were graduating. The education dilemma is a social dilemma carrying over into the schools.

In the past very few people went to high school. Read Diane Ravitch's book on the history of educational methods & philosophy (Ravitch is a conservative & was in the Education Dept. under Bush sr.) At the turn of the century, high school attendance was about 5% of the population. Around WW I about 30% of the population went to high school, and it wasn't until the Great Depression that near "universal" high school education came into play. Even so, only about 70% of the population went at that time.

In the past, superintendents had the right to excuse kids from school attendance. That's what they did with the troublemakers, LD kids, etc. They simply didn't re-enroll them for school. Problem solved.

IOW, if pretty much only the kids that want to, need to, and are *capable* of going to high school, and if schools can expel troublemakers, then the dropout rate is going to be very low.

[Think free or die]

"You're talking about a subset of the population that no private school is going to touch"

If students and their parents have vouchers and a good attitude toward education, the rest will likely fall into place. If established schools didn't want to touch them, as you suggest, I expect new schools would start appearing to fill the gap. However, absent a desire to learn and work, vouchers may not help these kids very much.

[valkyrieanne]

However, absent a desire to learn and work, vouchers may not help these kids very much.

That's the point I was making. There *are* private schools for kids who are in deep trouble, and who don't want to be in school, but they're very "special" schools. Here's an example of one in my city. Tuition is $16,000 a year.

Here is another program in my own city. The website doesn't say so, but most of the kids' fees are paid by the state anyway, because these kids are wards of the court. Most residential schools like this are *very* expensive.

I don't think that's what voucher proponents have in mind for dysfunctional high school students.