Posted on 06/24/2004 7:13:10 PM PDT by seastay
Graduation is hardly a given for freshmen in 2,000 of America's public high schools, according to a new study by researchers at the Center for Social Organization of Schools at The Johns Hopkins University.
Using data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, researchers Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters measured the "promoting power" of 10,000 regular and vocational high schools that enroll more than 300 students. They compared the number of freshmen in each school to the number of seniors there four years later.
The results gathered in their report, "Locating the Dropout Crisis," are troubling. They indicate that the dropout crisis is fueled by the 20 percent of high schools in which graduation is not the norm. These schools have “weak promoting power,” or 40 percent or fewer seniors than the number of freshmen they enrolled four years earlier. Nearly half of the country's African American students and two out of five Latino students attend one of these “dropout factories,” compared with just 11 percent of America's white students, the researchers said.
The study found that the high schools producing the largest number of dropouts are concentrated in 50 large and medium-sized cites and 10 southern and southwestern states. The study presents tables showing the number and concentration of high schools with weak promoting power by state (broken down by locale and minority concentration) and for the nation's 100 largest cities.
The study looked at the classes of 1993, 1996, 1999 and 2002, and found that the number of high schools with weak promoting power grew substantially during the 1990s.
Balfanz and Legters applied the "promoting power" concept to enrollment figures for every high school in the country with more than 300 students. This significantly extends their initial work that examined the 35 largest cities and is the first study to quantify and locate the high schools nationwide that produce the largest number of dropouts.
"The underlying assumption ... is that high schools in which the number of seniors closely approximates the number of freshmen four years earlier will have high graduation rates and low dropout rates because most students will have remained in school, been promoted in a timely fashion and are on course to graduate," the researchers wrote. On the other hand, when a high school has 40 percent or fewer seniors than freshmen four years earlier, it is a strong indicator of high dropout and low graduation rates, they said.
The study does not directly compare the number of freshmen with the number of graduates four years later because the available data tracks graduation rates only by district and state, not by school. Recent controversies have also arisen over how schools calculate their graduation and dropout rates, and there is no national standard.
Other findings:
* High schools with high minority enrollments are five times more likely to have weak promoting power than schools with a majority of white students.
* More than half of African American students in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania attend schools where the majority of students do not graduate on time.
* There are 50 cities in which the majority of high schools have weak promoting power.
* Nearly half of the nation's dropout factories are in the South and Southwest.
Balfanz and Legters, who have worked to reform failing high schools for a decade, see 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.
The authors note that no one strategy or reform model will work for all schools or locations, but point out that a national effort to dramatically improve the education provided to students who attend the 2,000 high schools where graduation is not the norm would bring enormous economic and social returns to the nation.
Balfanz and Legters developed and continue to implement and study the Talent Development High Schools model, a comprehensive reform program developed at Johns Hopkins. Talent Development is observing its 10th anniversary with programs in more than 50 high schools across the country. The Baltimore Talent Development High School -- the first school founded on the talent development curriculum rather than having it adopted by an existing school -- will open in Baltimore this September.
The complete report "Locating the Dropout Crisis" is available at
http://www.csos.jhu.edu/tdhs/rsch/Locating_Dropouts.pdf
Indeed things can become complicated. I expect these failing schools are full of all kinds of students - troublemakers, motivated learners, learning disabled, and everything in between. I'd like to see vouchers come into play as a means of pressuring public schools into more effective and efficient performance while giving parents some immediate relief. It's not a simple solution either, as you've pointed out.
The world needs ditch diggers, too.
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?
Why does this matter? People can be emotionally or intellectually stupid. Or they can come from backgrounds that do not support eduction. I have a nephew with a 155 IQ who is a car mechanic because his parents felt that this was his calling.
It does matter. You seem so free to call kids stupid. Why should a parent's mistakes decide a child's future? Suppose a child has a learning disability? That's what I'm talking about.
Children today are screened for LD. Whether the child chooses to work on his studies is a matter of character and interest. It is not the school's job to supply either.
You are talking to a woman who was a 15 year old dropout.
It's none of my business so I won't ask you about your personal reason for dropping out. However, what is to be done with children who have parents who don't care? Just leave them hanging out at the street corner?!
Needs, are one thing, interests are quite another. What can we expect from schools with more promoting power? Courses in video game skills? Hip-hop appreciation? Graffiti arts? Automotive sound systems? Oral sex workshops?
Can anybody tell me why this is a flawed study???
First, the assumption is made that if students don't graduate, it's the FAULT of the SCHOOL. This means that the students who drop out are NOT at FAULT.
Do you see the problem?? Maybe minority children do not have the support at home to continue their education. If it's not importnat to the parents, it's not going to be important to the kids.
And how about a study that corelates drop out rate with gang activity. Or one that corelates teen pregnancy rates with drop out rates.
My red flag went up when I saw these comments:
courses geared to the needs and interests of students,
Say what!!! How about courses to educate students so they will be employable!!!!
a substantial increase in the resources available to transform or replace the high schools that produce the greatest number of dropouts.
Oh, okay. Let's solve the problem by throwing more money at it. But, heavens to betsy, let's not identify the REAL underlying problems that it's the STUDENTS failing the SCHOOL, not the other way around.
Finally, and most troubling, is the following:
The study looked at the classes of 1993, 1996, 1999 and 2002, and found that the number of high schools with weak promoting power grew substantially during the 1990s.
Here we have another name for social promotion. So what if the kid fails, let's just keep him/her moving with his class. That's a sure fire way to graduate employable young people. Then, instead if the schools, we can blame those big, mean companies that won't hire people who can't read, do basic math, or speak English!!!!
Education starts at home. If the home doesn't support the student, there's not a lot that the school can do to overcome that. It requires a real cultural change and I bet there isn't a university study out there that has the courage to say that!!!!
No. Drop the minimum wage, slash the welfare system and let them find jobs. Hanging out on street corners is an indulgence for people who are not motivated or hungry. There is nothing like a little hungar to change one's perspective.
I dropped out because I didnt want to go to school anymore.
There is nothing like a little hungar to change one's perspective.
***That's true! We definately agree on that.
As a former teacher in a neighborhood school with about one third hispanics, one third middle class, and one third upper classs, I have a comment about hispanic drop-outs.
I had a bright kid in Algebra 1 in his freshman year, he could do any problem, knew answers in class, and did his homework. After his sophomore year he dropped out. Why? because he was smart and helpful and his father could use his income in the family business. (Of course, with a college degree-- which he could have made-- he could have helped the family far more).
Of course there are kids who don't know, don't do homework, and if they can help the family by leaveing school, they actually help the school too, so I have no problem with this. But only if the kid wants to leave after being involved with motivating teachers who know their stuff. And only if their future plan does not included living off the lives of others.
This is why vouchers are so important. (1) Lets kids go to the school that teaches what they want,--voucher schools will pop up with very non-traditional structures, such as leading to a career and a diploma. (2) Gets kids/parents who are disappointed in school to take responsibility for it themselves. (3) Exposes schools that don't take the trouble to motivate for what they are, and will quickly de-fund them.
Well okay then... sometimes kids don't want to go to school anymore because they're a little lazy. I hated school and wished I could drop out and not because I couldn't do the work either. Sometimes parents need to be strict and not let their kids do whatever they want. Of course, I don't about the kids raising themselves when their parents are lazy and shiftless.
Those aren't "dropouts" Senator - they're "under-graduates"
We all stand on our parent's shoulders. Some peole are remarkable and can step higher. Most average people just manage. It is not the state's job to parent children. If they have lousy parents, it is a tragedy, but not a constitutional concern. We get as far as we can given our constraints.
I agreee that vouchers are a solution for people making life plans and choices. And poor schools will be reduced by them.
Gee, what a suprise. This is a bonus for the democrat handouts and subsidizing one parent homes in Black neighborhoods. Social "do-gooding" has a payoff and its not pretty.
This sounds more like a "reporter" with an agenda. The article repeatedly mentions that the problem is mainly in the south and southwest and then cites New York, Illinois, Baltimore, and Pennsylvania as examples. Did he fail public school geography or is Lower Manhattan and Chicago now considered the wild west and uneducated south!?
Looking at your points: (1) It's not enough to say that "schools will pop up." One reason public schools have largely dropped vocational training is because VT is *expensive.* Much of this expense has come through liability insurance. You can remove voucher schools from public school board control, but you can't shield them from liability. It costs far less to add another English teacher & another classroom than to equip an auto or electrical shop. How much are vouchers supposed to be - for $10,000 a year per student?
(2) Vouchers are not going to solve the problem of irresponsible parents who have kids out of wedlock, use drugs, are in prison, abandon kids with grandparents. That's the reality of much school "failure."
(3) I have *never* heard of public schools being defunded, even in cities that *have* voucher programs. The idealistic view was that the "failing" public schools would somehow just "wither away" (like Marxist theory thought the state would just "wither away" under communism.)
In Florida, for instance, it was a surprise to find that many parents wouldn't send their kids to voucher schools because the schools had too much homework & too many responsibilities (uniforms, parents had to drive or walk the kids to school.) The schools that lost students to voucher schools ended up with worse cash flow problems because all the *overhead* for maintaining the schools still persisted, but with 5% less students there was 5% less money from the state. Because they had worse cash flow - they went to the state for *more money.* This was detailed in the Wall Street Journal in a series of articles about 2 years ago. That's just *one* example of many.
In short, it costs *so much* to set up a private school that it's doubtful that $2500 a year or whatever is going to do it, especially with kids who are severely LD, or woefully behind academically, or who have behavioral and emotional 'issues.' If the kids in many of these "failing schools" didn't HAVE these issues to start with, the schools wouldn't be "failing."
We also know this is true because of the large numbers of immigrants (European as in Bosnian; Asian and African alike) who come through the same "failing schools" and yet do well academically. The key: the home and parental environments.
There will be a lot of private schools opening practically overnight. They may be in church basements, but they will accept kids who want to learn. The "subset" will probably remain in public schools. Meanwhile because all parents will have a choice of where to send their children, we, the taxpayers, will no longer be held hostage by the teachers' unions. We will also no longer have to build expensive Taj Mahals and probably will not have to pay for busing.
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