WASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2007
12% Of High Schools "Dropout Factories"
Term Applies To U.S. High Schools Where No More Than 60% Of Students Make It To Senior Year
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Dontike Miller, 23, leaves the YouthBuild Public Charter School's GED program in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. The program caters to students who didn't graduate high school, many of whom say their schools didn't encouraged them to finish. (AP)
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"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 researcher at Johns Hopkins University who defines such a school as a "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, no more than a decade ago but no less, either.
While some of the missing students transferred, most dropped out, Balfanz says. The data tracked senior classes for three years in a row to make sure local events like plant closures weren'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. About half of high schools in those states classify as dropout factories.
"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 South Carolina's Department of Education. He noted that South Carolina residents once could get good jobs in textile mills without a high school degree, but that those jobs are now much harder to come by.
Federal lawmakers haven't focused much attention on the problem. The No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the five-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve, and the Bush administration supports the idea.
The current law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low scores on math and reading tests, such as having to replace teachers or principals, but it lacks the same kind of 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 would:
The current law requires testing in reading and math once in high school, and those tests take on added importance because of serious consequences for a school that fails. Critics say that creates a perverse incentive for schools to encourage kids to drop out before they bring down a school's scores.
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"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."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?
Bob Balfanz, Johns Hopkins UniversityLittle 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 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 she loved science but wasn't offered it and her 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 said 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, each assigned to a group of 75 students. The teachers work across subject areas; 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 9th grade are reading at a 5th or 6th 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 youths are entering high schools with such poor literacy skills raises questions about how much catch-up work high schools can be expected to do, 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., which is not on the dropout factory list. "People don't walk into 9th grade and suddenly have a reading problem."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- From my very middle class, working schmuck background, I find it quite insulting when i hear that it''''s the kid''''s fault or it''''s the parent''''s fault therefore the communities with high drop out rates can be forgotten or ignored because the cost of trying to fix them is too great and these people simply don''''t deserve any better. THIS CAN BE FIXED, WE JUST AREN''''T TRYING HARD ENOUGH.
Posted by itgrammy
In spite of bumps in the road, our system has servede 85 to 90 per cent of Americans well. Certainly, the system can always be improved. At the same time, why throw the baby out with the dirty bath water? One inducement to get more teachers in inner city schools or doctors on indian reservations is through scholarships and pay incentives. From a practical point of view, why would a teacher or doctor want this when they can work in better schools or earn more in other areas? - Reply to this comment
- itgrammy, I hope you didn''t misunderstand me when I said that parents are many times too busy or just don''t care enough to push their children to excel in school and make it all the way to graduation. I didn''t mean to imply that it''s entirely the parent''s fault... or even the child''s fault. I just meant that from what I''ve seen in my community (where we are very much a blue-collar community. Mostly industrial, very middle class) in most of the cases, the parents of these kids were never around to give them that encouragement, love, nurturing, etc to help them succeed farther in their education. I''m sure that every situation is different, and I don''t mean to point fingers at any one single contributor. This is just from my own observation.
And as for these communities not deserving any better... how dare people think that!! If we want our country to better itself and grow stronger, then we need to pull together as a team and quit giving up on the very communities that need our help the most! - Reply to this comment
- rhs648, you must be refering to the excellent teachers that won''t set foot in an inner city classroom. Or the dr. that is more than happy to fix linsey lohan''s nose but won''t touch a cleft pallet to a baby born on an indian reservation in South Dakota. Or the scientist that invents the cure for a cancer that is so expensive that people need to choose between death or treatment/poverty for the rest of their life. Or the CEO who took advantage of the guy making $10 an hour, selling him a $200,000 home yet not thinking through what would happen when interest rates go up and having the taxpayers bail him out. Or our gov. decision-makers who think it''s better to loose nearly 4000 young men and women and spending hundreds of billions of dollars is better than diplomacy.
From my very middle class, working schmuck background, I find it quite insulting when i hear that it''s the kid''s fault or it''s the parent''s fault therefore the communities with high drop out rates can be forgotten or ignored because the cost of trying to fix them is too great and these people simply don''t deserve any better. THIS CAN BE FIXED, WE JUST AREN''T TRYING HARD ENOUGH. - Reply to this comment
- For all you judgmental parasites whose parents were wealthy enough to send you to college or got any kind of grants or government aid: We also need to ask why it should take 22+ years (bachelor%u2019s degree and over a quarter of today%u2019s normal lifespan) of somebody else footing the bill for you to become a productive human being? If you were doing it right, and if you%u2019re as smart as you think you are, I would think you would be productive much sooner thus saving us all a lot of money?
Posted by itgrammy
Higher education (college) is expensive and beyond the reach of many parents. In an effort to make it possible for many people to go to college, we have a system of community colleges, state colleges, loans, scholarships, grants, and work study programs. By enabling more students to attend college, our country benefits by having teachers, doctors, scientists, engineers, and business leaders. These are people who earn better than average incomes. As a nation, our economic health depends upon having a well-educated society. And yes! It takes 22 years and a quarter of a lifetime to achieve a good education. This is something some third world nations can only dream about. - Reply to this comment
- For all you judgmental parasites whose parents were wealthy enough to send you to college or got any kind of grants or government aid: We also need to ask why it should take 22+ years (bachelor%u2019s degree and over a quarter of today%u2019s normal lifespan) of somebody else footing the bill for you to become a productive human being? If you were doing it right, and if you%u2019re as smart as you think you are, I would think you would be productive much sooner thus saving us all a lot of money?
- Reply to this comment
- I made it all the way through high school going to "special education" classes and it was well into my adult life I found I was not so dumb after all. The problem was that they threw me into classrooms with 30 other people that were too noisy and visually distracting for me to learn. If somebody changed positions in their chair, I saw it, I heard it. I could not concentrate on what the teacher was saying.
Then I got labeled as "the dumb one" which opened me up to bullying. It was rare that I could walk from one class to another without getting some crude remark, pushed, slapped or kicked. It''s a little hard to learn algebra when your thinking about what''s going to happen to you while you''re walking to the next class.
This is the "learning environment" we set up for our kids. If they don''t do well in them, then it''s obviously their own fault or their parents fault. We think that warehousing these kids is saving us money. Consolidating school systems is becoming the norm. Kids that got an opportunity to be something in a school of 600-800 kids, now get lost in the shuffle in schools of thousands. Spending a couple hours on the school bus each day because school is getting further and further away from home is becoming the norm that isn%u2019t benefiting our kids much either. - Reply to this comment
- This article really saddens me because I am from a community in Northern Iowa that is included in this group of ''Drop Out Factories.'' I was fortunate enough to graduate from a smaller school in the area, and have succeeded to what I feel is a comfortable standing in my life. What I have seen in this area that I feel has been a huge contributing factor is the parenting... or lack thereof. My parents were constantly pushing me to do well in school, and to push for what I wanted to do with my life. I can only hope that I can do the same for my own children someday. Unfortunately, too many kids that I graduated with did not have that kind of support from their parents because more often than not, they were too wrapped up in their own lives to stop and pay attention to their child. As a result, these same kids, that either did not graduate, or never continued onto college, will stay in this area and raise their own children, more than likely much like the way their parents raised them.
And as for the comment made about teachers: "after all, most of them got INto teaching so they could escape the pressures the rest of us have to face out there in the REAL world..." --grow up. You wouldn''t have your job out there in the "REAL" world without these teachers. - Reply to this comment
- "Today, many young people are ready to drop-out by the 10th grade. Where is the motivation and willingness to overcom adversity? As an employer, would you want to hire these people? "
Excellent points... You see though, these special interest groups don''t see personal advancement as a function of how they can educate themselves in order to get the skills & knowledge which will make them attractive to employers, or possibly to start their own businesses... No no no... they''ve been inundated by their liberal caretakers with an attitude of helplessness & a culture of victimhood and entitlement... For THEM, the road to a better life is thru their liberals masters - who will legislate on their behalf in exchange for their voting block - they, in return receive things like affirmative action quotas, welfare, subsidized housing, living wage ordinances, and an outside chance at the holy grail of them all... reparations! Woo hoo!!! But perhaps most compelling... their liberal owners stroke their little heads and say, "...there there my pet - it''s not your fault... nothing''s YOUR fault... it''s them... now let me help you" And so they get to continue galavanting about life free from the kind of accountability many of us have to face every day - to their OWN detriment - and that''s the saddest part... - Reply to this comment
- "It''''s no accident that the places that have the highest level of dropouts are big Bush supporters."
Oh please... what party do the vast vast vast vast majority of high school dropouts belong to??? What party to the vast majority of teachers belong to? I''ll give you one guess..... - Reply to this comment
- Smaller families and better parenting would be much more effective than another legislative measure.
Posted by drrc1
Without doubt, better parenting is needed. The size of a family is less important if the love, nurturing, and guidance is provided. Quality rather than quanity determines the outcome. - Reply to this comment
- correction
Too many students fail to take education seriously. They are accustomed to soundbites, often lack motivation and self-discipline, and are in need of parental support which is often missing. The easiest way to keep students in school is to lower standards, entertain them, and offer perks such as free breakfasts and lunches. My father was twelve when his father died. He put himself through college and a masters degree. This was during the depression. How many students are willing to do this? Today, many young people are ready to drop-out by the 10th grade. Where is the motivation and willingness to overcome adversity? As an employer, would you want to hire these people? - Reply to this comment
- Too many students fail to take education seriously. They are accustomed to soundbites, often lack motivation and self-discipline, and are in need of parental support which is often missing. The easiest way to keep students in school is to lower standards, entertain them, and offer perks such as free breakfasts and lunches. My father was twelve when his father died. He put himself through college and a masters degree. This was during the depression. How many students are willing to do this? Today, many young people are ready to drop-out by the 10th grade. Where is the motivation and willingness to overcom adversity? As an employer, would you want to hire these people?
- Reply to this comment
- Smaller families and better parenting would be much more effective than another legislative measure.
- Reply to this comment
- One last attempt:
Here''''s the scale again, hopefully formatted OK this time:
dumb...............smart
insane.............sane
If this doesn''t format right, just imagine two straight lines. - Reply to this comment
- Here''s the scale again, hopefully formatted OK this time:
dumb.................smart
insane...............sane - Reply to this comment
- It''s no accident that the places that have the highest level of dropouts are big Bush supporters.
Here are two scales I''d like you to consider:
dumb.........................smart
insane.......................sane
Guess where most of the neocon repugs should be placed on these scales? - Reply to this comment
- "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?"
See how this statement relinquishes the dropout and/or the parent/s from any personal responsibility? It''s not about what YOU do, it''s about where you''re born... Do they NOW expect the gov''t to go to school & learn for them too? Is it TOO much to expect that you at least attend high school & achieve passing grades? Are we being too hard on you? Books don''t know what color you are, so go ahead & read them. Heck, prosperous suburban white students can drop out of highschool if they wanted to... but they don''t - because they''re made to feel SOME semblance of responsibility for themselves, their future, and in most cases - their parents are the ones driving that point home. And really... the teachers complaining about being held to test scores - saying it''s ''pushing students out''... How about this - if the tests indeed measure a student''s education - how about you make sure you educate them enough to pass the test? It''s funny, I hear teachers screaming about ''no child left behind'' because they claim they can''t be innovative, creative, etc... bullsh*t - they just don''t want to be held accountable for the job they do - after all, most of them got INto teaching so they could escape the pressures the rest of us have to face out there in the REAL world... - Reply to this comment
- LOL half of those schools are in Tidewater, VA. I wonder how good those kids are at football and basketball. Let''s just forget this whole thing and give them full athletic scholarships. We need more overpaid embiciles and less underpaid research scientists anyways...
- Reply to this comment
- We give them the boot outside as fast as they come in and mess up. honorable military.
- Reply to this comment
- about the military I happened to join in 1997 when they required a high school diploma, and Im still serving they are letting all these thugs in, and takes up lot of my time.
We have something for these thugs dont worry your military is still proud.
an Iraq veteran - Reply to this comment
