Archives for 2010

As readers of this website know, dropout prevention and dropout recovery are hot button issues.  My friends at RAPSA are presenting a webinar on Friday, December 10 entitled  Dropout Recovery Solutions – What Will It Take to Re-engage Out of School Youth?  Information about how to register for this webinar can be found at:  https://siatech.ilinc.com/perl/ilinc/lms/register.pl?activity_id=ccrxkfc&user_id=#none

Facilitated by Ryan Reyna & Mark White

Friday, December 10, 2010

11:00 ““ 12:00 (Pacific)
12:00 ““ 1:00 (Mountain)
1:00 ““ 2:00   (Central)
2:00 ““ 3:00   (Eastern)

REGISTER TODAY!

Dropout Recovery ““ What Will It Take to Re-engage Out of School Youth?

You’ve all heard the statistics ““ 30 to 50% of students in America leave before graduating high school.  While schools have begun to focus on preventing dropouts, few have begun the even harder work of reengaging those who have left school.

The reasons for this lack of focus on dropout recovery are many.  One of the unintended consequences of AYP and state accountability measures is that there is a major disincentive to bringing students back into schools ““ students who dropout are often far below grade level; more likely to drop out again; and more likely to have family and criminal issues and other needs that schools find difficult to meet.  However, the Alliance for Excellent Education has projected billions of dollars in enhanced economic activity from re-engaging just a portion of the nation’s dropouts on a diploma track.

Join RAPSA on December 10th for a discussion of cutting edge proposals to recover dropouts.  Ryan Reyna, a senior policy analyst the National Governors Association and co-author of Achieving Graduation for All: A Governor’s Guide to Dropout Prevention and Recovery will discuss his ongoing research and recommendations.

Mark White, Associate Superintendent, Houston Independent School District, will discuss recent reforms and grants that the State of Texas has sponsored to reengage dropout students and improve retention efforts.

Among the emerging successful practices to be discussed:
o   Use data to identify out-of-school youth and target their individual needs
o   Employ outreach strategies to reengage out-of-school youth
o   Create financial and accountability incentives for dropout recovery
o   Provide rigorous relevant options for earning a high school diploma
o   Connect to postsecondary and workforce interests including dual enrollment, internships and apprenticeships
o   Offer state sanctioned online initiatives including virtual schools
o   Award credit for performance, not seat time

This guest post was written by Lynda Wade Sentz, author of Write With Me: Partnering With Parents in Writing Instruction . Sentz is an elementary school teacher in New York. Read below for her reflection as part of our Tales from a Teacher’s Heart series. The following is available on my publisher’s website, www.eyeoneducation.org

Other  Tales from the Teacher’s Heart (including one I submitted) can be found on The following blog post: https://blog.eyeoneducation.com/2010/11/18/what-if.aspx

I ended my teaching day one Friday, asking myself what I had accomplished that week. Perhaps more to the point, what had my students accomplished? What did I teach them? What did they learn? Did they learn? Friday reflections not only help me take stock of the week that was, they also help me gear up for the week that is coming. Fourth grade is a huge year academically. Our curriculum is heavy ““ so much for nine-year-old scholars, so anxious to turn “double digits,” to master.

This one particular Friday, my mind kept turning over what was reality and what I wish could be for my students. I started to wonder how the week might be different if certain conditions were met. Then I began pondering how the bigger picture ““ education for our nation ““ might be different if only so many small things were different. I wasn’t thinking about a bigger, better school or a box of new textbooks. I wasn’t wishing for new classroom furnishings or a larger paycheck. I wasn’t wondering what I would do if only I had more technology. The thoughts I had that day still linger.

What if”¦
“¦every student came to school well-rested and well-fed?
“¦every student arrived at the classroom ready to learn?
“¦every student came in to the classroom eager to learn?
“¦every student listened attentively, even eagerly, like someone important is speaking?

What if every child spent more time each day reading than watching television?
What if every child grew up in an environment where learning is valued?
What if every student’s life outside school was filled to the brim with enriching experiences?
What if every student tried their hardest every day on every task?
What if every child realized the great gift that education offers and eagerly accepted that gift?

What if”¦
“¦teachers didn’t need to teach students good manners?
“¦teachers didn’t have to instruct proper hand-washing and nose-blowing?
“¦teachers only needed to prepare to teach academics?

What if every teacher gave 100 percent effort every day?
What if teachers weren’t encouraged to teach to standardized tests?
What if there was no need for unions?
What if every teacher realized that educating the children of today is a gift for our nation’s tomorrow?

What if”¦
“¦all parents realized that they are their child’s first teacher and reveled in that responsibility?
“¦all parents read to their children each day, even after they can read by themselves?
“¦all parents exuded a passion for learning and shared that passion with their child?
“¦all parents made it their mission to raise productive citizens?

What if all parents filled their child’s leisure time with meaningful experiences?
What if all parents talked — really engaged in meaning-filled conversations — with their child?
What if all parents were deeply interested and deeply involved in their child’s education?
What if no parents saw their child’s education as being solely “the teacher’s job?”

Maybe if all the “what ifs” were answered, there would be no crisis in education today. There would be no need to assess and re-assess on a standardized state test. Maybe we wouldn’t all be “waiting for Superman.” Maybe we would realize that Superman lies within all of us, whether we be teacher, student or parent.

Reading scores for the nation’s 12th-grade students have increased since they dropped to a historic low in 2005. Average math scores also rose.

Experts said the increases, after years of dismal achievement reports, were surprising because every year the nation’s schools are educating more black and Hispanic students, who on average score lower than whites and Asians. Researchers presume that language barriers pull down scores for Hispanics.

On the 500-point scale used in the reading assessment, the average 12th grader scored 288 on the 2009 test, up from 286 in 2005. About 38 percent of 12th graders scored at or above the test’s proficiency level.

The latest results show that Asians overtook whites as the nation’s best readers at the 12th-grade level from 2005 to 2009. The average Asian 12th grader scored 298 in 2009, compared to 287 four years earlier. The average white student scored 296 in 2009, up from 293 in 2005.

The average Hispanic 12th grader scored 274 in 2009, a two point rise from 2005. Black 12th graders, on average, scored 269 in 2009, up from 267 in 2005.

On the math assessment, which is scored on a 300-point scale, the average 12th grader scored 153 in 2009, up from 150 in 2005.

While the increases are small, they are still increases.  Teachers need to get credit for these increases.  Politicians, the media and the business community complain when scores go down.  And they talk about schools needing to be globally competitive.  Yet at the first signs of state budget shortfalls, education goes to the top of the list for cuts.

A new report by the Josephson Institute of Ethics asked more than 43,000 high school students whether they’d been physically abused, teased or taunted in a way that seriously upset them. Nearly half of them say they’ve bullied someone in the past year, and nearly half say they’ve been the victim of bullying.  Previously, it was believed that bullying peaked in middle school.

In the survey, 10 percent of teens admitted bringing a weapon to school at least once, and 16 percent admitted being drunk at school.

The study’s release comes in a year of several high-profile suicides related to bullying, including that of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince of Massachusetts, who prosecutors say was relentlessly bullied by the six girls charged in her death.

The U.S. Department of Education recently sent letters to schools, colleges and universities around the country warning them that failing to adequately address ethnic, sexual or gender-based harassment could put them in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws.

Bullying has become a “hot button” issue especially considering the suicides relating to bullying and cyberbullying that has plagued the nation.  Educators cannot ignore the problem and need to take active and proactive steps to address this serious issue.

As we have moved into the 21st century, school have increasingly been charged with tasks formerly associated with the church and the family.  In addition to teaching reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmatic, schools need to teach driver’s education, swimming, sex education. suicide and violence prevention, the evils of smoking, drugs and alcohol and an entire liturgy of other topics.  Not only do educators not have the time to add these topics but, in some cases, they haven’t had the training to deal with them.  Schools have become the nation’s emergency room dealing with situations that the rest of society doesn’t want to deal with nor does society have the answer to these problems.

During one of my workshops, a parent asked, “What should we do about guns in school?”  After giving a variety of things that schools can do to protect children and adults, I replied, “I don’t have the data, but I believe that if we reduce the number of guns in society, we will cut down on the number of guns in schools.”  According to the FBI’s School Shooter Report, most of the sch0ol shooters obtained their guns from their home.

Schools reflect society, not the reverse.  When people complain that students lack positive values or they or they will ruin society, the correct response – I feel is to look at the negativity of campaign advertising or the recklessness of the financial and banking community.

Current thinking indicates that everyone should attend college and graduate. Last year, President Obama declared a national goal of having the highest percentage of college graduates in the world by 2020. Yet a new report issued by the American Institutes for Research “Finishing the First Lap: The Cost of First-Year College Attrition in America’s Four-Year Colleges and Universities,” reveals that 30% of those who enter college, do not return for the second year.

The report focuses its attention on the $7.6 billion in grant money from state governments over a five-year period that is lost.  Another $1.5 billion in federal grants were spent by the federal government.  That’s more than $9 billion in aid that goes to students who barely spend enough time at college to learn their way around campus.  According to the report, “13 states posted more than $200 million of state funds lost to students dropping out before the second year of college.”

The states include California ($467 million), Texas ($441 million), New York ($403 million), Illinois ($290 million), North Carolina ($285 million), Ohio ($277 million), Florida ($275 million), Indiana ($268 million), Michigan ($239 million), Georgia ($237 million); Louisiana ($213 million), Tennessee ($205 million) and Kentucky ($201 million)

Nationally, only about 60 percent of students graduate from four-year colleges and universities within six years. The study did not examine community colleges, where first-year dropout rates are even higher.

I believe that the focus needs to be on why these students, the “better students” who survived the K-12 system, dropout.  Readers of this blog are aware of my feelings that not everyone needs to go to college and that colleges continue to build seats which they must fill.  Students are aware that high school criteria may not make a difference in determining if they go to college.  Colleges need to validate high school work by not lowering their standards in order to fill their seats.

Both the number of children in poverty and the child poverty rate increased between 2008 and 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which released new national estimates of poverty. The number of children in poverty rose from 14.1 million to 15.5 million in 2009 and the child poverty rate increased from 19 percent to nearly 21 percent. In addition, the number and percentage of children living in “deep” poverty (households with incomes below 50 percent of the federal poverty level) also increased (from 6.3 million to 6.9 million and from 8.5 percent to 9.3 percent in 2009, respectively.) Children made up more than a third (35.5 percent) of all people in poverty in 2009.  These numbers represent an increase again over 2007 data, which reported 13.3 million children, or 18 percent, living in poverty in the United States.

A substantial body of research links poverty with multiple negative outcomes for children. When compared with children from more affluent families, poor children are more likely to have low academic achievement, to drop out of school, and to have health, behavioral, and emotional problems. These linkages are particularly strong for children whose families experience deep poverty, who are poor during early childhood, and who are trapped in poverty for a long time.

In 2009, a family of four including two children was considered to be living in poverty if their income was below $21,756.  Under this criterion, 42.2 percent of U.S. children lived in “low income” households in 2009.

Note that the figures released are from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey and are national-level only.  Later, the Census Bureau will release poverty estimates from the American Community Survey that will cover the nation, all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, every congressional district and all counties, places and metropolitan areas with populations of 65,000 or more.

Maybe if we raise the economic level of families, academic achievement will rise as well.  Too many politicians do not want to address that problem.

In a study published by the journal Child Development, it showed that African American boys’ reading scores improve by four points (which is considered significant) as they increasingly logged more time on the computer.  Girls achievement test score also improved.

In 2008, children ages 10-12 were text messaging, playing games, studying and surfing websites an average of 3.4 hours a week.  Those ages 16-18 spent 6.3 hour a week at the keyboard that year.  The report added that computer use “involves problem-solving, reading, communication and these skills help children.” Increased time on the computer did not mean less reading and studying.