Franklin Schargel’s Blog

There is no such thing as a high school dropout.  I have never met a high school student who has said, “I’m in high school now.  It’s time to leave.”

According to a new report from the Annie. E. Casey Foundation, the process begins by the end of the 3rd grade.  (According to a longitudinal study from the University of Arizona, it begins in kindergarten).  If we wish to reduce the number of dropouts we need to increase the number who can read proficiently by the time they are in 4th grade.  However, recent test scores on the National Assessment of Progress  two-thirds of all 4th graders are reading below that level.

I believe that the easiest way to raise reading proficiency is to build immediate safety nets into elementary schools.  The minute teachers and elementary administrators see that children are reading below basic proficiency levels, they need to mandate, Saturday reading classes or mandatory Summer Schools.

Another thing they can do is to find ways to lower school absenteeism which is the primary early warning that children will dropout.

Parents need to be brought into the paradigm shift by having their children read to them at every opportunity.

According to a new report, minorities accounted for almost 49% of U.S. births in the year ending July 1,2009, a record high. Minorities now make up more than half the population in four states (California, Hawaii, New Mexico, Texas) and the District of Columbia. The level of diversity varies widely from region to region “” from as high as 79 in Hawaii and 68 in California to as low as 10 in Maine and Vermont and 13 in West Virginia.

Much of the rapid growth in diversity is driven by an influx of young Hispanic immigrants, whose birthrates are higher than those of non-Hispanic whites, creating a race and ethnic chasm and a widening age gap. Record levels of births among minorities in the past decade are moving the USA a step closer to a demographic milestone in which no group commands a majority, new Census estimates show. There are more than 500 counties that have a majority of minority children. The population is changing to minority from the bottom up.  Nationwide, 48.3% of kids under age 5 are minorities, while 19.9% of people 65 and older are.

In Gwinnett County, Ga., near Atlanta, one of seven counties where minorities became the majority last year, 88% of the under-20 population was non-Hispanic white in 1990.

As our country becomes more ethnically diverse, schools are the ones being first affected.  There is a need for schools across the country to do early identification, plan to hire more bi-lingual teachers and establish more ESL classes.

Using data from the Census Bureau, researchers from the Pew Hispanic Center found that fewer Hispanic students earn a GED credential than white or black dropouts. The report found that one in 10 Hispanic students who drop out of high school go on to earn a General Equivalency Development degree.  Black students earned a GED at a rate of two in 10. For white students, the rate is three in 10.

The research organization says the lower rate among Hispanics is notable because they also have higher dropout rates: 41 percent of Latinos ages 20 or older do not have a regular high school degree, compared to 23 percent of blacks and 14 percent of whites.

According to the report, the longer foreign-born Latinos without a high school degree are in the United States, the more likely they are to earn a GED.  But Hispanics born in the United States who drop out of high school are also unlikely to have a GED. The report found that only 21 percent earn the credential.

The report notes that a GED is a crucial step forward: Four in 10 students with a GED pursue additional education, compared to only 1 in 10 of those without an alternative degree. Students with a GED are also able to apply and enroll in degree-granting colleges and universities.

In a report issued by the American Association of School Administrators, school district reductions for the year 2010-2011 will result in the elimination of 275,000 employees.  The data was supplied from a survey of almost 1,500 superintendents from 49 states.  The cuts will eliminate an estimated 145,750 teachers if carried out.

Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees education spending, is sponsoring legislation to provide $23 billion in additional aid to states to help thwart a significant cut in education jobs.  A bill containing similar language was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives late last year.

On May 11, 2010 the Houston Chronicle reported that more than 22,620 Texas secondary students who stopped showing up for class in 2008 were excluded from the state’s dropout statistics because administrators said they were being home-schooled, according to Texas Education Agency figures.

Are students who are leaving schools being disguising as thousands of middle and high school dropouts ?

While home-schooling’s popularity has increased, the rate of growth concentrated in Texas’ high school population has nearly tripled in the last decade, including a 24 percent jump in a single year.

In some states, parents are required to file sworn affidavits when they withdraw their children. Many states also require families to submit curriculum, attendance records or test scores when they opt to home-school.

In Texas, the Texas Education Agency requires a “signed statement from a parent/guardian or qualified student” or “documentation of an oral statement by the parent/guardian or qualified student made within 10 days of the time the student quits attending school in the district, signed and dated by an authorized representative of the district” noting that they intend to attend home-school.

A 2008 audit of one of the Houston-area districts with the highest number of home-schooled high schoolers “” Clear Creek ISD “” concluded that only 167 of the 276 students had sufficient documentation from parents to meet the state’s definition. Information was lacking in the other 109 cases.

The U.S. Department of Education found that roughly 77 percent of home-schoolers are Anglo. Most are also the children of college educated, middle class parents. More than one-third of parents cited providing “religious or moral instruction” as the primary reason for their decision to home-school.

The Texas Home School Coalition estimates that more than 300,000 Texas children are home-schooled, with an annual growth rate around 7 percent since the mid-1990s. Leaders also estimate that between 2 and 3 percent of all Texas students are educated at home.

Once families withdraw from public school, there is no follow-up.

Some advocates complain that Spanish-speaking and special-needs student are especially vulnerable to being pushed out of public schools.

Home schooling provides an alternative path for students to graduate and as such I am in favor of it.  However, if it is being used to disguise students who dropout than that is an entirely different matter.