Franklin Schargel’s Blog

This website went “live” on December 15, 2007 and this week hit a total of over 130,000 hits visits!  Obviously, people like you have found there is a need for this information on at-risk youth and dropout prevention strategies.

While two-thirds of the viewers come from the United States, Canada comes next. The following countries are also represented:

Morocco, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, China, India, Malaysia, Korea, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Tunisia, Germany, Australia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates, Japan, Fiji, the Netherlands, Portugal, Louth, Ireland and South Africa.  Based on the countries listed above, I am convinced that we have a global crisis in the non-completion of schools.  Since we live in a global information age, the completion of school will be even more necessary once the world pulls out of the hopefully short term economic crisis.

I have received suggestions from several people which have been enormously helpful in guiding me in the direction that these thoughts should go.  Please continue to send suggestions.  Also, if you have not registered to receive any additions to this blog, please do so on the upper right corner of this homepage.

Thanks again for your input and viewing.

I remain, your humble servant.

Franklin

A study published  by the National Center for the Study of Privatization In Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, shows that a teacher will leave the profession versus stay in the same school are 132 percent greater for charter school teachers than they are for regular public school teachers. The study also says that a teacher will switch schools rather than stay at the same school are 76 percent higher for the charter teachers.

The research draws on national survey data for the 2003-04 school year. It found that 25 percent of charter school teachers turned over that year, compared to 14 percent of traditional public school teachers. Fourteen percent of the charter teachers left the profession altogether and 11 percent moved to a different school. Among the public school teachers, 7 percent left the profession and 7 percent switched schools.

The more-polished version of the study also includes some additional calculations aimed at pinpointing the reasons why so many more charter teachers are leaving. Are they quitting in frustration or leaving involuntarily?

Mostly the former, according to these researchers. “Compared to traditional public school teachers,” they write, “charter school teachers are more likely to voluntarily leave the profession or move to a new school because they are dissatisfied with the school and its working conditions.”

I have just sent my latest book to my publisher.  It deals with what school administrators can do to stop teachers from leaving the profession.  Are you aware that the teacher dropout rate is higher than the student dropout rate. Teachers dropping out is 46% over 5 years while the student dropout rate is only (sic) 30% over 4 years.  Look here for the announcement about when the book will be published as well as an excerpt from it in the “Resources” section of the website.

New data from the National Center for Health Statistics show that the teen birth rate increased in 26 states between 2005 and 2006, confirming a widespread national trend and reversing a 14-year decline in teen birth rates.

Among the findings:
States with the five highest teen birth rates in 2005 (above 60 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19, compared with 41.9 births per 1,000 females ages 15-19 for the U.S. overall) experienced increases:
Arizona:  7% increase
Arkansas:  5% increase
Mississippi: 13% increase
New Mexico: a statistically non-significant 4% increase
Texas: 2% increase

States with the four lowest teen birth rates (New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut) showed non-significant changes.

The state with the highest teen birth rate in 2006 (Mississippi, with 68.4 births for every 1,000 female teen ages 15-19) has a rate that is more than 3.5 times the rate of the state with lowest teen birth rate (New Hampshire, with 18.7 births for every 1,000 female teens ages 15-19).

Alaska showed the greatest increase in teen birth rates (up 19%), while the District of Columbia reported the most dramatic decline in rates (down 24%).

The national numbers confirm increases in teen birth rates for all racial/ethnic groups:
Whites: 3 percent increase
Blacks: 5 percent increase
Hispanics: 2 percent increase

“The widespread increase in teen birth rates across states and racial/ethnic groups highlights the need to continue focusing program and funding efforts on pregnancy prevention,” said Senior Research Scientist Jennifer Manlove, Ph.D.

Computers are tools and like any tool in the educator’s tool-chest will do an excellent job in fixing an aspect of education.  But like any tool, it is not capable of fixing all of the problems of education.

Craig Barrett, the chairman of Intel stated that America is ignoring that it is good teaching that makes the difference.  “We’re bailing out Wall Street, we’ll be bailing out Detroit soon, we’re bailing out the agricultural sector with high subsidies at a time of record crop prices.”

The keys to economic success, Mr Barrett said, are high expectations, improved teacher competence and measured results.  He talked about Finland which achieved the highest score on the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA examination).  Finland is perhaps the most wired country in the world, measured by broadband access.  But the edge seems to lie in the fact that Finland has high expectations for students and respected teachers.  In the 2007 book, Innovation Nation:  How America is Losing its Innovative Edge, Why it Matters and What We Can Do to Get it Back”, John Kao writes:  “Finns have come to cherish gifted educators as Texans do ace quarterbacks.  The country’s teacher training schools have ten applicants for every opening.”

Mr. Barrett said, “PCs aren’t magic, good teachers are.”

Source:  The New York Times, 10/02/2008

As many of you know, I have been doing research on the global school non-completion rate.  I believe that the lack of education is at the root of most of the world’s problems.  Yet as countries examine their critical economic crises, the ignore the long term critical problem of school achievement and completion.  As Thomas Friedman in his brilliant book, The World Is Flat pointed out, “A student in Bangalore, India is now as globally competitive as a student in Bangore, Maine.”   Mr. Friedman spends many pages discussing the need for globally competitive school systems.  The best graduates from New York City schools are not competing for jobs with the best graduates of Montreal schools but the best graduates in the world.  The economic success of India and China is based, to a large degree on their ability to focus improvement on their school systems.  If a nation wishes to be globally competitive, then it stands to reason that they must improve their school achievement and completion.  Yet when we look at the completion rate of some of the world’s nations, we see a vast chasm.  Let us look at a few countries using data from the United Nations, the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the World Bank, and Oxfam.

In Canada:  9.8% dropout per year.

In  Singapore: 1.6% dropout per year

In Morocco: many children in rural areas do not attend school even though it is free and compulsory through primary school.  Literacy rates are estimated at 39 percent among women and 64 percent among men.  The female literacy rate in rural areas among women is estimated to be only ten percent.

In the Philippines: 5.7% per year

In India only 80% of the country go to school, 46% graduate

In Japan 84% graduate

In Fiji, 15% graduate from primary school

In South Korea, 71% graduate.

In Brazil, 14% dropout

In the UK, 64% graduate.

In Germany 83% graduate

Ireland has a 60 percent graduation rate.

How can a nation address its short term economic problem without addressing its long term education problem?

When Congress convenes one of the things it will have to address is the much postponed revision of the Elementary and Secondary School Act (No Child Left Behind).

I have mixed feeling about No Child.  There are several positive notes in the legislation.  First, who can argue with the objective that any child should be left behind?  Second, districts have to dis-aggregate graduation rate data by ethnicity, special education, and economic levels.  This means that schools can no longer & “hide under the rug” the disparities in graduation rates between minority groups and their higher achieving groups.

But No Child was developed to produce a global American Education Standard and it has failed to do so.  A simple high-stakes assessment is indicative of nothing.  Imagine that you go to a doctor and she tells you based on a single test you are going to die an extremely painful prolonged death.  We would seek an additional doctor and request additional testing.

States control educational standards and some state standards are extremely low while others are much higher.  “Good” high performing schools are supposed to receive additional  funding under the current legislation while “poor” low performing schools are to be punished.  Isn’t that backwards?  Shouldn’t low performing schools be given additional resources (more funding, smaller classes and more teachers) to help them raise their achievement levels comparable to those higher performing schools?

Low performing schools are supposed to allow students to transfer out to higher performing schools.  Yet in many cities, the number who wish to transfer out exceeds the available space.

The new Congress and the new Secretary of Education will have a difficult job especially in light of the current national economic crisis.  We wish them well.  The future of America depends on their response.

I want to thank all of you who read this blog.  You have made this past year my greatest intellectually productive in my life.  Those of you who subscribed (easy to do by registering on the right side of this page) know that I am now posting a blog two times a week.  By the end of the month, there will be three postings a week.

For those of you submitting comments, suggestions and reactions (at [email protected]) I want to thank you for taking some of your valuable time for your suggestions.

The year just passed produced two new books.  The first, 152 Ways to Keep Students in School (the first 26 ways are posted on the resource section of this website) as well as my publisher’s (Eye on Education’s Website, www.eyeoneducation.com) is the fastest selling of all my books.  From At-Risk to Academic Excellence:  What Successful Leaders Do, is the first book in a new series.  I have been blessed by two extremely talented co-authors, Dr. Tony Thacker and John Bell both from the Alabama Department of Education.  Dr. Gene Bottoms, Senior Vice President of the Southern Regional Education Lab (SREB) wrote the forward.  You can find the forward and Chapter 4 of the book on my website.

Creating School Cultures That Embrace Learning:  What Successful Leaders Do is the second book in the series and will be published in early February by Eye on Education.  In the Leadership and Culture book, we asked the leaders of 90/90/90 schools to explain their success in increasing student achievement and produced a positive school culture.  A section of the book will appear on these pages in February.

I have been traveling and presenting workshops around the country.  In 2008, I presented for over 6,000 people in Texas, Savannah, Atlanta, Texas (again), South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas (still again), Kentucky, Texas (once again), Florida, Arkansas, Calgary, New Orleans and Texas.

This year promises to be just as active starting with Clearwater Florida this month.  I have signed contracts to be back in Savannah, San Diego, Phoenix, Virginia, North Dakota and Texas.  If I am in your neighborhood, please come up and say hello. I really love presenting and meeting field-based people.

This year I produced several new activities.  Failure has been receiving the greatest reaction of them all.

I am currently working on several books.  Volume Two of the highly successful Best Practices to Help At-risk Learners is currently being worked on.  In addition, there will be a new administrators book and several other projects.

Finally I want to thank you for your hard work this past year. In spite of the demands of high-stakes testing, and No Child Left Behind, you have persevered against enormous challenges.  Thank you for all that you do.  Thank you for making a difference.

Stay well and stay in touch.

Franklin