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Why are we doing this?
By Tobi Kibel Piatek | March 30, 2009
Welcome Spring 2009 class.
Why should you take this course? Why should you learn to build relationships with kids at risk? Who are these kids? Who else cares? How can I know?
Almost every time I listen to the news, or read online, the subject of the dropout rate keeps popping up. Today I listened to a discussion of the candidate’s views and ideas for reducing the drop out rate among Hispanics (the highest of any ethnic group.) Yesterday I mentioned in this blog that Fox News considers teen dropout rates one of the important issues facing America today.
Anytime No Child Left Behind is mentioned, the dropout rate is soon part of the conversation. There are articles lately arguing different ways to calculate the dropout rate, as well as mention of the dropout rate as a key indicator of a school’s success in different areas.
The dropout rate is politics, its economics, it is a social issue and an educational one. The dropout rate in our country is an indicator of other problems and other issues. And though there is a lot of conversation about how to solve this problem, so far, we know that one strategy has had a positive impact – forming better relationships – with kids, with their families and their communities. That’s why we offer this course.
My Challenge to You - Start noticing what the media says about dropouts.
Let’s track this trend and gather information together. Use this post as a starting point that you can use to submit links to, or quotes from any articles or materials in any medium that you come across related to the dropout rate.
Let’s collect opinions, points of view, statistics and strategies.
My husband has an expression, “when you are hungry, all you see is bakeries.” My challenge to you is … when you are aware of a new major concept – the dropout rate, kids at risk, and struggling schools, what do YOU notice all around you?
Please share.
Topics: Drop Out Rate, Dropouts |
October 6th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Dropout Related Article in the New York Times Archives
U.S. to Require States to Use a Single School Dropout Formula
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/education/01child.html?ref=education
October 6th, 2008 at 8:09 am
States’ Data Obscure How Few Finish High School
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/20/education/20graduation.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
A recent New York Times article states that “many states use an inflated graduation rate for federal reporting requirements under the No Child Left Behind law and a different one at home. As a result, researchers say, federal figures obscure a dropout epidemic so severe that only about 70 percent of the one million American students who start ninth grade each year graduate four years later.”
In a related article (see comment above)Bush administration officials are “moving to sweep away the tangle of inaccurate state data that has obscured the severity of the nation’s high school dropout crisis. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings will require all states to use one federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:15 am
I am taking this course because of the work I am involved in. The students I see are so far behind, want to learn and be successful, but are not given the time to catch up. Some times they don’t even know the correct questions to ask.Their parents have given up on them and the schools really don’t want them there because of the intimidation factor. But the facts are: they want to learn, they want to be successful, they want to better themselves.
Katherine