Some urban schools are underperforming even by the low standards set in our cities. These have extremely high dropout rates and have been nicknamed "Dropout Factories." In 2005, researchers at John Hopkins took a good look at these schools. Their findings include:
- Only about 20% of high school students in the United States are likely to attend high schools with exemplary graduation rates (90% or higher).
- Another 20% of high school students in the United States are likely to attend high schools with very low graduation rates (60% or lower). These are the high schools that produce close to half of the nation’s dropouts.
- Nearly 90% of high schools with very low graduation rates educate large numbers of low-income students. However, only about one-quarter of these schools currently receives Title 1 funds.
- The nation’s minority students are four times more likely to attend a high school with very low graduation rates and three times less likely to attend a high school with very high graduation rates than the nation’s non-minority students.
- The largest number of high schools with very low graduation rates is located in the nation’s cities (around 900), but there are also close to 800 high schools in towns and rural areas with very low graduation rates.
- High schools with very low graduation rates come in all sizes-there are more than 250 small high schools (less then 300 students) and 300 large high schools (more than 2,000 students) with very low graduation rates.
Apt. 11d 
These numbers sadden me. Not only will the lack of a diploma adversely effect the lifetime earnings of these young adults, it will unfortunately drive many of them toward criminal activities. In one of your other pieces someone mentioned kids wanting to be drug dealers when they grow up. No one wants to be a drug dealer when they grow up, circumstances push them in that direction. Drug dealers themselves want more for their kids. Kids need to believe there is something out there for them if we expect them to stay on the straight and narrow and be productive citizens.
In my opinion, if a school’s graduation rate is less than 60%, the school should be shut down and a charter allowed to take over the location and funding. What could it hurt? I’m sure these schools have been aware of their poor performance for quite awhile and have been unable to improve. The time for second and third chances is over.
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In 2005 we had one of those high schools with an average graduation rate (2000-2007) of 34%. Based on the first comment such a school should be closed and turned into a Charter school. (How many students would “disappear” in such a transition?)
In 2005 one of the middle schools feeding about 45% of the students into this high school started a 10-year time-capsule and 10-year class reunion/mentoring project to focus students onto their own futures. It was popular! In 2009 both the other middle school and the high school itself started their own such projects, called the School Archive Project. That high school’s class of 2010 had a graduation rate of 60%. A graduation rate above 70% is anticipated by 2015, if not sooner!
Many other positive changes have happened at this high school including a powerful and popular principal. The bottom line, a 34% graduation rate is doubling! A part of that improvement is a repeated focus of our students onto their own futures. If they do not do the work needed, nobody will!
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Professor Mondo unloads on students. He nods a approvingly at Jonah Goldberg: http://profmondo.wordpress.com/2010/09/28/solution-unsatisfactory/
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Obviously if a high school is making dramatic improvements in graduation rates and academic achievement, it should not be shut down, but we all know many of these high school have had low graduation rates and no substantial improvement for years, if not decades. I only support charters as a possibility because some of them have had huge success in seemingly hopeless situations. And just because a charter takes over a school, it does not mean the students in the existing school are turned away. Some charters take over existing schools and keep the existing student population.
I guess my original comment was a reaction to the news yesterday that 5 people were shot Monday night in Boston, including a toddler in his mother’s arms. Drugs were most likely the motive. The economy is difficult enough for those of us with college and graduate degrees, can you imagine trying to make a life for yourself and your family without a high school diploma? Or even with JUST a high school diploma (particularly from a crappy city high school)? The homicide and assault rates here in Boston are up significantly this year, as I am sure is the case throughout the country.
We are at a crossroad in education and I say we need to make huge sweeping changes. There was a time when I would have defended these high schools or advocated for smaller changes and time, but the methods we have employed the last 30 years are not working.
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On this one, I’m in the “so far out in left field as to be invisible” camp.
I think students ought to be able to leave school at any time if they have a 25-hour a week job. (And ought to be helped to find jobs if that’s what they want.) Two more years in an environment you hate isn’t likely to do much good anyway. Go get a job, and come back when you want to go to school.
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“I think students ought to be able to leave school at any time if they have a 25-hour a week job. (And ought to be helped to find jobs if that’s what they want.) Two more years in an environment you hate isn’t likely to do much good anyway. Go get a job, and come back when you want to go to school”
How many of us would think this an option for our own children? I work in a very affluent school district and trust me, there are many students struggling in school who would love to leave. The difference? The school intervenes early in their education and their parents would never allow (or encourage) them to dropout — regardless of their motivation or intellectual capacity. They have cheerleaders telling them that they are up to the challenge.
Why is this an option for someone else’s children?
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“How many of us would think this an option for our own children?”
*raises hand* Spent some time this weekend at a panel on Higher Ed and Aspergers and wondering if college is necessarily going to be the right choice for my guy. Of course, that’s 10 years away, but it’s time to start thinking.
A few states are considering proposals to eliminate 11th and 12th grade (see: NH). Leon Botstein of Bard thinks it’s a great idea. A lot of kids at my university are here on a program to combine the last year of HS and the first year of college.
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Also, the shootings in Boston have nothing to do with education and teacher quality. This is what bugs the crap out of me. Violence is up (or is it–another thing to think about) not because teachers suck but because 8 years of Republican rule fucked up this country beyond all recognition and people are stressed and desperate.
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Last comment, I promise (I wish we could edit comments). I forgot something. What bugs me isn’t so much that Repubs have fucked us all (though that does bug me) but that in a discussion of education, this is one of the things people pull out of their asses to use to attack public education. It’s a device to make people feel anxious and that there is a crisis, not to have meaningful discussion.
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First, I am in no way a fan of the 8 years of Republican rule. I am very, very liberal. And second, young men (mainly) turn toward drug dealing, and the resulting violence because of a lack of opportunities. A lack of opportunities that stem from receiving a substandard education and/or dropping out of school. You cannot say one has nothing to do with the other. We have to fix one to improve the other.
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“And second, young men (mainly) turn toward drug dealing, and the resulting violence because of a lack of opportunities.”
Doesn’t the need to fund one’s own habit generally play a part?
Here’s an explanation of the economics of pot sales from a former juvenile delinquent:
http://rsmccain.blogspot.com/2009/09/andrew-sullivan-dopehead-foreigner.html
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I’m another parent who would definitely consider some option besides high school for their teenager.
My high school child is not interested in school (and for what it’s worth, he tests pretty high on standardized tests—he is not incapable of doing the academic work, he is just truly not interested in doing the work.) He is very interested in drinking, drugs, adventures and hanging out. Both his parents and teachers have tried many things to channel his energy/interests, he has not been abandoned or ignored, so it is not a lack of opportunity that is the issue or the lack of people telling him he is or is not up to the challenge.
(Also, in my opinion, what passes for education may a big part of the issue.)
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Well, I didn’t go to high school–and yes, I’d be pretty OK with one of mine deciding that formal school wasn’t at all where he/she wanted to be at 15.
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“Well, I didn’t go to high school–and yes, I’d be pretty OK with one of mine deciding that formal school wasn’t at all where he/she wanted to be at 15.”
I skipped 8th and 12th grade and was out the door before my 16th birthday, and I would definitely be willing to encourage either of my kids to leave early, if they had a realistic plan. Looking back, some more home ec wouldn’t have been a bad thing, but I don’t think my 16-year-old self would have appreciated it properly. Staying until 18 sounds terrible. I don’t know how anyone stands it.
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I skipped 8th and 12th grade and was out the door before my 16th birthday, and I would definitely be willing to encourage either of my kids to leave early, if they had a realistic plan.
I graduated at 16 also, and got my AA from a community college at 18. Then I spent one semester trying to continue my education on a Pell Grant, a $2000 NDSL (loan) and $3.35/hr minimum wage job. Realized rather quickly that I couldn’t afford school, didn’t have the necessary time it took to pursue my studies, wasn’t all that interested in getting a degree (especially considering that it wouldn’t provide me with the ability to earn a living—liberal arts being “pre-unemployment”)….and pursued getting into the electrical apprenticeship (something I was interested in since childhood—but strongly discouraged from doing). I got into the apprenticeship, and it was one of the best decisions of my life.
With that said, I’d strongly discourage my daughter from dropping out of high school, unless there was an early-graduation program that shuttled her into a college track ahead of schedule. Dropping out and experiencing the world for a couple of years without a diploma is a recipe for disaster for working class young women. Plus, if college isn’t on the agenda, the trades really frown on GEDs as opposed to diplomas—it’s seen as a sign of flakiness and unreliability. Without a GED or diploma, you can’t even enter an apprenticeship.
It’s my experience as a working class woman that someone from my background NEEDS the extra “proof” of a firm educational background. Employers (and others) simply don’t give us the benefit of the doubt to prove ourselves without a calling card. Young white men from middle to upper-middle class backgrounds can sometimes make that path work—we can’t.
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Really interesting, La Lubu. Thanks.
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“With that said, I’d strongly discourage my daughter from dropping out of high school, unless there was an early-graduation program that shuttled her into a college track ahead of schedule.”
I think that it’s a good idea to provide college experiences before high school graduation. I went to summer school at University of Washington when I was 14–lived in a dorm with a roommate, explored the U-District, etc. I was supposed to do an intensive Russian program, but washed out of that very early and did an English lit course instead that was much more my speed. I did distance learning in Russian through the UW later during high school, which was surprisingly successful. Between that and my two APs (the only ones offered at my rural high school), I arrived with a nice supply of credits when I went to college for real. All those pre-college experiences definitely helped reduce the jump from high school to college.
We have a very good community college here and I definitely intend to have the kids sign up for summer courses during high school (although there’s also the option of shipping them out to work in the family tourist businesses out West). Almost any course would do. I’d prefer that any journey of personal exploration happen cheaply during high school summers, rather than during the $20,000 a year college years, although I realize you can’t really schedule this stuff.
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