Dear TNLI-ers:

Believe it or not, January 2007 is right around the corner!  Stepping up to the plate for our January national listserv reading is the Santa Barbara County (CA) affiliate, with TNLI MetLife Fellow Carlos Cohen serving as moderator.  As per our usual process, we are sending you the article information—including a digital link to this article—several days in advance of this January conversation so that you can prepare.  So, here goes:

Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in Texas.  By Daniel Losen, Gary Orfield, and Robert Balfanz.  The Civil Rights Project—Harvard University.  October 7, 2006.  Simply go to the following link:  www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/dropouts/dropouts_gen.php  --and then click on the article name for the full PDF of the article.

Thanks so very much.  We certainly look forward to a lively January conversation spearheaded by Carlos and the Santa Barbara County Fellows.  And, here’s wishing HAPPY HOLIDAYS to everyone!

Ellen, Peter, and Jenn

Dear TNLI subscribers,

I have long felt that many of our public high schools are failing huge numbers of students because they persistently maintain a linear, culturally limited view of what it means to be educated.  Standardized tests, college preparation, and daily attendance funding concerns drive policy and protocol within far too many public high schools.  Public high schools that provide vocational training and support are becoming few and far between.  Far too many students who do graduate from high school and go on to  four-year universities or colleges must incur tremendous debt because they have nothing to offer in a highly competitive job market.  And those students who don’t make it through high school for any number of reasons are most likely out there working for minimum wage - barely getting by.  Perhaps these high school dropouts would have stayed in school if school was giving them something that they could immediately realize some benefit from?

Cognitive research demonstrates that the human brain continues to mature and develop well into the twenties.  I’m quite certain that many students who drop out of high school in their teens will gratefully go back to school when they are older if they have the opportunity to do so.  Sometimes it takes maturity and life’s experience to teach us the value of education.  The community college system in California provides fantastic and varied opportunities for people of all ages to pursue higher education and vocational training and licensure.  Perhaps community colleges can teach the K-12 educational community something about providing relevant educational opportunities to a broad and culturally diverse group of human beings.

Kristen A. Lewis
Lompoc, CA
1/1/07

Greetings Fellow TNLI Educators,

On behalf of the Santa Barbara TNLI I would like to wish you a Happy New Year and hope that this year is better then last. We have chosen to start off this month’s discussion with the article “Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis in Texas” by Daniel Losen, Gary Orfield, and Robert Balfainz.

The case presented by these authors illustrates what we have been discussing locally and nationally regarding NCLB’s shortcomings regarding accountability and truly serving "all of" our students. As you have read, the document focuses on how graduation rates in Texas have been improperly inflated by school officials in order to meet NCLB expectations. The authors state this is inexcusable because Texas has one of the best methods of “longitudinally” tracking its students. The net effect then is that historically underrepresented students of lower class, color and ethnicity are being underserved, because they are “pushed out” or “lost” in the system to help raise AYP scores. According to the authors, Texas’ misrepresentation of graduation rates of its underrepresented students, in order to meet NCLB requirements, constitutes a civil rights violation and is harmful to the student’s future and ultimately the country’s.

So, to get the discussion going, what are your thoughts and opinions on this specific matter?

Sincerely,
Carlos V. Cohen

PS. Consider that your experiences and insights could also serve to help a fellow educator that is looking for stories regarding NCLB and its effect on your school. (Look for Lisa’s email from New York for the full request or mail stories directly to Mary Ginley mary.ginley at gmail dot com)

1/5/07

Dear Carlos and TNPI 
 
What a timely and crucial article this is! I see this issue from several vantage points. The most poignant has been my experience volunteering during my breaks to help my colleague and friend who teaches at an LA Boys Probationary Camp - high schools boys from inner city LA who have been sentenced to 3-12 months for various crimes. Make time to see "Grid Iron Gang" now out on DVD,. It is a true story about this camp that gives a glimpse into the lives of these boys. To me the camp represents a visual picture of what happens to students our system fails. Most of them either struggled in elementary/Jr High or did not see the relevance of the curriculum to their lives. When I interviewed one very bright boy why he had dropped out in 8th grade, he said, "I didn't hate school, it just didn't help me. I needed the money I could make for my family on the street." 
 
Doesn't this ring out with the threads we were discussing last month? The need for a more relevant curriculum? Why is college track the only respected track? Why is 8:30- 3 the only schedule? Why not two schedules? One for working HS students? With night classes like adulted? Why not paid "intern" credits for working HS students that we
coordinate with businesses? Why isn't an auto mechanics course at the Toyota Dealership just as valid for high school graduation as traditional geometry? 
 
The "Grid Iron Gang" kids learn more and get better grades than in their whole lives. Why? They are safe. They are fed. They have their own bed. They CAN go to school every day. They are not being pulled apart daily by the demands of poverty. But do they graduate? Actually NCLB has helped tremendously in the last few years. It has provided funds for tutoring in addition to the daily routine. They study at night and on week-ends. Can the inner city really do that? If they were still home, do they even have the time for tutoring? Or do they have to get to their job..... 
 
 My friend Mr. D works two nights a week until 9 PM on their transcripts tracking all their various credits because many of them have moved repeatedly and their records are fragmented. Even the students themselves have no idea how many credits they have or need. Mr. D meets with all the ones who have a chance and lets them know
exactly what they need to do when they get home. How many high schools do or can do that? 
 
BUT most of Mr. D's students know that they will NEVER graduate. No matter how hard they work this year or when they go back home. Why? Because they are in remedial classes in ELD, Reading and Math. NONE OF THEM COUNT FOR GRADUATION. I SAY AGAIN NONE OF THEM COUNT!!!! Remedial and ELD units are NOT considered "requirements to graduate". If you can't read well enough or say have a memory deficit disability that prevents you from memorizing math facts, you don't qualify to be in the "requirement" class. So you can NEVER earn the credits you will need. Of the students in the "Grid Iron Gang" school most are ELD, most are
reading below the 6th grade level. In Mr. D's classes 28 read below the 4th grade level. Why did they drop out? Why will they dodge school when they're released? Put yourself in that position. Why WOULD you stay in school knowing there was no goal possible for you to attain? Why wouldn't you "go make the money on the streets for your family?" 
 
Can we change the system? Yes, of course. But who is "we"? 
 
Oranne Lee 
Santa Barbara County 
1/6/07

I have not read the entire article as of yet, but I will. I just have to comment on something I have read so far. In the article it discusses how the business community has concerns about the drop out rate in High Schools. Well, I have one comment, If they are so concerned, why do they keep moving their factories to impoverished countries where they don't have to pay living wages, give benefits, and no health care. I don't think the business community is really very interested in our children. If they were, then they would stay in America so there is hope for our children to have future.

I am from a rural community where all the hope for a future as been taken away from many children. In the past 5 years, 7, yes 7...which is all of them...factories have moved to Mexico and Asia. There are no more factories in the area and people are struggling very badly to make ends meet.

I am curious to what the "Business Community" has to say about that.

Chad Kirkpatrick
Chicago
1/7/07

Greetings colleagues,

In response to the article for January... I came across another article recently in Teacher Magazine called Mind Gap. This was very interesting in that these researchers found that a group of students responded well to a 15 minute survey at the beginning of the school year about their values. It was suggested in the article that students perceived that the survey put them on par with other students in that stereotypes would not be made of them. Interesting! Has anyone been through the TESA program out of LA? Very good program!! Here's a thought I leave folks with: students, any students, who choose to drop out or believe that they are stereotyped against in schools, what do they do for themselves to get the education that is needed so our businesses and country will not be hurt? What assistance do they receive and from where? Who is keeping track of these kids' success rate?

Heidi Willard
Fairfax County, VA
1/18/07

In response to the points/questions Carlos raises:
1. I think Houston is a good example of "losing" students so that the district appears more successful than it actually is.
2. No, I don't think NCLB successfully addresses issues of class and ethnicity. It was, after all, patterned after Rod Paige's system in Houston--see point #1.

Gail V. Ritchie, PhD, NBCT
Fairfax County Public Schools
1/18/07

My background is in business as an accountant.  Having been a teacher for seventeen years, I believe I have a unique perspective of both private – business – and public – education – operations.  Within the business realm, profits drive everything; within the educational realm, the growth and learning of individuals is the primary focus.  It would be extremely difficult if not impossible to put a price or value on the education human beings.  This is why I believe very much that public education must continue to be free and available to all children in this country.  I do believe that business can provide a desperately needed support for public education, as long as schools and individual children do not have to pay for that support.

Over the past twenty to thirty years we have seen a decline in work-study and vocational programs in American high schools.  The political definition of what it means to be educated has been narrowed to the mastery of exhaustive lists of often obsolete and irrelevant academic standards.  As our population has become increasingly diverse, our education policies have become linear and dogmatic.  From my perspective, we are missing an opportunity to reach and touch far too many young people in this county as they fall through the gaping holes in our public education system.  Literacy and vocational training are just two woefully neglected concerns within American education policy today.

Support from local businesses could help our high schools to bring back and refine vocational education.  Again in my opinion, high school students should be required to complete a work-study program as part of their graduation requirements.  Tax incentives should be given to local businesses that provide vocational training in public high schools and hire high school students as part of a work-study program.  Vocational licensing opportunities should be made available to all high school students.  Perhaps if college students had vocational training, they could work while attending college and would not need to borrow vast amounts of money in an effort to pay increasingly high tuition costs.  Our community colleges are doing a fantastic job of addressing the needs of a huge variety of people.  Perhaps the community college model should be looked at as well as the business model as we search for ways to improve and reform public education.

Kristen Lewis
Santa Barbara County
1/21/07