In recent years, schools and communities have been working to reduce high school dropout rates, and it is good to report some signs of success.
Last month, the Department of Education released a study that showed the graduation rate has improved a little nationally with about 78 percent of high school freshmen getting their diploma on time in the spring of 2010. Losing more than 20 percent of your students is not much to write home about, but the national rate has been 75 percent or less for much of the last decade.
The study also showed improvement in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky, which posted graduation rates between 78-81 percent for 2010.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan speculated that the difficult economy may be keeping some students in school, but the increased focus from schools and communities seems to be helping as well.
In Cabell County, for example, high schools have created new “graduation coach” positions as part of the Innovation Zone program and seeing some good results. In 2009-2010, Cabell County had more than 200 students drop out, but after adding the coaches, that fell to 128 in 2010-2011 and 95 last year.
At both Huntington High and Cabell-Midland, there was an extra effort to identify at-risk students and provide them with a little more support, either through community volunteers or assistance from the coaches themselves. …
Team teaching, freshmen academies and other initiatives on the high school and middle school level also are helping keep students on track. That also shows up in a recent decline in discipline problems and higher freshmen attendance rates. …
On another front, the United Way of the River Cities last year helped launch the Education Matters effort, which has mobilized community organizations and volunteers in dropout prevention efforts, including a middle-school mentors program.
It is good to see all those efforts because the stakes are high. The life and job outlook for dropouts gets tougher every year. Too often these young people struggle to earn a living wage, and eventually society begins to foot the bill.
Making sure high school students succeed and get their diplomas helps everyone.
— Distributed by The Associated Press
A good portion of our kids failing is due to bullies and disruptive kids. One might say: what can be done to fix this? EXPELL THE LITTLE HELLIONS! Throw them out on their derrières (a$$es) and tell their parents not the let the back door hit them on their way out! I would get evidence in the form of cameras to show the disruption, and then double down on the parents. I would not be nice about it either. I think the principal was far too nice about the situation in my case.
I used to work with a black dude who came from Washington, D.C. It was the same there, whenever he tried to do his school work, the bad kids would gang up on him outside and tell him he was an Uncle Tom. Lucky for him he transferred to another school! However, why did he go, why not send the little morons who wanted to disrupt things somewhere else? If you want to fix schools, GET RID OF THE RIFRAFF. Stop dumming down classes for a few who do not get it! When they get to college, do you think Calculus is going to be any easier if you do not take Algebra? In California, middle and high school students don’t have to take Algebra towards graduation. Why are they doing that? To make people who cannot understand Algebra feel better about themselves! A word of advice to students: study math! I had to learn math on my own when I got to college. There was nobody there to hold my hand and make me do it. I saw many students fail even lower math courses like Trigonometry.
I disagree with affirmative action: giving one group an advantage because of the color of their skin. I think the practice is racist and should be stopped. Black and white kids should compete on an even battlefield for schools and jobs; if blacks do not measure up…tough! They can shed a tear in their beer!
Keep the standards high!