- Arlington - 48 % to 59.7 %.
- Arsenal - 44% to 46.5 %.
- Broad Ripple - 60.1 % to 59 %.
- Manual - 39.3 % to 44.4 %.
- Northwest - 45.5 % to 49.6 %.
- Key Learning - 82.8 % to 94.7 %.
- Thomas Carr Howe - 52.5 to 58.3 %.
- George Washington - 49.3 % to 47 %.
What do you think is the best way to address the dropout problem and improve graduation rates?
I think graduation coaches and such are fine, but middle school is where we lose them, and that is where we, as teachers, can make the biggest difference. Kids drop out because they are so far behind. The earlier we can catch them up (or at least narrow the gap), the less likely they are to drop out. When we wait until they are 15 or 16 to start worrying about graduation, we're too late in my opinion. (I'm not an IPS teacher, I'm a charter school teacher, but I think the solution is the same regardless.)
ReplyDeleteThe article indicates that these numbers are graduation rates. The person who posted the article refers to them as dropout rates, which makes it look as if things are getting worse. Actually the graduation rates are higher than the last count. This should be corrected on the title of the blog post.
ReplyDeleteI agree, start working at middle school levelto make sure students are at grade level. Then keep a running total of credits earned the first day of high school with the parents and students sign off on failing students records. This way we have warned both of the problem and parents do have some input in their children's lives.
ReplyDeleteGood point, first poster. Actually, I think it starts in 5th grade.
ReplyDeleteWe have to realize that our students are up against a lot at a young age. Our students are faced with life-altering decisions on a regular basis, and they only possess short-term reasoning skills.
We don't only need to focus on the academic aspect either. Students will appreciate our vested interest in their class credits, but I think it will be far more valuable to teach them the importance of an education, with character development and life skills incorporated.
We need more social services in our schools. We need more counselors, social workers (effective ones), and mentors.
Unfortunately, Dr. White does not agree with this theory. He doesn't think those support systems are useful.
Social promotion is the problem. In the lower grades students are regularly promoted upward even when teachers do not recommend it. Principals (and vice-principals) do not want their numbers to look bad. They do not want to hurt the childs self esteme.
ReplyDeleteThe kind of thinking sets students up to become failure and drop-outs in the high school. I have taught sixth and seventh grade and seen social promotion happen (again, against the grade level teams recomendation) then after getting to the high school level seen those same students struggle and eventually give up. I have tried to work with them and bring them up to speed (if they excepted the help) but in most cases they do not.
Students who fail in the lower grades (any core classes) and any two classes at all (including art, music, and gym) should not be promoted upward. It does nothing but set them up for failure in the HS.
Then the HS gets a bad rap for their drop-out rates when the problems originated in the lower grades (not just MS but even lower).
Poster number two is absolutely correct, so why hasn't the blogmaster changed the words dropout to graduation? Is it because that would indicate something good is happening in IPS?
ReplyDeleteI think the 1st poster was correct. We are losing these kids welll before high school. Is anyone else sad to see these numbers? I know that I am. The big question is: What happens if they do not graduate? We are losing a whole generation here and we should sound an alarm. Couldn't the argument be made that if we are only graduating 50% (in some cases) aren't WE doing something wrong as teachers? Perhaps we should focus once again on vocational training. I am nto sure how to combat this. Any ideas anyone?
ReplyDeleteLast poster...
ReplyDeleteWE teachers are doing the best that WE can. WE teachers are doing what upper admin tells us to. We are so focused on pretty percentages on Benchmarks, Scrimmages, etc, that the students are being left out on the dark.
We need to focus on life-long learning, not test taking.
In the elementary level I see kids in 4th, and 5th who STILL don't know their multiplication facts!! What can we do more than pulling them out of class for 30 minutes or more a day to go over it with them? I feel for 6th grade teachers who are trying to teach mutiple skill math problems when part of the hold up is how LONG it takes these kids to remember these things. We all had to learn them that way. On another front I see SO many kids on the retention list right now. It seems to be the ONLY thing a teacher can do to instill better work habits. The homes don't help and they sometimes move thinking that the student's current grades won't FOLLOW them to another school. Retention is the ONLY thing a teacher has for clout and that's sad. Report card grades, weekly reports all go unnoticed.
ReplyDeleteIt starts in elementary school. Children aren't at grade level and are continued to be sent on to the next grade. We need more title teachers to pull out students with low levels skills whether it be reading or math. The culture of teaching the appropriate skill level has to change. Social promotions can work IF there is a program set up that is different from what they go into now which is nothing.
ReplyDeleteI teach secondary, but I have children in elementary. And it is very common for them to be sent home with math worksheets on a topic that they say has never been covered before (for example, algebraic story problems in 3rd grade). I am able to teach it to them (although I often struggle with breaking it down simply enough) but I often wonder what is happening to all the kids in their classes whose parents wouldn't be able to help them even if they wanted to, and even if they knew the answer to the problem). I'm not pointing fingers -- I couldn't teach elementary if my life depended on it. But from this side of the fence I can see how kids could fall through the cracks almost from the get-go.
ReplyDeleteTo answer posters #2 and #6, the blogmeister hasn't changed the header for this thread because the blogmeister has an agenda to push and it ain't pro-IPS. I am not the blogmeister, BTW, but just sayin'.
ReplyDeleteThe blogmaster has now corrected the error in the title. Thank you for paying attention to the comments.
ReplyDeleteI am not a teacher.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in a home where both of my parents were a complete mess. I am not a minority and the neighborhood was lower-middle class, not the inner city.
I didn't care about my grades in high school. I would say to other kids: "My parents don't care how I do in school, so why should I?"
My parents never even asked to see my report cards and I forged them and gave them back to my home room teachers.
Later on, I became fearful of what the rest of my life would be like if I continue to work as a dishwasher in restaurants, so I earned a college degree and was successful in my chosen career.
These kids in IPS are asking the same questions as I did as a kid, "why should I care if my parent(s) don't."
This is why I GREATLY admire IPS teachers. You are trying hard to make these kids care when so many of their parents don't.
But you get criticized and abused on every front. This is ridiculous to me.
IPS administration. Start treating your teachers with the respect and dignity and encouragement that they deserve!
Quit this abusive attitude towards your low-paid teachers who are in the "trenches" fighting for these kids and their futures.
I, for one, am TIRED of all of the teacher bashing in IPS and in Indiana in general.
How did you pay for your college degree if your parents didn't support your education and you were a dishwasher?
ReplyDeleteThere are always going to be idiots who think teachers are all morons who couldn't get a "real" degree, so they teach. Those people you just have to ignore. But when you're talking about administrators, parents, taxpayers, and politicians who think teachers have the power to change education, I agree with them. I don't think we can have it both ways. It is the people who see teachers as powerful professionals who put the most blame/solution in the teacher's hands. If we want credit for the miracles we work as teachers, we have to take criticism for the "misses." If we refuse to accept our own power as teachers, then we certainly can't expect people to view us as more than babysitters. Again, I'm not talking about the idiots running their mouths out there about what a cake job teaching is. I'm talking about people who believe that good teachers make a huge difference. That's not bashing. That's giving credit to our profession. Doctors and lawyers get easy cases and hard cases. They don't get the same results with the hard ones as they do the easy ones. But we all know there is a world of difference between good doctors and lawyers, mediocre doctors and lawyers, and bad doctors and lawyers. It's the same with teachers. Being a good teacher doesn't mean all of your students go to Harvard or even that they all pass ISTEP. But it does mean that you use all of your professional talent to create the best-case scenario for every student in every classroom.
ReplyDelete"How did you pay for your college degree if your parents didn't support your education and you were a dishwasher?"
ReplyDelete---
I finally was able to talk my Dad into paying for my tuition for one year while I worked during that school year. After that first year, a full-tuition scholarship. I was a Dean's List student in college.
In high school, I had barely passed most courses and barely graduated. Do I blame that on my high school teachers? Absolutely not. I blame it on myself and my parents for not caring about my education when I was a kid.
Congratulations to the dishwasher-turned-Dean's List student! I love your story!
ReplyDelete"Congratulations to the dishwasher-turned-Dean's List student! I love your story!"
ReplyDeleteThanks much for your very kind comment. I told this story not to brag on me, but to make the point that it is difficult for teachers to teach kids whose parents don't care and thus the kids end up not caring (like me).
I did terribly in high school and I do not blame ONE teacher for this. I blame myself and my parents (who didn't care what happened to me).
Ninety-five percent of the teachers I had throughout k-12 were fantastic.
That is why I am such a strong supporter of teachers.
I am not a teacher nor an administrator. Just a person who appreciates teachers and believes they should be encouraged and supported - not constantly harassed as seems to be the case in IPS (and elsewhere in Indiana).
You are very fortunate if 95% of the teachers you had were fantastic. I was very inspired by my great teachers and went into education to become like them (well after high school -- I couldn't afford college until I was in my 30s), but I can count the great teachers I had on one hand. We moved around quite a bit and I've always been amazed at how different public education is depending on the school and the teacher.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important for schools- especially urban schools- to develop support systems for kids.
ReplyDeleteI'm an elementary teacher (though not in IPS) and we were told that studies show that a student's reading level by the end of third grade is a surprisingly reliable predictor of future success (in school and beyond). If they are not on grade level at that point, when curriculum shifts from "learning to read" to "reading to learn," the student may never catch up. This isn't to say that elementary teachers aren't doing their job; it's just to say that I think many of the problems start early and only get worse with time.
We need a district-wide, state-wide, nation-wide conversation about perpetuating a 19th-century model of education. Everyone is "stuck in neutral" thinking that learning is measured in hours, days and years. Kaplan University is featuring a break with the past and a launch into the present and future. Citizens are now Netizens; technology rules, etc.
ReplyDeleteyes...we do not take advantage of the technology we could be using...kids carrying around back-breaking loads of textbooks that are soon outdated (or leaving them in their lockers because they are so heavy)...now we are adopting a new math textbook. We could use netbooks and save a bundle while engaging kids in learning...
ReplyDeleteWe could go to a 4-day week and think of the thousands of busses that would stop pollution and the dollars we'd save on gas and traffic! The students arrive now in the dark, in the cold and in zombie-land. Lets break from the 19th century and buy computers for home use; teachers could have common planning time to discuss kids at risk and create projects where students are workers; don't we all learn when we do the work; these legislators think education is the way they knew it 40 years ago! They're "stuck in neutral"!!!
ReplyDeleteBecome a magnet so you can kick out anyone you don't like.
ReplyDelete