Graduation

Dumbing down or what?

May 8, , 2008 - Alabama finalized new graduation requirements. The changes are effective immediately, and the relaxed diploma requirements apply to the class of 2008.

The state Board of Education this morning approved changes in Alabama's high school graduation requirements that will put many students into a tougher curriculum but also will help weaker students earn diplomas on time.

Under the changes, students must pass only three of the five sections of the graduation exam to receive diplomas; two of those sections must be reading and math. Previously, students had to pass all five sections to get diplomas. However, incoming freshmen will automatically be placed on the advanced diploma track, also known as the college track, and won't be able to switch to the less demanding "regular" track without parents' permission.

TT - The newspaper does not link to the new requirements. They can be found at the Alabama Department of Education site. (The proposal is difficult to open and you have no option to open it in another web page.)

Found at the same site, a March 11, 2008 letter from the state Superintendent of Education to the state Board of Education members says that "Currently, 92% of all seniors pass 5/5 parts of the Graduation Exam."

The logical question should be, then, "Why should they change the requirement to 3/5 parts to graduate?"

Other requirements being considered.
October 29 - Dr. Eric Mackey, superintendent of the Jacksonville City School System, updated the Board of Education on new graduation requirements being considered by the state board during their work session Monday night.
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TT - The unhealthy preoccupation with graduation rates (see our previous coverage here and here) means that a lot of states are now focusing on unrealistic graduation rates. In Alabama, that goal is 90 percent. The reason is, one suspects, that secondary education in Alabama is a cash cow and a political patronage haven and source of political power and corruption. (the latest sentencing.) Most states expect 70% of their students to graduate.

The problem with graduation rates is that they focus on access to college, not preparation for college. What good does it do to graduate a student from high school who is functionally illiterate and unable to find a decent job? Only to send him or her to college where the dropout rate is more than 30% in the first year and 50% never graduate? Meanwhile, the student - 2/3rds of which receive student aid - wastes their time while the taxpayer assumes the burden for unpaid student loans. "What's the point of that?" was the question in this 2005 article.

That was three years ago. Before the financial aid scandals revealed how lucrative student loans could be for the colleges and universities. The financial interests of colleges and universities in student loans are still coming under fire. And not just in Iowa. Only New Jersey seems alone in tying state student scholarships to preparation and grades. Students will have to pay for their own remedial classes.

In the meantime, Alabama told local schools today that the state did not have enough money to make the October payroll for local schools.

Graduation Rate Campaign

Seventeen of the nation’s 50 largest cities had a graduation rate lower than 50 percent in the principal (largest) school district serving the city.

Those with the lowest graduation rates included Detroit City School District (24.9 percent), Indianapolis Public Schools (30.5 percent), Cleveland Municipal City School District (34.1 percent), Baltimore City Public School System (34.6 percent) and Columbus Public Schools (40.9 percent).

April 1, 2008 - That is just one of the findings included in a report by America's Promise Alliance. They are launching a National Campaign to Combat Nation's High School Dropout and College-Readiness Crisis. Press Release
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TT - This is a Colin and Alma Powell foundation with a lot of big money donors and partners and a lot of publicity.

Dropout or graduation rates are the new crisis in education. Mind you, no one at this point can actually calculate dropout rates because there is no citywide or statewide ability to track students from K to 12 in any state or in any major urban area, let alone nationwide. Districts and states do not track students who move out of state or track the mobile populations in large cities where families are likely to move from district to district, from public to private - charter or parochial schools - and back again. Neither states, districts or researchers, for example, are able to document illegal alien student populations who are likely to move frequently and who do not always re-enroll under the same name.

And, too, phony enrollment figures have been a problem in education where phantom students have inflated enrollment for decades. Each state has their own formula for calculating graduation rates.

If there is a problem with school graduation and dropout rates, it is, as yet, unquantifiable. But until the mechanisms are in place to quantify the problem, any solution or organized campaign to raise millions and millions is premature and wasteful. And self-serving.

A cynic might suggest that raising money for the solution to a problem that proves to be wildly exaggerated that will allow special interests to claim credit for solving a problem that isn't, is a huge waste of money and resources. A suspicious soul might suspect fraud; a generous one might think naivete.

A statistician could probably look at population projections and guess that urban schools are in for a major decline in student numbers in the coming decades, and we can only guess that the educational bureaucracy establishment isn't ready to relinquish the trillions of dollars they now take from the economy.

Some of the cities listed as having the lowest graduation are also cities who have declining populations as people race to the exits. Virtually every city on that list except Columbus has that problem. Cleveland is a sinking ship. See figures for Baltimore and Detroit. (Indianapolis population has increased slightly apparently due to annexation.) What most of these cities have in common are significant minority populations and it appears that a rising minority middle class simply doesn't want to live in ghetto cities anymore.

April 11 - Morton Kondrake in article on education revealed that his wife was president of America's Promise Alliance.

Graduation Rates

August 2, 2007 - Vermont is proud that their state rates fourth highest in graduation rates. In an Education Trust study, called "Graduation Matters: Improving Accountability for High School Graduation," Vermont scored 86.5, meaning Vermont graduated 86.5 percent of high school students in four years.

Not all states did so well, but a few did a fantastic job - well, if you believed the state's statistics.

Overall, Mississippi ranked 48 in graduation rates. Mississippi calculates their rate as 85.00% Mississippi's graduation rate was calculated by U.S. Department of Education at 63.30%

The entire report is online. Overall, the Education Trust report criticizes the No Child Left Behind Act for not setting higher graduation rate goals.

TT - The problem with this is that there is no meaningful way of measuring graduation rates unless states establish a tracking system to follow students as they enter school and at what stage they leave. At present, state calculations are haphazard and some are outright fraudulent.

Then, too, what does a high graduation rate accomplish except high turnover? Graduation rates are meaningless if students graduate without proficiency - (proficiency may sound like an impressive accomplishment but it means at grade level.) That was one purpose of NCLB - students were being graduated without demonstrable academic achievement. Urging higher graduation rates without accomplishment means social promotion. And wasn't that the problem in the first place?

The Education Trust report also includes this (on page 2.)

But data from Indianapolis give cause for concern. The state reported a 52 percent graduation rate for the district for 2005-06, but at the same time said that 33 percent more students graduated from 12th grade that year than were actually enrolled: 969 12th-graders and 1,281 graduates. (vi) While some students surely transferred into Indianapolis during their 12th grade, it’s improbable that transferin figures were so high. The Indianapolis school community cannot
allow such dubious data to go unexplained—or unchallenged.

Indeed.

August 5 -TT - One response to the report came from Louisiana. The Education Trust report contained no data for Louisiana. Unintentionally, the story on the "missing data" confirms the uselessness of the Graduation Rate report because of lack of standardization in determining graduation rates.