Okla-homey
10/31/2007, 08:58 AM
and the educrats are predictably in full denial mode.
Tulsa cited in dropout study
Tulsa World, by Staff and Wire Reports
10/31/2007
But the research methods irk state and local educators.:eek:
Twenty-two Oklahoma high schools, including seven in Tulsa Public Schools, have been defined as "dropout factories" by a Johns Hopkins University researcher in a report that rankles state and local administrators.
An analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press shows that about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide fit that description: a high school where no more than 60 percent of students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year.
That is 12 percent of all such schools, no more than a decade ago but no less, either.
"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at Johns Hopkins who calls such schools dropout factories.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Sandy Garrett said the term places an unfair amount of blame on schools and even trivializes a significant social problem in America.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to about half.
"I think the school certainly has a part in trying to do everything it can to keep kids in school, that's why I've asked (the Legislature) to fund graduation coaches," Garrett said, "but they don't drop out with our permission. They drop out with the permission of parents and grandparents.
"We need to work together as a community and state to support our students." [I'm sorry, but predictably, note the appeal for more money to fix the problem -- "graduation coaches? puhleeze!]
She said the numbers used in the Johns Hopkins analysis do not appear to take into account student mobility from one school to the next, a rate that typically is higher in urban areas such as Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
And attributing blame solely to schools ignores the myriad reasons students have for leaving school, including drug abuse and other social ills, Garrett said. [IOW, it's not our fault -- but can we still have more money please?]
Federal lawmakers have not focused much attention on the dropout problem. The No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve. [Pressure that should include merit pay for teachers and elimination of job security if test scores don't improve IMHO]
The current law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low scores on math and reading tests, such as having to replace teachers or principals, but it lacks the same kind of teeth when it comes to graduation rates. [which no doubt is a tremendous source of relief to teachers in these crappy high schools]
Garrett pointed out that Oklahoma already has put in place one of the changes being considered for No Child Left Behind.
Oklahoma's new Wave system is a data system that will be used to track students throughout their school years, and thus more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates across the state
Sharolyn Sorrels, school improvement administrator for Tulsa Public Schools, said more than 20 percent of students labeled ninth-graders in TPS actually are in their second year of high school, because they failed core subjects during their freshman year.
Since not all states allow schools to categorize students as ninth-graders for more than one year, the retention rates for Oklahoma schools may be skewed by the report's method of simply comparing the number of 12th-graders one year with the number of ninth-graders four years earlier.
"A lot of our freshmen are older students, because we allow them to come back and do over those courses. We're actually encouraging them to come back and try again," Sorrels said.
Elizabeth Martin, principal at Tulsa's Memorial High School, which appeared on the list, called the analysis "very unfair." [of course]
"Every child that makes a choice to go somewhere else, there is an individual reason for each person. A lot of these kids are representative of a lot of the problems that are going on in our city right now," Martin said. [yadda, yadda, yadda]
"I would say to that researcher, you walk into my school one day. You walk in my shoes, and then you tell me, is this a dropout factory? Absolutely not. They would see what's really going on instead of staring at the black and white numbers on a piece of paper." [on what then, pray tell, should they focus...wait, I'll bet it's how you make them "feel good about themselves!" ]
Martin said TPS is leading the state in offering students alternative education programs, so they can graduate from high school.
"Right now, Tulsa is being extremely proactive because we have opened Tulsa Learning Academy, the school at the (Promenade) mall for kids who have dropped out," she said.
"There are just a lot of reasons kids drop out. There's not just one. For someone to make a statement that we're just saying, 'That's OK,' is just so wrong."
TPS schools on national “Dropout Factory” list
Central High School
East Central High School
McLain High School
Memorial High School
Hale High School
Webster High School
Rogers High School
P.S., don't be gettin' too uppity OKC, you got dimed-out too.;)
Oklahoma schools on national “Dropout Factory” list
Guthrie High School
Mannford High School
Capitol Hill High School, Oklahoma City
Douglass High School, Oklahoma City
U.S. Grant High School, Oklahoma City
John Marshall High School, Oklahoma City
Northwest Classen High School, Oklahoma City
Star Spencer High School, Spencer (Oklahoma City district)
Emerson Alternative High School, Oklahoma City
Pocola High School
Putnam City High School, Oklahoma City (Putnam City district)
Putnam City West High School, Oklahoma City (Putnam City district)
L.E. Rader Center, Sand Springs
Juvenile Center,Tecumseh
Wagoner High School
Tulsa cited in dropout study
Tulsa World, by Staff and Wire Reports
10/31/2007
But the research methods irk state and local educators.:eek:
Twenty-two Oklahoma high schools, including seven in Tulsa Public Schools, have been defined as "dropout factories" by a Johns Hopkins University researcher in a report that rankles state and local administrators.
An analysis of Education Department data conducted by Johns Hopkins for The Associated Press shows that about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools nationwide fit that description: a high school where no more than 60 percent of students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year.
That is 12 percent of all such schools, no more than a decade ago but no less, either.
"If you're born in a neighborhood or town where the only high school is one where graduation is not the norm, how is this living in the land of equal opportunity?" asks Bob Balfanz, the researcher at Johns Hopkins who calls such schools dropout factories.
Oklahoma State Superintendent Sandy Garrett said the term places an unfair amount of blame on schools and even trivializes a significant social problem in America.
Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma. For Hispanic and black students, the proportion drops to about half.
"I think the school certainly has a part in trying to do everything it can to keep kids in school, that's why I've asked (the Legislature) to fund graduation coaches," Garrett said, "but they don't drop out with our permission. They drop out with the permission of parents and grandparents.
"We need to work together as a community and state to support our students." [I'm sorry, but predictably, note the appeal for more money to fix the problem -- "graduation coaches? puhleeze!]
She said the numbers used in the Johns Hopkins analysis do not appear to take into account student mobility from one school to the next, a rate that typically is higher in urban areas such as Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
And attributing blame solely to schools ignores the myriad reasons students have for leaving school, including drug abuse and other social ills, Garrett said. [IOW, it's not our fault -- but can we still have more money please?]
Federal lawmakers have not focused much attention on the dropout problem. The No Child Left Behind education law, for example, pays much more attention to educating younger students. But that appears to be changing.
House and Senate proposals to renew the 5-year-old No Child law would give high schools more federal money and put more pressure on them to improve. [Pressure that should include merit pay for teachers and elimination of job security if test scores don't improve IMHO]
The current law imposes serious consequences on schools that report low scores on math and reading tests, such as having to replace teachers or principals, but it lacks the same kind of teeth when it comes to graduation rates. [which no doubt is a tremendous source of relief to teachers in these crappy high schools]
Garrett pointed out that Oklahoma already has put in place one of the changes being considered for No Child Left Behind.
Oklahoma's new Wave system is a data system that will be used to track students throughout their school years, and thus more accurately measure graduation and dropout rates across the state
Sharolyn Sorrels, school improvement administrator for Tulsa Public Schools, said more than 20 percent of students labeled ninth-graders in TPS actually are in their second year of high school, because they failed core subjects during their freshman year.
Since not all states allow schools to categorize students as ninth-graders for more than one year, the retention rates for Oklahoma schools may be skewed by the report's method of simply comparing the number of 12th-graders one year with the number of ninth-graders four years earlier.
"A lot of our freshmen are older students, because we allow them to come back and do over those courses. We're actually encouraging them to come back and try again," Sorrels said.
Elizabeth Martin, principal at Tulsa's Memorial High School, which appeared on the list, called the analysis "very unfair." [of course]
"Every child that makes a choice to go somewhere else, there is an individual reason for each person. A lot of these kids are representative of a lot of the problems that are going on in our city right now," Martin said. [yadda, yadda, yadda]
"I would say to that researcher, you walk into my school one day. You walk in my shoes, and then you tell me, is this a dropout factory? Absolutely not. They would see what's really going on instead of staring at the black and white numbers on a piece of paper." [on what then, pray tell, should they focus...wait, I'll bet it's how you make them "feel good about themselves!" ]
Martin said TPS is leading the state in offering students alternative education programs, so they can graduate from high school.
"Right now, Tulsa is being extremely proactive because we have opened Tulsa Learning Academy, the school at the (Promenade) mall for kids who have dropped out," she said.
"There are just a lot of reasons kids drop out. There's not just one. For someone to make a statement that we're just saying, 'That's OK,' is just so wrong."
TPS schools on national “Dropout Factory” list
Central High School
East Central High School
McLain High School
Memorial High School
Hale High School
Webster High School
Rogers High School
P.S., don't be gettin' too uppity OKC, you got dimed-out too.;)
Oklahoma schools on national “Dropout Factory” list
Guthrie High School
Mannford High School
Capitol Hill High School, Oklahoma City
Douglass High School, Oklahoma City
U.S. Grant High School, Oklahoma City
John Marshall High School, Oklahoma City
Northwest Classen High School, Oklahoma City
Star Spencer High School, Spencer (Oklahoma City district)
Emerson Alternative High School, Oklahoma City
Pocola High School
Putnam City High School, Oklahoma City (Putnam City district)
Putnam City West High School, Oklahoma City (Putnam City district)
L.E. Rader Center, Sand Springs
Juvenile Center,Tecumseh
Wagoner High School