New high school principal Dale Getto says even in the best-case scenario, next year’s graduation rate likely won’t be above 52%.
This news, along with an interesting breakdown of how students fall off the path to success, is buried deep on page 68 of the contracts to be approved at Thursday’s Board meeting: “The cohort [students that entered 9th grade in fall 2012] is made up of 625 individuals. 79 students have already dropped out of the cohort bringing the rate to 87.4%. There are 103 students “off grade”, still in 9th and 10th; highly unlikely to accumulate the proper number of credits. Subtracting them brings the rate to 70.88%. There are 63 students that have less than 14 credits at the end of this year [i.e., 11th graders who won’t move up to 12th grade in September]; dropping the maximum graduation rate to 60.80%. Of those graduating, there are still 52 students that need 4 or 5 exams to graduate [out of a total of 5 Regents exams required, which is to say they have only passed one, or none, so far]. Removing them brings the total to 328 or a 52.4% graduation rate. There are 40 students who need three exams to graduate, and if they do not pass, the graduation rate will be 46.08%. The CIO believes that in June 2016 the rate will be somewhere between 46 and 52%.”
I’m impressed that there are 218 students that haven’t been able to pass their classes or Regents exams, but still haven’t dropped out. Are these 218 students still coming to school regularly or are they technically enrolled but typically absent? If they are still showing up for school every day, they clearly have determination and a desire to learn despite their past struggles. What is the high school doing to help them?
You ask an excellent question. The truth is, there are students who will try to pass Regents (as many as 10 times has been reported for Algebra as that is often the first regents exam). These students' high school experience is an endless cycle of test prep and failure. They are most likely special education students, with a learning disability that puts the testing bar out of reach, but they know that the only way they have a chance in the work world today is to earn a high school diploma. The RCT option is going, as is the old path to a local diploma, that include a mix of academics and trades.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the fault of the school or the students. This is the fault of elite education reformers who have such a narrow world view of the human condition. They expect students with reading disabilities, like dyslexia, to just "try harder", but you would not ask a blind person to "look harder".
Very good point. Wonder how many of the 218 low-achieving students have IEPs - and for that matter, how many of the 79 kids who dropped out had IEPs? Together the two groups make up almost half the class, so I don't think they are all students with disabilities.
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