1 in 10 schools are 'dropout factories'

1 in 10 schools are 'dropout factories'

news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON - It's a nickname no principal could be proud of: "Dropout Factory," a high school where no more than 60 percent of the students who start as freshmen make it to their senior year. That description fits more than one in 10 high schools across America.

"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 Johns Hopkins researcher who coined the term "

(visit the link for the full news article)

If we cannot educate the next generation then as a nation we are are in huge trouble. Couple this with the loss of the middle class and you have the making of a disaster. 60% attrittion rate? That is huge. Yes some kids simply cannot be taught for one reason or another, but some schools are at 60% That clearly is a total failure of the system. No children left behind should be changed to "many"

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Ah yes... the moronification of a nation! Soon, we will take the place of 20th century China and India and get all of those factory jobs back since they will be better educated than us and our workforce will be suited for nothing better than turning nuts and bolts.

Such a sad state of affairs for the United States.

reply to post by FredT


no empire lasts for ever
and this is one reason no one has to physicaly wage war against the united states to destroy it,

its doing fine on its own completing that objective,

These are the schools that will turn out the most unemployed, criminal single mothers. Poverty has its call, as does the fact that families that get few skills have their children with the fewest skills. The reality is that cheap property goes to the poor, they amalgamate, and you have pockets of children whose parents do not give a "S N I P". These are the schools where the best teacher will get bad grades, but five children off the life to crime. Do not damn these schools, they are the schools in greatest need of supporting.



Mod Note:Please do not evade automatic censors

[edit on 11/2/2007 by benevolent tyrant]

"The government will pay for me to have a baby?" "Where do I sign up?"

Section 8 Housing, Food Stamps, Utility Assistance, Free Medical Care, and the list goes on and on. And if you have another kid you get more!

This has nothing to do with individual schools, the blame goes to the welfare state.

Well in this part of the world the you have to stay in school until you are 16 that is the law but after when a student leaves high school is largely determined by there career choice and whether or not they will pursue a higher education. Some one who chooses a to do an apprenticeship is like to leave school earlier then someone who is going to uni and they are likely to end up better off.

Yea, this is obviolsy the fault of the schools, they are fovoring the white students, and not teaching the minoritites [/sarcasm]

This report is just a waste of resorces, and is only made to make it look there it is all the States, and the goverments fault, so they can Ram the new version of the No Child Left Behind act. Just look at some of the (blank) that they want to impliment.

Make sure schools report their graduation rates by racial, ethnic and other subgroups and are judged on those. That's to ensure schools aren't just graduating white students in high numbers, but also are working to ensure minority students get diplomas.

Oh yea, that will solve the problem. The article later states that 'white' students have a graduation rate of about 70%, while blacks and Hispanics are about 50%.

I think its clear what needs to be done, when handing out tests now we should have diffrent versions, to assure that all races score the same, the schools will just make the tests for the white kids harder, and make the minorities easier. And of course, we need to change the requirements that are expected of these kids. Whites should be forced to take Caluculus, and the Blacks go no higher then Algebra, and the Hispanics, '1 orange plus 2 orange equal 3 orange' and bingo, everyone is happy and getting good grades.

What else is this article saying, should we realy be suprised that more Blacks are dropping out and wanting to be Rappers, then whites are...

This is just ridiculus, You want to know the problem, go the the Parents house of these kids that Drop out, and you will see what the problem is right away. If the kid is motivaed they can do it on thier own, there are some kids that aren't motivated, so it takes a couple of good parents to push them to succede,

This isn't a problem of the school, this is a problem of bad parenting. Throwing the parent in jail for thier kid not graduating is a better idea then this idiot policy of no Child Left Behind. BEcuase all the policy does is lower the standard for everyone.

Yeah!! My city gets 3!!!

I dropped out. I didn't see a point in being there. I was learning thing, that didn't matter or I could look it up online. School is stupid period. Get rid of it. By the way FredT how did you do you snippet from news source? I haven't quit figured that out for some reason.

[edit on 31-10-2007 by jca2005]

Little said some students pushed out of high schools are encouraged to enroll in programs that prepare them to take the GED exam. People who pass that test get certificates indicating they have high-school level academic skills. But the research shows getting a GED doesn't lead to the kind of job or college success associated with a regular diploma.

There really isn't a difference between a GED and a HS Diploma. You can still go to college with your GED.

reply to post by RRconservative


Yes this has always angered me. I like live a responsable life and not have kids until I'm financialy ready and by this I qualify for vurtually no government aid.

Oh, but if I go find some chick and knock her up then hey, housing, money, dental, medical!

What kind of morals is our government trying to teach us here. No wonder you have so many people going the dropout easy way. The Government has the other way set up so it's almost impossible to get by!

Why do you think the homeless never get out of being homeless? Because they don't get enough money to look for a job!

Originally posted by RRconservative[/i

Section 8 Housing, Food Stamps, Utility Assistance, Free Medical Care, and the list goes on and on. And if you have another kid you get more!

This has nothing to do with individual schools, the blame goes to the welfare state.

I don't think the fact that some students are adequately housed, fed, warmed and have medical care when they need it causes them to drop out of school. There are many causes. Sometimes they drop out in order to begin earning. If the parents have dropped out sometimes they don't see the need for their children to graduate.

Another problem is the loss of many manufacturing jobs in the U.S. A generation ago a student often didn't have to graduate in order to get a fairly decent job. Today, a college degree is mandatory for many, if not most, jobs above the minimum wage. A person without a h.s. diploma is left out in the cold economically.

One of the solutions mentioned in the article--a team of about four teachers assigned to give personal attention to a group of 25-35 students--seems useful. When someone takes a personal interest in them students often respond positively.

All the responsibility can't be placed on the teachers, who often are underpaid, overworked and have classes that are too large for them to deal with individual students effectively. Most of us agree the drop-out problem has to be addressed well before high school. But I've seen many cases where a student who had academic difficulties was passed from grade to grade, just to get them through the system. For a variety of political reasons which I won't detail here, it's very difficult to fail a student, even when that might be best for them. There is concern that it might damage the student's self esteem and self confidence.

Some other students are bored senseless by the over-repetition of the same material and the lack of really thought-provoking teaching. I was one of them. I couldn't wait to get out of h.s. I didn't drop out because I wanted, and was expected, to go to college, which I really enjoyed.

More effective teaching, not just higher test scores, is needed. That and more support and encouragement from key people in the students' lives.