Wednesday, June 18, 2008
More data needed on dropout pattern
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If you want to fix a problem, it's best to know its extent first.
That means that if you're a school administrator, struggling to figure out how to stem the tide of high school dropouts, one of the first things you should do is learn who drops out and who makes it all the way to graduation.
Right now, that's impossible.
While the No Child Left Behind law called on states and school districts to improve their graduation rates to 100 percent by 2014, it did not require them to break down graduation data. Thanks to the law, we know how students of different races and groups perform on standardized tests, but we're in the dark about the racial gaps in graduation rates.
That's been a problem for districts, such as Roanoke, that are struggling to boost their graduation rate.
"We really need to break it down," said Daniel Losen, a senior education law and policy associate at the Harvard Civil Rights Project who spoke to Roanoke administrators and principals Monday.
"Any district can do this," he said. "Most don't, but I think it makes sense."
Virginia is about to start. This fall, the state will begin reporting graduation rates for white students, black students, Hispanic students, students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged students and students with limited English proficiency.
State officials are switching to a new method of calculating graduation rates this year, which is intended to give us a more accurate picture of the state's graduates.
Officially, Roanoke's graduation rate last year was 57 percent, one of the worst in the state. But there are several different formulas to calculate graduation rates. Almost all of them have drawbacks, which means that a school district's graduation rate is, at best, an educated guess.
In an average year, close to 1,200 9th grade students enroll in Roanoke's high schools. Three years later, about 600 12th grade students graduate. About 200 students are reported as dropouts each year between 7th grade and 12th grade.
But how many students decide to go to private school? How many leave or enter the city system? How many students drop out without being reported? Who are these dropouts? Are they mostly overage students? Poor students? Minority students?
For now, we don't know -- for sure.
But lack of information is only part of the problem. There's a persistent, quiet bias against poor and minority children in American schools, Losen said. For the most part, it's not intentional, but it's still a problem.
That "unconscious bias," as he calls it, means that poor and minority students have to overcome more obstacles to get a high school diploma than others.
For instance, white male students in Roanoke are far more likely than black students to be labeled as gifted than they are to be labeled as having mental retardation, Losen said, citing statistics from the U.S. Department of Education.
About 20.3 percent of black male students in Roanoke have been suspended during their schooling, compared with 14.2 percent of white male students.
"The idea is not to point fingers but to identify the tremendous racial disparities," Losen said.
The consequence of those disparities could not be starker. More college-age black men have served time in jail than have gone to college.
"That's an American tragedy," Losen said.
To address those disparities, the city is planning to expand middle school gifted programs and to make them more accessible to poor and minority children. It's also working to start an academy for overage students, which administrators hope will help curb the number of students who drop out.
Losen's presentation stunned the city's administrators. After he finished, Superintendent Rita Bishop stepped up to the microphone and spoke softly.
"We have one chance in this district to change this," she said. "If we blow this chance, shame on us."
