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Solving dropout problem a puzzle
Educators' views mixed on legislation
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More from Education: K-12Every year, 400 to 500 students in Ventura County drop out of school. And every year, teachers and school administrators get a variety of explanations from the students.
"When you do track them down, you hear reasons like, I have to go to work to support my family' ... or I'm so far behind in credits and I didn't pass the high school exit exam,' " County Superintendent of Schools Charles Weis said. "Some of them just give up.
"We need to engage these students in the classrooms and better prepare them to leave our system and find work and make a contribution to society," he said.
Three bills recently passed by the state Legislature take aim at the dropout problem but are receiving only mixed reviews from local educators. The bills are on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk. He has until Oct. 12 to sign or reject them. Schwarzenegger hasn't yet indicated his stance on the bills.
Approved on a bipartisan vote, SB219 would require the state Academic Performance Index to include eighth- and ninth-grade dropout rates as a factor.
The API currently uses student academic test results to measure academic growth and rank schools on a scale of 200 to 1,000, with 800 as the statewide goal. SB219 would hold schools accountable for dropouts as well.
The bill, written by Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, also would hold schools accountable for a student's test scores even if he or she has moved to a continuation school or independent study.
Steinberg said the current API system is flawed. He hopes that the bill will hold schools more accountable in keeping track of their students, especially those who fall through the cracks.
"The API creates an unintended consequence by pushing low-performing students out," Steinberg said. "If the troubled kid is not in the school, presumably the test scores go up. Every child counts, and we are paying a big price as a society if we don't count all of the kids."
If signed, SB219 would take effect July 1, 2011.
Citing research from the California Department of Education, Steinberg said less than 70 percent of ninth-graders in the state graduate from high school.
Another bill, SB405, would require middle and high school counselors to review each student's academic performance individually and devise a career goal, starting in the seventh grade. Students, parents and counselors also would review eligibility requirements for admissions to the University of California or California State University systems or career and technical education programs.
If signed, SB405 would take effect by the end of this year.
Work permits affected
Additionally, SB406 would require teachers or counselors to review a student's academic performance and attendance record before approving a work permit. If a student has a grade point average lower than 2.5, or a C+, or if the student has not maintained a 90 percent attendance record, he or she could not work more than 20 hours a week. SB406 would be implemented at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year.
While most educators agree that more must be done about the dropout issue, some say the three bills only scratch the surface of a deeper problem in California schools.
"To be fair, these are good ideas, but the truth of the matter is ... it's just another example of tinkering on the edges," Weis said. "We do need more career preparation and career tech in our high schools, but we also need more librarians, more counselors, more nurses. California schools are overcrowded and underfunded, and our kids are not getting the same level of preparation as kids in other states."
Mario Contini, superintendent of the Conejo Valley Unified School District, said that including additional variables such as eighth- and ninth-grade dropout rates in the API could further complicate the results and overshadow the gains that some districts are making.
"An already complex API formula could further disadvantage, frustrate and unfairly discredit those schools that have to overcome the greatest challenges," he said. "Affluent and English-only student populations tend to have significantly better dropout rates than their counterparts with a higher percentage of students of poverty and English learners. Those schools have greater odds to overcome. They work just as hard if not harder to close the achievement gap, yet get little credit for the huge successes they achieve."
Early tracking supported
School officials, however, applaud the early academic and career tracking that SB405 would provide for students.
"It forces children to start thinking early about their opportunities," said Micheline Miglis, the Oxnard School District's program improvement administrator. "I see it as a win-win for everybody. Parents win because they will have an additional support system at the school and someone to monitor the students' coursework and attendance. When students are more successful in their coursework, they are less likely to act out."
David Gomez, superintendent of the Santa Paula Union High School District, said about 3 to 4 percent of the district's 1,600 students drop out every year. He said the dropout problem often starts outside the classroom.
"We don't need another layer of bureaucratic accountability," he said. "A lot of these factors are outside of our control. Students feel disconnected because of issues going on in their lives — gang violence, drugs, poor health and nutrition. It's a global-community problem."
Posted by desdave on September 24, 2007 at 7:07 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Legislation will not fix this problem. If kids are not being encouraged to do well in school at home, and don't have role models to go by, then no laws will fix it. Save our tax money for the ones that stay in school and want to succeed. The real problem is that the generation that will inherit this country is dumbing down in a world that is getting more and more complex, technical, and with a higher level of education required to participate.
Posted by megnosis on September 24, 2007 at 8:22 a.m. (Suggest removal)
SB405 makes no sense. At the very time students need to be opened to new opportunities, this law appears to codify and narrow options. Counselors are a waste in middle school, and tolerable in high school. We should be passing laws about opening better methods of teaching for a variety of students instead of standard rote education. And desdave is right, it is about the parents as well.
Posted by pkokinos on September 24, 2007 at 1:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Wow! More bureaucracy is certainly not going to solve this problem! Look in the latest US News and World Report about New York's success in moving to smaller, more responsive schools and one potential drop-out's comment that "it's like family here."
THAT's what kids need and want; no more factory schools where they move along a conveyor belt--or drop off and no one is really in charge of caring--but small, personalized, targeted schools that can help kids filter the overwhelming info that washes over them every day and then learn how to use and manipulate that information. A school that can make connections WITH kids and FOR kids--that's what engagement is all about.
And, as for the old model of trade schools, etc., please note that the Community Colleges, particularly in California, have gone all out to corner that market with a wide range of tech training and certificate courses for those hands-on careers that need REAL training and technical knowledge these days.
High school needs to be about intellectual and informational gains that will prepare kids to listen, write, speak, and interact with ideas in an intelligent, rather than a rote way--and that is difficult in school systems where 150 kids rotate through each teacher's classroom every day. The stakes are too high to imagine that we can any longer get by with "mass education" in a specialized and intellectually challenging world. We're going to have to do what Bill Gates and Eli Broad have put millions of dollars toward, particularly in New York and even in LA with the Green Dot charter schools (check it out): small, personalized schools that meet the kids where they are and provide that extended family that just isn't around anymore.
Read more about this point of view at www.changetheschools.com and, to really understand what's going on in schools and why they haven't changed despite 30 years of efforts to make a difference, please read my novel, ANGEL PARK, which is at the Ventura Barnes & Noble, through my site noted above, or in the usual online places. I'll even be glad to ship a free copy of the book to anyone who reads this post. Just contact me through my website with your shipping address. We need changes that are more than cosmetic this time!
Posted by jmcgaw3046 on September 24, 2007 at 1:48 p.m. (Suggest removal)
The problem begins with the Family. So often in the low income family no one went beyond the 8 grade so there is not insentive to go beyond that. They don't understand if they have a job at mimium wage it is not good enough, but too many family feel that is great. A lot of them are the Hespanic who that is the way they were taught. So that has to change, it will be hard to tall the mother of a boy that he has to stay in school so that he can make more money, she does not understand that, can only see the money in hand not in the future. But until that get changes it will continue on and on from one generation to the next. The cycle need to be broken no big deal going from middle school to high school and so on.
Yes it would also help to have some kinds of trades taught in high school, but that will not make the student qualify for a job in that trade, but will let him learn there is more to life than a job at burger king. With a desire he can work and get into the trade become a skill craftsman.
Posted by hamskid on September 24, 2007 at 5:12 p.m. (Suggest removal)
This is not a problem that giving more money will fix.A pencil and paper don't cost too much if a student wants to succeed.
California schools are teaching at such a low level that anyone can pass if you can't read or write and kids aren't prepared for college or school anywhere else when they get out.
Many kids can't go to the local schools because the level of teaching is so low they can't get an education so we have to pay to put them in private schools and yet still pay taxes for kids that have no right to be there can take over the school....and we buy them a free lunch too! My neighborhood school had one child register for kindergaden last year that spoke English. And I don't live in a Hispanic neighborhood.
Put all this together with role models that don't follow the rules and put no value on hard work and education...and all the rest of us rewarding the bad behavior by giving them more money...Wake up people.
Posted by desdave on September 24, 2007 at 6:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
California schools used to be at the top in the nation. Now they rate down near the bottom with Arkansas etc. And the politically correct, don't cover anything that might possibly remotely offend anyone, make everyone feal warm and fuzzy curriculum that denies the reality of history is ridiculous. We are going down the tubes when these students try to take the reins of our country. 3rd world status, here we come. When you come from a family and a culture of low achievers, guess what you become. Girls that are given no value except to start having babies at 15, and boys that see a minimum wage job as being just fine, as long as they can hang with their homies, drink beer and steal from those of us that do work and have decent stuff. Have you noticed the age of fast food workers today? Used to be only high school kids except the manager. Now its middle aged hispanics. That's a telling example of where things are going.
Posted by jamesgang1 on September 24, 2007 at 7:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Is it not the law to attend school until you are 18 or finish the 12th grade?? I know if my child misses more than a day or two of school I get a nasty note stating that I will be sent to the student attendance review board (S.A.R.B). My Son has major medical issues and we have to endure these letters that threaten fines and jail time. A few REMINDER phone calls to the school stating a doctors note is on file clears it up. I just don't understand how these kids can drop out with S.A.R.B. taking action against the parents.
Posted by desdave on September 24, 2007 at 7:47 p.m. (Suggest removal)
No, you are only required to attend until you are 16, and obviously if you decide to quit before that, they can't do much about it. And part of the concern with attendance is that the school gets a set amount of $ per student per day attended, so for the school part of the concern is lost money when kids are out.
Posted by bminob on September 26, 2007 at 10:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Everyone is quick to mention hispanics as being the problem but do you notice who the bums are in Ventura, 99% Caucasian!!!
Posted by hamskid on September 29, 2007 at 11:26 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Most of those "bums" you refer to are citizens of this country and have worked and paid their dues to this country. Many have fought in wars to keep this country safe. They are American citizens of all ethnic groups. Don't try to play the race card. We don't buy that anymore.
The problem is illegal....not Hispanic.
Posted by john on October 4, 2007 at 10:05 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It's funny that when any problems arise the focus quickly changes to the immigrant issue. the reason it's funny is that this issue has always been around and yet America has flourished and has become the prominate society in the world so what needs to be done is quit making excuses on why we fail but roll up our sleeves and do what we have always done fix the problem. yes I'm talking to you, all of you! reasearch your personal history i bet someone in your family tree was an immigrant at some point how disappointed they would be in us today.
Posted by hamskid on October 5, 2007 at 12:36 p.m. (Suggest removal)
John...I'll make this point again. No one made anything an "immigration" issue. Immigration is not an issue. We get that. It is "illegal immigration" that is the root of this and many of the other problems we face today.
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