Dropout Report for 2003-04
Massachusetts Commissioner of Education David Driscoll periodically posts a “Commissioner’s Update” on the Department of Education’s website. The lead item in his October 21, 2005 report is a comment on the department’s 2003-04 School Year Dropout Report. Here’s what the Commissioner writes:
The annual dropout report we are releasing today shows that the number of teens leaving high school prior to graduation has reached an all-time high. This may be in part because of our improved data collection system, but it is likely that other factors are involved as well. I am especially concerned about the number of juniors and seniors who are dropping out, many after earning their competency determination. I call on each of you to study this problem in your communities, and do an in-depth analysis of the reasons why students are not completing high school. Once you have reviewed the issue locally, please submit your findings back to us. We intend to compile a report of the major reasons and begin to develop a set of statewide strategies to address them. Thank you for your attention to this pressing matter.
The Commissioner of Education is just now discovering that we have a problem with dropouts and should try to determine the cause? If the Commissioner spent more time talking with people in urban high schools than he does threatening to fire them all he would realize how absurd his comments are. Poverty is the number one factor in causing students to dropout. Many must work 40 hours per week, not to pay for late model cars and other amenities, but to help feed and house themselves and their families. The intensity of such a work schedule deprives the student of the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities and sports, the types of things that create the intangible connections with the school that help the student succeed. After working 40 hours a week, a student might decide to sleep in, increasing absenteeism. As schools crack down on students who don’t go to school, the inevitable result is to cause some of them to leave school, especially when the state fails to provide sufficient funds for urban school districts to implement non-traditional alternative schools or the type of intensive, individualized attention that many of these students need to succeed.
The annual dropout report we are releasing today shows that the number of teens leaving high school prior to graduation has reached an all-time high. This may be in part because of our improved data collection system, but it is likely that other factors are involved as well. I am especially concerned about the number of juniors and seniors who are dropping out, many after earning their competency determination. I call on each of you to study this problem in your communities, and do an in-depth analysis of the reasons why students are not completing high school. Once you have reviewed the issue locally, please submit your findings back to us. We intend to compile a report of the major reasons and begin to develop a set of statewide strategies to address them. Thank you for your attention to this pressing matter.
The Commissioner of Education is just now discovering that we have a problem with dropouts and should try to determine the cause? If the Commissioner spent more time talking with people in urban high schools than he does threatening to fire them all he would realize how absurd his comments are. Poverty is the number one factor in causing students to dropout. Many must work 40 hours per week, not to pay for late model cars and other amenities, but to help feed and house themselves and their families. The intensity of such a work schedule deprives the student of the opportunity to participate in extracurricular activities and sports, the types of things that create the intangible connections with the school that help the student succeed. After working 40 hours a week, a student might decide to sleep in, increasing absenteeism. As schools crack down on students who don’t go to school, the inevitable result is to cause some of them to leave school, especially when the state fails to provide sufficient funds for urban school districts to implement non-traditional alternative schools or the type of intensive, individualized attention that many of these students need to succeed.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home