Post by Okwes on Jun 2, 2008 10:18:00 GMT -5
Minority students' dropout rates at crisis levels
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/365309_dropout12.html
By AMY ROLPH
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
High school educators from six Northwest states who gathered at the University of Washington on Friday heard from a panel of experts that dropout rates for minority students, especially Native-Americans, are at crisis levels and have been for a while.
But after years of talking about how students need to be properly prepared for school, it's time for the shoe to shift to the other foot, the panel members said.
It's time for schools to start preparing for students, they said.
"Our success rate with Native children starts in kindergarten, or in preschool," said Sally Brownfield, the facilitator for the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning in Washington.
That's when Native-American children first come in contact with "foreign" cultures, she said. In many cases, that's also when they discover that school doesn't have very much to say about their history or heritage, she added.
Those on the panels, made up in part of representatives of the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, advocated that resources be redirected to help troubled students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The one-day "Civil Rights Project" conference, a national effort by the University of California, Los Angeles, catered to educators serving Native-Amerian and Alaskan-Native students in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Montana Wyoming and Idaho.
Tracking actual dropouts is complicated by school districts' flawed record keeping, panelists said. Often, it's difficult to tell which students dropped out, which students transferred and which students earned their GED before leaving school.
Some districts err on this side of optimism, failing to report missing students as dropouts.
"The statistics school districts turn in aren't checked," said Gary Orfield, co-director of UCLA's Civil Rights Project.
Poverty seems to directly correlate to graduation rates, according to data presented at the conference. High schools serving low-income areas have much lower "promoting power" -- a ratio derived by comparing the number of students entering ninth grade at a particular school with the number of seniors four years later.
In Washington schools with 60 percent promoting power or less, 22 percent of students are Native American, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. A Johns Hopkins report presented at the conference identified four common reasons students drop out:
Life events such as pregnancies, arrests or a pressing need for a full-time income.
Frustration or boredom with curriculum that leads them lose sight of the "reason for coming to school."
Subtle discouragement from teachers or school administrators who label a student "difficult, dangerous of detrimental to the success of the school."
Repeated failure to succeed can wear students down. This commonly results from poor academic preparation or unmet emotional needs, according to the study.
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P-I reporter Amy Rolph can be reached at 206-448-8223 or amyrolph@seattlepi.com. Read her School Zone blog at blog.seattlepi.com/schoolzone.
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/365309_dropout12.html
By AMY ROLPH
P-I REPORTER
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
High school educators from six Northwest states who gathered at the University of Washington on Friday heard from a panel of experts that dropout rates for minority students, especially Native-Americans, are at crisis levels and have been for a while.
But after years of talking about how students need to be properly prepared for school, it's time for the shoe to shift to the other foot, the panel members said.
It's time for schools to start preparing for students, they said.
"Our success rate with Native children starts in kindergarten, or in preschool," said Sally Brownfield, the facilitator for the Center for the Improvement of Student Learning in Washington.
That's when Native-American children first come in contact with "foreign" cultures, she said. In many cases, that's also when they discover that school doesn't have very much to say about their history or heritage, she added.
Those on the panels, made up in part of representatives of the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, advocated that resources be redirected to help troubled students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The one-day "Civil Rights Project" conference, a national effort by the University of California, Los Angeles, catered to educators serving Native-Amerian and Alaskan-Native students in Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Montana Wyoming and Idaho.
Tracking actual dropouts is complicated by school districts' flawed record keeping, panelists said. Often, it's difficult to tell which students dropped out, which students transferred and which students earned their GED before leaving school.
Some districts err on this side of optimism, failing to report missing students as dropouts.
"The statistics school districts turn in aren't checked," said Gary Orfield, co-director of UCLA's Civil Rights Project.
Poverty seems to directly correlate to graduation rates, according to data presented at the conference. High schools serving low-income areas have much lower "promoting power" -- a ratio derived by comparing the number of students entering ninth grade at a particular school with the number of seniors four years later.
In Washington schools with 60 percent promoting power or less, 22 percent of students are Native American, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. A Johns Hopkins report presented at the conference identified four common reasons students drop out:
Life events such as pregnancies, arrests or a pressing need for a full-time income.
Frustration or boredom with curriculum that leads them lose sight of the "reason for coming to school."
Subtle discouragement from teachers or school administrators who label a student "difficult, dangerous of detrimental to the success of the school."
Repeated failure to succeed can wear students down. This commonly results from poor academic preparation or unmet emotional needs, according to the study.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
P-I reporter Amy Rolph can be reached at 206-448-8223 or amyrolph@seattlepi.com. Read her School Zone blog at blog.seattlepi.com/schoolzone.