The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Editorials

November 7, 2007

Our View — No easy fix to graduation rates

There is nothing subtle about the two words used by Johns Hopkins University researchers to describe 12 percent of U.S. high schools as “dropout factories.” Are so many schools — about 1,700 regular or vocational high schools — in the business of churning out academic failures, as the description suggests? Or are at least a good portion of them striving diligently, against long odds, to provide answers for students who face daunting daily struggles?

Education Department data was analyzed to reveal a pressing problem, though perhaps not a problem quite so pressing as the study maintains. No sooner was it released before critics called it flawed, saying it failed to take into account some students’ switching schools.

Even so, it is a national concern when students drop out before earning diplomas. The question arises at a time when the No Child Left Behind Law pressures underperforming schools to raise math and reading scores of lagging groups, to a considerable degree a slow albeit steady process. Should more federal money and more pressure now be brought to bear on schools that report inadequate graduation rates?

The easy answer is yes. But a deeper analysis is required when we consider the peculiarities of individual educational institutions, the makeup of the student body and the demographics of communities. If all of these schools should be labeled “dropout factories” without taking a nuanced approach to the myriad complexities involved, we may get nowhere. A one-size-fits-all philosophy may indeed raise a few boats but impose unrealistic and burdensome regulations on others.

For instance: How difficult is it to reach troubled high school students in grades 9-12 when their difficulties in many cases have become ingrained in grade school?

The makeup of schools vary, as does the makeup of their surroundings. In states like Florida and South Carolina, where the highest rates of dropouts occur, there are pockets where educational achievement is not as desired as it should be. Raising those boats will take a greater effort. Some schools strive within low-income areas that contain high minority populations that have struggled traditionally, and others have a high percentage of students who aren’t fluent in English.

More federal dollars can perhaps bring in more bilingual teachers and more minority teachers, but how much money is needed to change the perception among some kids that it isn’t cool to be smart?

Locally, charter schools Riverbend Academy of Mankato and the Minnesota New Country School in Henderson made the “dropout factory” list. Understandably, educators at those schools chafe at the characterization. Riverbend Academy caters to students who don’t readily succeed in traditional school settings and to teachers and students there, the term “dropout factory” is an unfair misnomer. MNCS is another small charter school that actually won praise recently from the U.S. Department of Education.

At these schools and many other schools like them, education is an opportunity to grasp. And every graduation is an occasion to rejoice.

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