On Wednesday, the state released its newly compiled dropout statistics, gathered using a new statewide tracking system. It seems that 1 in 4 California high school students quit school last year. At LAUSD that figure was worse: 1 in 3. (This was lower than the figures released from some prominent academic studies a few years ago, and far higher than the estimates that the district has been insisting were accurate.)
Now education experts are trying to figure out what the stats mean. (I’ll have more about this later)
Not all schools are created equal, of course. If you want to find a specific school check here:
The LA Times notes which schools are doing the best in the district, which are doing the worst.
Among large, comprehensive L.A. high schools, the highest dropout rates were recorded at Jefferson, 58%; Belmont, 56%; Locke, 50.9%; Crenshaw, 50%; and Roosevelt, 49.6%.
Those with the lowest rates were Palisades Charter High, 2.5%; Granada Hills Charter, 6.4%; Canoga Park, 11%; Cleveland, 12.8%; El Camino, 13%; Taft, 13.1%; Chatsworth, 14.5%; and Fairfax, 14.9%.
The Green Dot charter schools, for example, are doing far better than the district average. You can check the individual Green Dot schools here.
The LA Urban League can fix this…just expand their 70-block program to fix schools and gangs.
Look, some kids have sorry parents and some kids are sorry themselves. That “sorriness” results in school statistics like this, which is a sympton rather than the problem. Families have changed, permissiveness became the rule, God was kicked out of schools, and liberals substituted government for individual responsiblity. What a nice formula for society to fail.
I know the root problem. Figure it out, fix it, and the symptons will start to be corrected.
The report says AA’s drop out at a rate of 41.8% statewide, but that rate is lower in LA — so that’s a positive not being highlighted. On the other hand, Latinos allegedly drop out at a rate of 30.3% statewide, but as the Mayor insists, at a rate of closer to half in LA. Whites and Asians statewide drop out at around 15%/10% respectively, but that’s much lower at the handful of LA charter schools which most of them attend — but they’re such a small number of total LAUSD population, 7.8% and 3.8% respectively, that they don’t make a dent in the local figures.
Aaagh, statistics. I haven’t read the article in depth, but I hope it covers the eternal question of: did the students quit school, or just quit *a* school? Did they transfer to another district, another state, another country? Are there long term studies to see if a percentage re-entered adult school or a community college later on?
I also hope that someone, somewhere mentions that it might be a good idea to have more alternatives for students who drop out of the good old comprehensive high school. Every community should have a youth corps. High schools should run classes at night. Independent study programs. Weekend school. Dual enrollment at community colleges. Schools with day care, schools with a career focus, a social justice focus, expand ROP programs, blah blah blah I could go on forever.
The point is: yeah, maybe 8 am to 3 pm schools with thousands of students don’t work for everyone. I’d like to see more places for these students to drop in, rather than ongoing lamentations about them dropping out.
An all to common story you probably you won’t hear about from the often times, too liberal media. I wonder if some folks are going to look for Jamiel Shaw Sr., MySpace page as some type of justification for this.
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http://mayorsam.blogspot.com/2008/07/death-threats-on-jamiel-shaw-sr.html
Death Threats on Jamiel Shaw, Sr.!!
Meet Ben. Ben is an 18th street gangbanger. He admitted that his gang is responsible for killing my nephew, Jamiel Shaw, II, (Jas). He also posted on several blogs, terrorist death threats against my brother. Basically, this gangbanger wants Jamiel to stop talking about Jamiel’s Law, or else.
For those of you who don’t know the story, my Nephew Jas, was murdered! He was shot to death three doors from our home on March 2, 2008. The person charged with killing him is an illegal alien gangbanger.
The gangbanger charged with his death was released from the Los Angeles County Jail on Saturday, March 1, 2008. By Sunday, March 2, 2008, he was already back to a life of killing. He took my Nephew’s life and then went to the park to hang out. On Monday, March 3, 2008, he actually checked in with his Probation Officer as if all was well.
Back to Ben. Ben doesn’t like Jamiel’s Law. Seems that Ben doesn’t care who knows this. He’s very angry with Jamiel for defending Jas and he expressed this anger on several blogs. Can you believe that? His gang is responsible for killing my brother’s son and they are mad at the father for fighting back with, “Jamiel’s Law”. Unbelievable!
Where did my previous comment go??
Lost Student, good you flagged it. It was grabbed as spam. I have no idea why, especially since it had only one link. Anyway, I rescued it.
Yes, the Green Dot Schools are doing better!! They do not have as many students as the large public schools, so it is easy for green dot to say and prove that they are better academically, and statistically but when it comes to safety, and keeping students in the communities that the green dot schools originally opened in, they are just like any other school. Green dot is set to take over the troubled Locke High School and then you will see if they can handle safety..
Most of the schools with the lowest drop out rates are in the West Valley – what’s up with that?
I was at Locke a couple of days ago. It’s a night-and-day difference from 12 months ago, when LAUSD was running it. Yes, Green Dot can handle safety; check it out for yourself.
Mr. Jay. (Ooops, I see Bruce just beat me to posting on this.)
Definitely, Locke will be the test. But Green Dot schools are already safer. It’s one of the main reasons parents choose them. This doesn’t mean they’re problem free. They aren’t. But I’ve spent extended time talking to kids and parents in four different Green Dot schools and I heard over and over that they were far, far safer than the schools the kids had attended previously.
Smaller schools generally are as there’s more one on one student/teacher attention, and everybody knows everybody, which means the kids have more of a sense of community—plus the size makes it easier to nip problems in the proverbial bud.
Some of you might be interested in Bob Sommerby’s “Incomperable archives” over at www://dailyhowler.com where he had a series last week on Wendy Kopp’s (head of “Teach for America”) appearence on “Charlie Rose.” To say he took her to task would be an understatement and he gets his two cents in on the “Crisis” in public education. It is worth a look.
Why do Asian students generally get higher marks than Latinos?
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lincoln16-2008jul16,0,3712530.story?
I teach at Animo Leadership (the first Green Dot school) and I can tell you that we definetly have a good hold on security as well as on our academics. I would also have to say that there are several reasons for this. One being our size which has from the begining been our school model. The other being that we have a school-site decision making process rather than a district one. Furthermore, the decision making process is bottom (teacher)- up (Administrative) rather than the other way around. Although all of these procedures make for a far greater learning environment, I would have to say that the greatest difference is “choice”. Our students and their parents “choose” to be a part of our mission. Even though any student can attend our schools, parents and students must meet several requirements, including parent volunteering and community service, in order to graduate. Once you have parent and student “buy-in” the job becomes much easier. Parents who don’t care about thier kids, or students who don’t care about their future just don’t come to Animo schools. I’m not saying we don’t have our share of problems, we do! But accountablity makes a huge difference!
What a great web site…
Sehr informative Seite. Vielen Dank für die Infos!