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70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate
Topic Started: Mar 1 2010, 11:39 AM (1,012 Views)
Baldo
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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama took aim Monday at the nation's school dropout epidemic, proposing $900 million to states and education districts that agree to drastically change or even shutter their worst performing schools.

Obama's move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates.

Obama described the crisis as one that hurts individual kids and the nation as a whole, shattering dreams and undermining an already hurting economy.

"There's got to be a sense of accountability," Obama said in announcing his latest get-tough school proposal at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The president's plan would seek to help 5,000 of the nation's lowest-performing schools over the next five years.

"In this kind of knowledge economy, giving up on your education and dropping out of school means not only giving up on your future, but it's also giving up on your family's future," Obama said. "It's giving up on your country."

Obama has been pushing schools — using federal money as his leverage — to raise their standards and prod them to get more children ready for college or work. It is a task that former President George W. Bush and Congress, along with many leaders before them, have long taken on, but the challenge is steep.

Obama's 2011 budget proposal includes $900 million for School Turnaround Grants. That money is in addition to $3.5 billion to help low-performing schools that was in last year's economic stimulus bill.

To get a share of the new money, states and school districts must adopt one of four approaches to fix their struggling schools:

_Turnaround Model: The school district must replace the principal and at least half of the school staff, adopt a new governance structure for the school, and implement a new or revised instructional program.

_Restart Model: The school district must close and reopen the school under the management of a charter school operator, a charter management organization or an educational management organization. A restarted school would be required to enroll, within the grades it serves, former students who wish to attend.

_School Closure: The school district must close the failing school and enroll the students in other, higher-achieving schools in the district.

_Transformational Model: The school must address four areas, including teacher effectiveness, instruction, learning and teacher planning time, and operational flexibility....snipped

http://tinyurl.com/yhohaau

Don't know what the average has been but 70% is horrible. In the LA School District less than 50% graduate High School and in Detroit it is much worse.

No way this country can afford this failure.

I doubt money is the answer. It starts at home in the family.
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Rusty Dog
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The families need some help. The "culture" needs to expect and encourage responsibility and hard work.
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LTC8K6
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Assistant to The Devil Himself
Is there any evidence that infusions of cash have helped?
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kbp

"....Obama's move comes as many schools continue to struggle to get children to graduation, a profound problem in a rich, powerful nation. Only about 70 percent of entering high school freshmen go on to graduate. The problem affects blacks and Latinos at particularly high rates."

Keep unemployment high and it reduces/eliminates the excuse of quiting to go to work.
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Baldo
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CNN reported this morning that the State of Michigan has received over 2.8 Billion in education stimulus funds. By far it is the most. It "saved" or "created" 9,200 jobs. That over $300,000 per job.

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kbp

more play money!
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cks
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Rusty Dog
Mar 1 2010, 11:46 AM
The families need some help. The "culture" needs to expect and encourage responsibility and hard work.
Amen to that -i f parents do not instill in their children the tools necessary to be successful at school (getting enough sleep at night, learning how to sit still, discipline, a work ethic, etc.) then I do not care how much money is poured into the school system, you will still see high dropout rates. Society needs to put a real premium on education - not glorifying those who choose, for whatever reason, to adopt the culture of illiteracy.
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Rusty Dog
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I have always thought that leaders like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton (and others) could have done a lot in raising the quality of black life. Just by stressing responsibility, self control and hard work they could have prevented a lot of this. But no. They were just interested in themselves and the culture of victimology.

The people deserved better leaders after the civil rights victories. It's a real shame.
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Mason
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Parts unknown
Do you know how many Billions upon Billions Obama has put into the Public schools already?

This would be comical if it weren't running us broke.

.
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LTC8K6
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Biden was in FL boasting of a $20M stimulus highway project that might net 50 jobs.

$400K per job, and temporary jobs at that. And it might have been as few as 20 jobs...
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Concerned
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Why don't they build some trade schools with all the money we've wasted? At least some kids would have a skill or training to do something.
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cks
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One of the biggest mistakes made in education was getting rid of both industrial arts and home economics. Both my husband and I attended public high schools where all students, no matter what educational track they were in (yes, that was back in the days when students were tracked) were required to take two courses from the industrial arts, home ec, or secretarial arts programs. Both my husband and I took typing, he took shop and I took home ec. (for the record, we were in two different high schools 1500 miles apart). We still have the footstool he made, i worked summers as a secretary and for a number of years after I first started teaching I moonlighted as a Kelly Girl doing secretarial work. Of course, home ec's usefulness goes without saying.

All students would benefit from these courses - two of my sons attended a private school where home ec (relabeled foods and college living) were offered. They both took both courses - they learned a lot. It is the rare school these days that offers home ec, let alone any industrial arts or secretarial courses.
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LTC8K6
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I took both shop and home ec. In home ec, I believe there were only 2 or 3 boys. We learned to cook, sew by hand, use a sewing machine, balance a checkbook, etc. Stuff you'd need to know to take care of yourself.

I remember making a pillow from just raw materials as one of the graded projects.
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Concerned
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My sons took "shop" in jr. high and then to fulfill their "fine art" requirement in HS, they took Theatre Tech. Little did they know it was going to mainly be a sewing class where they made pillows and props.
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DukieInKansas

cks
Mar 1 2010, 03:45 PM
Rusty Dog
Mar 1 2010, 11:46 AM
The families need some help. The "culture" needs to expect and encourage responsibility and hard work.
Amen to that -i f parents do not instill in their children the tools necessary to be successful at school (getting enough sleep at night, learning how to sit still, discipline, a work ethic, etc.) then I do not care how much money is poured into the school system, you will still see high dropout rates. Society needs to put a real premium on education - not glorifying those who choose, for whatever reason, to adopt the culture of illiteracy.
There also needs to be some classes available to the parents. It is hard for a parent to help with homework if they can't read at an appropriate level or do basic math.
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