The state that sued homeschoolers...Educators Alarmed by High Dropout Rates

[MrsSmith]

Educators Alarmed by High Dropout Rates Among Teens

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,425623,00.html

>>>snip

In California, educators are using new tracking data called the Statewide Student Identifier System to get a better handle on the dropout rate and where kids end up going. Recently, they were surprised to learn the figures were twice what they originally thought.

"When you look at the dropout figures for California, the 24.2 percent figure is totally unacceptable," said Jack O'Connell, the state's superintendent of public instruction.

>>>snip

His research shows California dropouts from a single year, the class of 2009 for instance, could cost state and federal governments nearly $50 billion dollars over the course of their lives in lost wages, social programs, incarceration and health care costs

[Lord Undies]

What a pity.  Their governmental concerns about the citizens are only as deep as the state's pocket.  Drop out rates are unacceptable because the state will lose money, otherwise to hell with the individuals who will suffer. 

Maybe the state should go back and examine what was different about the education system before the drop out rate got so high, and then try to mimic that time.  Something about the present system is obviously failing the students.

Sometimes "regressive" is better than "progressive".     

[Jim]

How much of that 24% are illegals ?

Hopefully they just went back home.

[Ptarmigan]

We spend $10,000 and still have problems. It is not about how about how much money we spend. We need to completely change the school system. People should have a choice to go to what school they want too.

[MrsSmith]

We spend $10,000 and still have problems. It is not about how about how much money we spend. We need to completely change the school system. People should have a choice to go to what school they want too.

The best local Christian school charges less than $300 a month (for 9 months) to educate kids.  Just as with homeschooled kids, the colleges around here fight like crazy for these kids because they're actually able to do the work. 

Conversely, at the Open House for my daughter's public middle school, the science teacher told us that she wasn't getting too particular over the kids' first report because her laptops weren't working right, yet.  One parent asked her why they can't do research in encyclopedias, the way we did.  She didn't answer him.  (And KS public schools get about half what yours get, about $5300 per kid.)

[thundley4]

We spend $10,000 and still have problems. It is not about how about how much money we spend. We need to completely change the school system. People should have a choice to go to what school they want too.

I thought that people used to have a choice of where to send their children.  They made that choice by choosing the neighborhood where they wanted to live.  That is  until desegregation came along, they did. Those that could moved to where the better schools were. 

Is there any correlation between increasing enrollment at parochial/private schools and desegregation ?

[Ptarmigan]

I thought that people used to have a choice of where to send their children.  They made that choice by choosing the neighborhood where they wanted to live.  That is  until desegregation came along, they did. Those that could moved to where the better schools were. 

Is there any correlation between increasing enrollment at parochial/private schools and desegregation ?

I had a colleague who is Black and she went to a Catholic school all her life. Her parents made her go to Catholic School.

[Uhhuh35]

24 percent is just the average. Hispanics have a dropout rate approaching 50 percent. Third world status, here we come!

[NHSparky]

It gets worse.  A decade ago, recruiting in LA, I got to see the best AND the worst.  It's truly frightening.  One school (Bell HS--LAUSD) had 2500 freshman, but fewer than 600 seniors, not all of which were going to be able to graduate.  It had been that way for years.

Yes, boys and girls, a 75 PERCENT DROPOUT RATE.

Frankly, the 24 percent figure is low, because the way the CA educator/bean counters figure it out, a kid can drop out of a regular high school but if they eventually get a GED or go to "alternative" or adult school, then they're not a dropout (sorta).

Yet for all of that, in California today, less than 70 percent of the 18-25 population holds a HS diploma.  You can't blame all that on illegals, folks.

[MrsSmith]

My mom always insisted that Europe had the right idea...if a kid doesn't want to go to school, or just does very poorly, take him/her out and apprentice them to learn a job.  I don't know if they still do this, but when Mom went to school, kids went until 8th grade and then they started weeding them out and putting them straight into careers.  Essentially, voc-tech instead of high school. 

Going to college wasn't something you "had" to do.  It was something you had to work hard to earn.  If our kids were presented with this...go to a job, or work you tail off to earn a place in a college, it would create an entirely different attitude.  What teen doesn't bust tail just to show everyone they can do it?

[Jim]

My mom always insisted that Europe had the right idea...if a kid doesn't want to go to school, or just does very poorly, take him/her out and apprentice them to learn a job.  I don't know if they still do this, but when Mom went to school, kids went until 8th grade and then they started weeding them out and putting them straight into careers.  Essentially, voc-tech instead of high school. 

Going to college wasn't something you "had" to do.  It was something you had to work hard to earn.  If our kids were presented with this...go to a job, or work you tail off to earn a place in a college, it would create an entirely different attitude.  What teen doesn't bust tail just to show everyone they can do it?

They get directed pretty early into aptitude appropriate education there.  One reason their dropout rates and overall performance is better.

[MrsSmith]

My mom always insisted that Europe had the right idea...if a kid doesn't want to go to school, or just does very poorly, take him/her out and apprentice them to learn a job.  I don't know if they still do this, but when Mom went to school, kids went until 8th grade and then they started weeding them out and putting them straight into careers.  Essentially, voc-tech instead of high school. 

Going to college wasn't something you "had" to do.  It was something you had to work hard to earn.  If our kids were presented with this...go to a job, or work you tail off to earn a place in a college, it would create an entirely different attitude.  What teen doesn't bust tail just to show everyone they can do it?

They get directed pretty early into aptitude appropriate education there.  One reason their dropout rates and overall performance is better.

So they still do it?  Knowing how teens think, just the fact that college is difficult to attain would make so many of them see it as a challenge instead of a "have to."  Competition works.  It's too bad our school systems are run by libs who really believe that competition is evil.

[EastFacingNorth]

My mom always insisted that Europe had the right idea...if a kid doesn't want to go to school, or just does very poorly, take him/her out and apprentice them to learn a job.  I don't know if they still do this, but when Mom went to school, kids went until 8th grade and then they started weeding them out and putting them straight into careers.  Essentially, voc-tech instead of high school. 

Going to college wasn't something you "had" to do.  It was something you had to work hard to earn.  If our kids were presented with this...go to a job, or work you tail off to earn a place in a college, it would create an entirely different attitude.  What teen doesn't bust tail just to show everyone they can do it?

Oh, I absolutely agree.  Most college students truly don't belong in college - they don't have the aptitude and/or they're pursuing careers which in a sane world would require no college degree but a lot more training.

Heck, I do pretty well in college myself (graduating cum laude in December) but if I'd had an established route to becoming, say, an electrician straight out of high school, I doubt I'd ever have bothered with college.

[MrsSmith]

My mom always insisted that Europe had the right idea...if a kid doesn't want to go to school, or just does very poorly, take him/her out and apprentice them to learn a job.  I don't know if they still do this, but when Mom went to school, kids went until 8th grade and then they started weeding them out and putting them straight into careers.  Essentially, voc-tech instead of high school. 

Going to college wasn't something you "had" to do.  It was something you had to work hard to earn.  If our kids were presented with this...go to a job, or work you tail off to earn a place in a college, it would create an entirely different attitude.  What teen doesn't bust tail just to show everyone they can do it?

Oh, I absolutely agree.  Most college students truly don't belong in college - they don't have the aptitude and/or they're pursuing careers which in a sane world would require no college degree but a lot more training.

Heck, I do pretty well in college myself (graduating cum laude in December) but if I'd had an established route to becoming, say, an electrician straight out of high school, I doubt I'd ever have bothered with college.

Everything I learned in my Voc-Tech school, I could have learned in high school, if we'd had the correct programs set up back then.  I make as much money with my Associates as Mr Smith does with a AS, a BS, and 2 Masters degrees.  Military training for my job takes something like 6 months, if I recall correctly.  Why does our system insist on forcing kids to go to school instead of just teaching them how to be adults??