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February 21, 2011
Getting to Graduation
In addition to everything else on the educational plate, Rhode Island needs to increase its graduation rate, even as it requires a diploma actually to mean something:
Statewide, 76 percent of the Class of 2010 graduated within four years, up a percentage point from the previous year.More than 2,900 of their classmates didn't receive a diploma last year, although a small number of these students stayed for a fifth year in hopes of graduating.
If these fifth-year students graduate in June, they will be counted in the state's five-year graduation rate next year.
The 2010 five-year graduation rate, which uses a formula to include both the Class of 2010 and students from the Class of 2009 who needed an extra year to graduate, was 79 percent.
The article notes some helpful activities at Davies Career and Technical High School in Lincoln, but it comes back to the same ol' problem:
The program added 90-minutes to the school day and cost about $90,000 extra for teaching and transportation. But, the director said, the investment paid off.
Everything costs extra money, and it's money that administrators and school committees have already spent on lucrative contract deals. Rhode Island has to change its paradigm to an assertion that school employees are paid to accomplish an objective, and they'd better do so within the resources already allocated.
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$1,000 a minute to teach the students who couldn't graduate in 4 years? Maybe that $90 an hour they were looking for in CF was a bargain!
Posted by: Patrick at February 21, 2011 8:39 AMAt some point we need to come to the conclusion that not all kids are going to graduate, at least not until we go back to full tracking with the reintroduction of vocational programs in every district.
This is made virtually impossible partly due the to the accreditation process.NEASC dings schools for providing separate tracks for students of various abilities. It's perfectly acceptable in every corner of the universe with the exception of public education. The real successes of private and carter schools are the due to the homogeneous nature of the classes, not longer days and school years. Next time your district has a NEASC visit pop in for a bit. They're comprised of the most left-wing impractical thinkers on Earth. THEY dictate 90% of all the nutty things that go on in your district. I love it when I get kids in AP chemistry who are concurrently enrolled in Algebra I.
If we ran the NFL like this we'd never have a football game with a completion.
Posted by: glockster at February 21, 2011 12:11 PMAt some point we need to come to the conclusion that not all kids are going to graduate, at least not until we go back to full tracking with the reintroduction of vocational programs in every district.
This is made virtually impossible partly due the to the accreditation process.NEASC dings schools for providing separate tracks for students of various abilities. It's perfectly acceptable in every corner of the universe with the exception of public education. The real successes of private and carter schools are the due to the homogeneous nature of the classes, not longer days and school years. Next time your district has a NEASC visit pop in for a bit. They're comprised of the most left-wing impractical thinkers on Earth. THEY dictate 90% of all the nutty things that go on in your district. I love it when I get kids in AP chemistry who are concurrently enrolled in Algebra I.
If we ran the NFL like this we'd never have a football game with a completion.
Posted by: glockster at February 21, 2011 12:12 PMOur present system of government-owned and -run education is the closest thing to Soviet Russia that exists in the US today. And it's very close. Top-down, centrally controlled by an establishment that is blindered by ideological groupthink (Marxist of course). No accountability for results. No upside for improved results. A union that serves to squash out individual initiative and protect even the most incompetent and bad attitude employees. A top-heavy superstructure of administrators who don't work very hard at very high pay. Nearly zero customer satisfaction (parents and students) but without a need to please customers, who cares? Funding comes from pulling political strings at the regime's power centers, and systemic corruption (union campaign funding and support in exchange for rapacious contract terms and mandates by statute) as the standard business model.
Compared to this, a completely private system, with a fixed voucher per (citizen or legal resident) child useable at any accredited academic or trade school, looks like a great solution.
Posted by: BobN at February 21, 2011 6:23 PM