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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Dropout problem drags Texas down

by Abby Rapoport and Brian Thevenot
November 4, 2009  |  6

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Two decades ago, Cristina Reyes’ husband left her with two sons and little income to support them. As her boys entered high school, she struggled to balance parenting with a low-wage job in downtown Houston. And she felt helpless as they began the slide toward dropping out.

When their troubles started in middle school, she found an afterschool fine arts and tutoring program, helping clean the building in trade for the tuition she couldn’t afford. Still, neither son would graduate — one left just a credit short of graduation. Both were bright; but both needed more attention than she could ...

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Comments (6)

  • kirkktx wrote on 11/4/2009 4:21 p.m.

    I've always wondered ...

    How many dropouts are actually high achievers whose parent's have opted to homeschool?

    We will always need low-skilled workers to perform menial tasks. If these workers are better educated, how can we assume they will receive higher salaries?

    Is a triage approach to rationing educational resources necessarily wrong?

  • bbetzen wrote on 11/5/2009 2:49 a.m.

    The best measurement for dropout rate is the Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI). However, it is probably best to actually use the percentage of 9th grade enrollment who are represented by the number of diplomas given out to that class in 3 years (Raw 9th grade cohort graduation rate). You can call it "raw" because it is "uncorrected" by valid transfers in and out of the school, transfers that helped some Houston schools achieve a zero dropout rate when they were loosing half their 9th graders by 12th grade. Ovbiously the transfers counted were not valid.

    The best way to view student movement is a multi-year enrollment by grade spreadsheet . One should be on every school and school district web site with both of these numbers calculated. An example of such a spreadsheet can be seen at www.studentmotivation.org along with a simple way to focus students onto their own futures, the only way we will ultimately bring the dropout rate down the most. You can also google dropout cure.

  • Salazar wrote on 11/5/2009 9:02 a.m.

    First of all, thanx for Evan Smith and the online journalism pioneers he gathered up, for making Texas Tribune possible. My hope is complete success for the new media venture.

    Excellent piece of real journalism here guys. This article should be read by all Texas taxpayers, especially those to the right of the political spectrum.

    There is a big problem--socially-- with educating the sons and daughters of the immigrants that enabled the economic boom of the last ten years, in particular by those in the conservative arena. The condos in downtown Austin, Houston, and Dallas, were built by the labor of the immigrants willing to do the dirty work. In return for helping create the wealth we seetowering all over our booming state, the least we can do as a civilized society, is educate the children of the laborors that carried our state into the new millenium.

    Conservatives; get with it. This kids are here, we might as well treat them like our own. Isn't that the christian thing to do?

  • claymonster wrote on 11/5/2009 10:44 a.m.

    Salazar oversimplifies the anti-conservative screed, but that isn't a surprise. Whether or not immigrants "willing to do the dirty work" enabled our better-than-suckage economy is irrelevant.
    The issue here is kids staying in school. If so many of these dropouts are ESL, it speaks partially to the failure of bilingual education. No, we can't force anyone to assimilate, but we can stop enabling the refusal to do so.
    Why do you assume that somehow the right wing is refusing to educate these kids? Is the school not there? Is attendance not compulsory? How is it the fault of conservatives that these kids, for whatever reason, are not attending?
    Immigrants to this country, legal or not, are given state education just like natural born citizens. It is up to the parents of the children to ensure that their kids attend. Economic hardship makes it quite difficult for some to remain in school, but there are poor people all over the country who make sacrifices to make sure their kids get their education and have a chance at a better life than the one they've had. It used to be called The American Dream. But of course, now everything is "society's fault", we must examine "the underlying cause"... anything but insist on dogged individual effort.
    I realize there is no easy or instant solution here and am willing to put my money where my mouth is. What can an average Joe do, where to volunteer, to help keep some kid In school?

  • arapoport wrote on 11/5/2009 11:35 a.m.

    bbetzen: Check out our Related Story ("Faulty figures")which includes the CPI as well as other measures in detail.

  • timeaton98 wrote on 11/5/2009 11:38 a.m.

    Good work taking on this important issue.