Every Child a Graduate

Every Child a Graduate

Presented by

Susan Frost, Executive Director

Scott Joftus, Policy Director

The Alliance for Excellent Education

Huge numbers of students are failing to graduate from high school on time. The problem is especially severe in some urban districts.

GRADUATION RATE BY DISTRICT AND RACE

DistrictGraduation

Rate

African-American

Graduation Rate

Latino Graduation

Rate

White Graduation

Rate

Ranking of District by

1993 Population

Boston 82% 85% 68% 87% 50

Cleveland City 28% 29% 26% 23% 38

Dade County (Miami) 57% 55% 55% 70% 4

Denver County 53% 55% 36% 79% 53

Houston 52% 55% 42% 84% 6

Indianapolis 39% 44% INS NA 85

Los Angeles Unified 56% 56% 48% 81% 2

New York City 55% 42% 45% 80% 1

INS=Insufficient student count for calculating graduation rate; NA=Data not available

Source: Jay Greene, High School Graduation Rates in the United States, November 2001


Of those who fail to graduate with their peers, what is the ultimate result?

•Almost half neither complete high school nor receive a GED

•About a quarter ultimately graduate from high school

•About a quarter receive a GED


• By 2002, 10 states were withholding diplomas based on exit exams

• By 2008, 24 states will do so

• High-stakes exams typically affect minority students disproportionately

If nothing changes, the drop out rate is likely to increase in coming years.

Source: State High School Exit Exams: A Baseline Report. Center on Education Policy, August 2002


A bad education is a million-dollar mistake.

Annual Earnings 1999

Average Earnings for Men

Average Earnings for Women

High School Dropout $25,035 $17,015

High School Graduate $33,184 $23,061

Some College $39,221 $27,757

College Associate Degree $41,638 $30,919

College Graduate with BA $52,985 $37,993

Professional $100,000 $59,904

Source: Digest of Education Statistics, 2001, Table 382


•Impersonal learning environments that fail to emphasize high standards

What are the causes of the failure?

•Low literacy levels among adolescents

•Under-prepared teachers for poor and minority students

•Inadequate planning and support for students


•These students represent two-thirds of all drop outs.

Low literacy levels among adolescents

•26 percent of eighth graders and 23 percent of twelfth graders read below basic levels.

•Extrapolating, 6 million students in grades 6 through 12 are reading below basic levels.


Poor quality of teachers for poor and minority students

Classes in High-Poverty and High-Minority Schools Are Much More Likely to Be Assigned to

Out-of-Field Teachers

24

34

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29

21

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5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

All Schools High Poverty Schools(50% or more)

Low Poverty Schools(15% or few ere)

High Minority Schools(50% or more)

Low Minority Schools(15% or few er)

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Source: Craig Jerald and Richard Ingersoll. All Talk, No Action: Putting an End to Out-of-Field Teaching. The Education Trust, August 2002


•40 percent of high school youth and nearly 50 percent of middle school youth report feeling disengaged from school

•Rates higher for adolescents attending urban schools

•Most of these students do not have a meaningful relationship with an adult and do not receive high-quality support services

Inadequate planning and support for students

Source: Peter Scales. Boxed in and Bored: How Middle Schools Continue to Fail Young Adolescents – and What Good Middle Schools Do Right, Search Institute, 1996


Impersonal learning environments that fail to emphasize high standards

•Over the last 50 years, school enrollments have increased five-fold on average and even more in low-income neighborhoods.

•Approximately 70 percent of American high school students attend schools with enrollments of 1,000 or more students, and nearly 50 percent of high school students attend schools in which the student population is over 1,500.

Source: U.S. Department of Education, www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SLCP/overview.html


In Texas, 53 high schools with large concentrations of poor students are among the highest achieving (top 25 percent) in the state.

Source: Alliance analysis of data from The Education Trust: Dispelling the Myth – Online. http://www.edtrust.org/main/main/DTM.asp#report

Of these 53 schools, 48 have fewer than 600

students.


A Framework for an

Excellent Education for

All Middle and High

School Students

THE ALLIANCE CALLS FOR:


Adolescent Literacy Initiative

Teacher and Principal Quality Initiative

College Preparation Initiative

Small Learning Communities Initiative

Framework for an Excellent Education


ADOLESCENT LITERACY INITIATIVE

Every high-needs middle and high school will have a literacy specialist who trains teachers across every subject area to improve literacy skills of students. Teachers learn to identify reading problems and ensure that students receive extra help.


TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL QUALITY

INITIATIVE

Provide incentives to educators to work in high-needs schools, mentoring for new teachers, and ongoing professional development for all teachers and principals.


COLLEGE PREPARATION

INITIATIVE

Students must have a clear plan that assesses their needs and identifies coursework, additional learning opportunities, and necessary health and social services.


SMALL LEARNING COMMUNITIES

INITIATIVE

Small schools personalize and contextualize students’ educational experience and facilitate the implementation of other effective strategies.


•Add an additional $162 billion to federal, state, and local tax receipts

An investment in the Framework for an Excellent Education will pay for itself.

Reducing the numbers of adults in the lowest literacy levels by two-thirds would:

•Increase the U.S. gross domestic product by $463 billion

Source: Anthony Carnavale and Donna Desrochers. The Missing Middle: Aligning Education and the Knowledge Economy, Educational Testing Service, U.S. Department of Education, 2002


The Framework for an Excellent Education seeks to harness Americans’ belief that every

student deserves access to a high-quality education and

should graduate from high school prepared for college and/or a

meaningful career.

Every Child a Graduate

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