Response to NYC Drop Out rates

Professor Gleason had asked me to summarize what I know about high school graduation rates- as of right now, I believe the NYC rate for graduating seniors is 51%, which means 49% of the other students drop out, or they graduate the next year or year after.

NYC is scrambling right now to increase the graduation rate, not the literacy rate. It's one huge issue that makes me angry with the NYC Dept of Education. Teachers are held specifically accountable for student achievement, and if a teacher has a low level class and students are truents, the teacher is punished. So teachers are more concerned with just passing students who did not deserve the grade of a 65. There are many teachers that pass every single student, and are rewarded and praised for "their good job". If the student barely attended school, they are eligible for a program called "credit recovery." With credit recovery students sit in their guidance counselors office and take an online test of 50- 100 questions, and that is supposed to be equivalent to a whole class semester. If they pass this test, they recover a credit that they didn't receive for failing a specific class. This whole system unermine's a teacher's authority because many students are responding with "I don't need this class, I can get credit recovery, I don't need to listen to you."

The problem isn't that the students are getting their high school diploma, the problem is that these students cannot make it to college or if they do get into college, they drop out very quickly. Students do not have the discipline, stamina or skills that they need to keep up with college work. This issue has been brought up to the administrators in my school, and the way that it's being handled is "after high school, they aren't our problem."

If students literacy and skill rates aren't our problem, then why are we teachers?