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?
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Humaira,
ReplyDeleteThe level of cynicism that you describe in administration of NYC public schools was way more than I could ever handle. It is the reason that I gave up on the idea of teaching in public schools. I began to think that it was a scam. What the students don't learn in elementary and secondary public schools where it is free they are forced to pay for in city and state run remedial community college courses. The unwillingness to see the connection between the literacy rate and the drop out rate would make me boil. I am doing this degree because I figure by the time the teenage hormones wear off and reality sets in the students are everone's problem.
Humaira, Thanks for sharing your insights into the NYC public schools. If only 49 per cent of students are graduating in four years from NYC public schools, then NYC public schools are behind the national average of students who graduate in four years, which I think might be 75%. I have to check on that, so please don't hold me to it. Maybe you know the nat'l average.
ReplyDeleteI find all of the things you describe to be very disheartening. Can you provide a link to a report on recent graduation rates in New York City public schools?
For another teacher's experience, you might want day meet Ms. Qian Zhang, who graduated from the L&L MA program in 1992. She currently teaches ESL in a NYC public high school named Dual Language and Asian Studies High School
This school has been cited as No. 31 of the 100 best high schools nationally in a recent issue of US News and World Reports. Go to this link to see the report and see Number 31, Dual Language and Asian Studies High School New York, NY, the school where Qian Zhang teaches ESL. She loves her school and is very proud of the student successes there in recent years. --Barbara
http://www.usnews.com/articles/education/high-schools/2008/12/04/best-high-schools-gold-medal-list.html
Thanks. --Barbara
It is very disheartening, I agree. But learning about a former L&L student and having success at her school is uplifting. There are individual teachers who are helping students succeed in the school I am working in, but the school as a whole is very broken in communication and a true plan to help these students. Thanks for the link Barbara, I'll be taking a look asap. :)
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