Bright Future? (Part Two)
What's all this about a dropout crisis in Florida? What's this about FCAT only counting for 50% of a high school's overall performance now? Is there anything we can do to fix this?
All over this state, parents, teachers and administrators are asking these questions. We're thinking. People are starting to understand that we, the people, have to seize our role in dictating education policy in our state. It's not someone else's job; it's ours.
Public Education has to be the only product on earth that is built and delivered without one iota of thought put into what the end-users might want. Folks, this isn't going to be pretty. We owe it to our kids and our state to take a hard look at some unpleasant things. We want you to know that FundEducationNow is dedicated to developing and offering a solid solution to our problem. It's not enough to criticize the status quo and demand more money. That approach will never work.
What will work is if you, your family and friends pull together with us and take a close look at our dilemma. You can expand your understanding by reading the daily news headlines from around the state on our twitter page. In a few short days, you'll gain a statewide and national perspective, making it easier for you to separate the wheat from the chaff.
For decades our state has spent money it doesn't have today in the hopes that it will show up tomorrow in the form of "astounding" growth. Because we've been willing to dole out tax exemptions, tax waivers and other sweeteners for businesses, growth has proceeded unabated for years. It's a little bit like being an addict and finding out your dealer has left the planet.
So, what to do? These things are true:
We believe in the immense economic and social value of a globally competitive public education system.
We know Florida has lost billions of dollars in revenue by not making public education K-12 a priority.
We want a better future for both our kids and the economy of Florida.
We love Florida.
We love our kids.
By the way, that last point, that's the deal-breaker that most lawmakers don't get. We are at a crossroads. The only way to change the direction of this ship is for all of us to come together and recognize that we, the voters, are the only people who can make the sweeping changes needed to fix our situation. This will require us to take a hard look at our fiscal health. It calls for comprehensive tax reform. No more quibbling over the exemptions on bottled water or whether the doubling of court costs is a "tax" or a "fee." We're done with that.
This is advocacy. You and I, together. We define the problem, we articulate a solution, we distill our message and together, we tell our elected officials what we expect. Happily, if our officials do not respect our wishes, we have the precious privilege in this great nation of voting for someone who will.
Following is an examination of our dropout situation. Read it with the knowledge and belief that this will not stay this way. We will change it. Together, one step at a time, each of us playing a role in the 1,000-mile journey this change will take.
"A variety of national data analyzed by the Center for Labor Market Studies show that conservatively all youth between the ages of 16 and 24 (6,173,883 individuals) had left high school without a regular diploma by 2007. Although the crisis cuts across all states, racial, income and gender lines - low income youth and young Black and Hispanic males are hardest hit. The Federal No Child Left Behind Act makes no provisions for re-enrolling dropouts and putting them back on the pathway to graduation." Left Behind: The Nation's Dropout Crisis, May, 2009
How Big Is Florida's Dropout Crisis?
In 2007, Florida had approximately 423,529 dropouts. In July 2009, Johns Hopkins University released a report called Graduating America: Meeting the Challenge of Low Graduation Rate High Schools. Although the study identifies 16 states with low graduation rates, it singles out Florida, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and South Carolina as coming under the Statewide Crisis Category. These states have a dense concentration of low graduation and high dropout rates. What is significant is that in other states the dropout crisis is limited to specific urban areas. In Florida, our schools with high dropout rates exist equally in rural or urban areas. The entire state is affected by this crisis. Co-author Robert Balfanz and Adria Steinberg make it clear that since Florida is the third largest state in the country, having anything near a 50% graduation rate has a very negative impact on the entire country. In essence, just like some of the financial institutions, we're too big to fail.
Why do students drop out?
The biggest reason Florida has such a high drop-out rate is something called the "achievement gap." Specifically, this term refers to groups of students who repeatedly under-perform in literacy and math as reflected by FCAT scores. This year, the achievement gap will be further measured when students are judged against the 39 categories needed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) as specified in No Child Left Behind. Our current dropout situation reflects the hopelessness of this lowest tier of students who, when placed under the repeated stress of standardized testing, failure, re-testing and often two or three year stints in "remediation" classes often come to the conclusion that they have to quit their education altogether.
Learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student. High stakes testing, forced retention and perceived failure causes kids to lose interest in learning. According to the Rand Corporation's Pre-school Study, the achievement gap becomes evident in kindergarten when many of these children come to school lacking the basic social skills and early literacy skills they need to succeed. Kindergarten is where the foundation of reading, the value of studying and the importance of consistency start to take root. The Rand study finds that the children who start out behind, tend to stay behind.
Flash forward to third grade, when students first take FCAT. Those who are not proficient readers get their first low score and a cycle is born. It is extremely hard to catch up. Although teachers and staff often work tirelessly with this group, the gains each student makes might be deemed inadequate by AYP standards. FCAT Math is introduced in 4th grade. Too often, the simple act of memorizing math facts is too difficult for students. In nearly every other country where education excellence is a priority, the students memorize the multiplication/division/addition/subtraction tables, cold. No questions asked. They do this because it remains the best way to achieve speed and accuracy when solving higher math problems. In Florida students are allowed to use calculators for the math portion of FCAT. Calculators are not allowed for SAT, AP or other standardized tests. Clearly, students who depend on calculators and do well on FCAT Math might not do as well on other tests.
The statistics show that while there have been gains among the economically disadvantaged 4th graders, by the time these students reach 8th grade, they are significantly behind. Take reading, for example: According to the U.S. Department of Education; in 4th grade 44% of white students, 16% of black students, 28 % of Hispanic students and 57% of Asian students are performing at or above proficiency. By 8th grade, 36% of white students, 13% of black students, 23% of Hispanic students and 46% of Asian students are at or above proficiency. * By the time these students take their final FCAT in 10th grade, many are so far behind that they have lost hope. *U.S. Department of Education, 2009 EdFacts
The Achievement Gap
The achievement gap is the difference between higher performing groups of students and lower performing students. In Florida, some of the most important achievement gap areas are: 62% of all dropouts are male, 22% are black and 29% are Hispanic, U.S. Department of Education, 2009 EdFacts
Floridians can be sure of the fact that our statewide longitudinal data system has all four elements needed to calculate 4-year graduation rates with a regular diploma. Even with all of the unfunded mandates and neglecting to make education a priority, we have spent money on this system. This is the one thing that might get our state some of the Race to the Top Money. The irony is that this data is what will be used to definitively illustrate for the Governor, legislators and the voters the price we are paying for not investing in this state or its children.
The Global Impact
As our dropout rate increases, our ability to maintain international standing diminishes. The large group of dropouts has led to a decrease in our own college graduation numbers. In 10 short years our country has gone from producing the highest number of college graduates to a ranking of 10 behind many countries that are less developed, but whose leaders understand the international fluency that excellence in education brings to their countries.
NOTE: This is the second in a series of three alerts that will look at Florida's
dropout crisis.
NEXT: New reality: As FCAT is joined by differentiated accountability
and AYP, high schools face an uncertain future.