(California) State's high school dropout rate nearly 20 percent

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

(08-11) 14:53 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Nearly one out of every five students in California's projected class of 2010 - 18.2 percent - dropped out of high school before graduation day, meaning 94,000 teenagers hit the streets without a diploma, according to data released today.

Perhaps more alarming are the 17,000 eighth grade students who quit before attending a single day of high school, about 3 percent of their class.

These numbers are believed to be California's first accurate assessment of the dropout and graduation rates using a data system that tracks individual students over their four-year high school career, according to the state Department of Education.

Overall, 74 percent of high school students graduated on time. The remaining 7 percent who didn't graduate or dropout were students still enrolled in school or who earned a GED.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/11/BAT71KMA37.DTL

[slackmaster]

1. Those figures sicken and infuriate me

:argh:

Because anything I say would probably be misinterpreted, here is some hard information about truancy and the law from the California Department of Education:

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/tr/

[Frank1]

2. Spending

Since CA probably spends more than any other state on education maybe we need to change the model.

[Brother Buzz]

6. California is 24th in the nation on money spent per pupil

[slackmaster]

7. The amount of money spent per pupil makes no difference to kids who don't show up at all

:argh:

[No Elephants]

13. May make a difference in motivating kids to show up, though

[Frank1]

8. 24th but more than $9,000

Although public schools are usually the biggest item in state and local budgets, spending figures provided by public school officials and reported in the media often leave out major costs of education and thus understate what is actually spent.

To document the phenomenon, this paper reviews district budgets and state records for the nation's five largest metro areas and the District of Columbia. It reveals that, on average, per-pupil spending in these areas is 44 percent higher than officially reported.

Real spending per pupil ranges from a low of nearly $12,000 in the Phoenix area schools to a high of nearly $27,000 in the New York metro area. The gap between real and reported per-pupil spending ranges from a low of 23 percent in the Chicago area to a high of 90 percent in the Los Angeles metro region.

What I think is interesting to see is how much is spent in the worst places like the most in D.C. with poor outcome and low spending in Utah with one of the best outcomes.

[No Elephants]

14. If only Mormons controlled all states!

[Frank1]

22. Options

I am sure there are other options or ideas.

[Bill McBlueState]

18. comparing a densly populated urban area to a giant hexagon

is probably asking for trouble.

[No Elephants]

12. No facts, please. I find them confusing.

[Tempest]

23. The problem is that the spending is concentrated in few areas

Most of the state is spending much less per student.

There are areas of CA where spending is less than $4,000 per student and $11,000 in more affluent areas.

The lower the spending, the higher the drop out rate. Kern County is a perfect example.

[Tempest]

24. It doesn't, and like all other states spending is concentrated in a few counties

Some counties, like Kern, spending per student is much less than in San Diego county.

The counties of the lowest spending have the highest dropout rates.

[ingac70]

3. The parents don't give a damn. What can you do? n/t

[slackmaster]

5. The law allows chronically truant kids to be taken into custody and made wards of the state

But that is rarely done because of resource issues and the difficulty of enforcing the law.

[KansDem]

4. 250,000 Kansas City metropolitan-area adults read below the fifth-grade level

...and are functionally illiterate:

Mary Sanchez’s column “Dropout rate shows it’s not just students failing” (3/24, Opinion) rightfully takes the school system to task for poor academic performance in area schools. Whether or not the school district is entirely to blame, one sad fact is certain: about 250,000 Kansas City adults read below the fifth-grade level and are considered functionally illiterate.

Poor readers who have the courage to step forward and say “I need help” can turn to the remarkable program at Literacy Kansas City, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is “literacy for all.” Its unique system of one-to-one, phonetics-based tutoring has so far helped more than 4,000 area adults learn to read. About one half of the students in our program have high school diplomas.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/unfettered_letters/education/

I believe that's about 20% of the metropolitan area's population.

California's drop-out rate? Kansas/Missouri illiteracy rate? I don't know what we're going to do! :(

[Frank1]

9. Do something Like

How about making benefits dependent on responsible behavior.

[villager]

10. Shit, I'd love to do that with bailouts and subsidies to corporations!

:thumbsup:

[Frank1]

20. Bailouts

I say no bailouts or subsidies.

[No Elephants]

15. ? Which benefits? Whose behavior? Define "responsible."

[klook]

17. Crickets. (n/t)

[Frank1]

21. Benefits

Well, since we are talking about education, don't you think a free education is a benefit?

Responsible: how about show up ready to work/learn. How about teaching kids/parents how to take care of themselves. You don't know?

[buckrogers1965]

11. Why bother getting a diploma.

Not like they are getting jobs with or without the piece of paper, so why bother to goto the trouble?

[slackmaster]

19. Education offers many rewards besides employability. Learning keeps the mind functional.

[surrealAmerican]

16. This is probably about average compared to other states.

I wonder how many of those dropouts have jobs.